When time allows, ’92 riots taught in LA schools
By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times
They were not even born at the time their city erupted in flames, violence and rage against a system that would not convict Los Angeles police officers of brutally beating a black man.
But high school students Jiaya Ingram, Ashley Torres and Jessica Maldonado have been gripped by accounts of the 1992 Los Angeles riots as they learn about them through poetry and plays, readings and recollections of their parents and others.
They say they felt shock over police actions, horror over the mob violence and an uneasy feeling that it could happen again, particularly as unarmed African Americans are killed, most recently in Florida, Oklahoma and Pasadena. Yet these teenagers also express hope that they can make a difference through personal action — education about stereotypes, for instance, or peaceful protests.
“I’ve learned that you have to be the change you want to see in the world,” said Jessica, a junior at the Social Justice Leadership Academy, a small school at the Torres High School campus in East Los Angeles. “History is not wars and dates; it’s about the choices you make.”
But two decades after the riots sparked massive violence that would leave dozens dead and thousands injured, lessons about them appear to be limited in Southern California classrooms. For many teachers, the pressure to teach content that will be tested in state standardized tests and Advanced Placement exams next month has crowded out time for the riots, however crucial they are to city history and the nation’s larger civil rights struggle.
The Los Angeles Unified School District has not formally included the riots in its history curriculum because it is not part of the California social studies standards. The district plans to post material on its website for optional teacher use, however.
White Christian societies had always had Black African slaves!
The Church in Europe had always allowed enslaving Africans. The African slaves were brought to the U.S tied in chains after the church gave the OK on that!.
Perhaps the Ku Klux Klan ideas of enslaving Africans are not all Biblically false after all, since they claim that they support their argument from the Bible!.
Ancient Egyptians knew the world was round and one of the first countries that the Arabs brought the Last Message to, was Egypt in 641/2 AD. One of the first Islamic universities was built in Egypt, namely Al-Azhar. Furthermore, it is alleged that Muslims studied Greek works including Ptolemy who wrote the world was round.
Unlike Christians then, Muslims faced few obstacles to trade and spreading Islam throughout the world. When the Church discovered that Muslims from West Africa were actually doing so, they launched the Naval Crusade and the brutal slavery of West Africans.
We also find that during the Scramble for Africa / colonization of Africa, two countries were totally unaffected – Liberia and Ethiopia. In fact Ethiopia doubled the size of its empire during European colonization. Why? They were CHRISTIAN countries!
Both the Old and the New Testaments encourages slavery and enslaving people.
If you take a long look at today’s society, we are all still slaves, no matter what color of skin, to governments around the globe, the one that’s winning the slave war, we all support wear their products is China, they do have the power, money, desire, and Intelligence to beat the rest of the world and turn the rest into poor slaves of their own making.
Slavery is alive well in the new 21 century; Things aren’t just Black and White.
Pathetic. Just lies, half-truths, and propaganda. The two other passengers in King’s car cooperated and there were no problems with them. King decided to fight so the police had no choice but to subdue him or say they were sorry for stopping him and leave.
Racial politics at its worst. Nothing different today with the likes of Jackson and Sharpton.
It is way past time for the certain communities to do an extensive and thorough introspection.