NCJ Number
147463
Editor(s)
R Gooding-Williams
Date Published
1993
Length
284 pages
Annotation
The essays in this volume address a number of topics, ranging from America's history of racial violence to the impact of capital accumulation on the disintegration of the inner cities. The unifying theme of the book is the beating of Rodney King, a black motorist, at the hands of white policemen in Los Angeles, and the acquittal of those policemen despite a videotape displaying what the author characterizes as an excessive and unjustified use of violence.
Abstract
The first part of the book consists of three essays which all suggest that the beating of Rodney King was the product of a violent racism that is a feature of daily life in the U.S. The second section focuses on the trial of the white policemen who beat King in terms of its location, the strategies employed by defense lawyers, and the role of race in the outcome. Two subsequent sections examine the political- economic implications of the King beating and the social disorder that broke out in Los Angeles as a result of the verdict. Several essays discuss both events in light of the political economy of the country as a whole, while others explore some of the social forces that were active in Los Angeles both before and after the uprising. The next series of essays investigates the role of racial ideology in the Rodney King incident. Racial ideology is defined here as the representation and interpretation of racial identities. The final section contains essays that examine the gulf between democratic ideals and the reality of life in the U.S., characterized by the King beating and its aftermath. Chapter references