http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rodney-kings-legacy-two-decades-after-the-riots/2012/06/19/gJQAv5SIoV_story.html
i chose something similar to my topic on Joe Arpaio and his trial against racial profiling and discrimination. The article "Rodney King's Legacy, two decades after the riots," by Editorial Board explains to us that on March 3rd, 1991, Rodney King was tased, beaten with batons, and kicked more then 50 times, by Los Angeles Police Department, which they later realized had all been recorded by a bystander. According to the police officers, Rodney King had acted aggressively towards them so their abusive behavior was reasonable. However, when the video aired worldwide, King became an example of police brutality and racism.
The author's purpose in asking a rhetorical question is to somehow catch the audiences' attention and hopefully achieve some kind of awareness on this controversial issue. the question is "Two decades later, how much has changed?" The idea of the author is to make the reader think whether or not there is a way to change the situation. The author seems to make a point when he explains that although nothing has seemed to change in its entirety something good did come of Rodney King's beating. LAPD decided to make a change happen by trying to recover the trust of minority groups and using less force against them. Towards the end of the article it is reaffirmed that incidents like Rodney King's is still happening in other places, such as the most recent, the Trayvon Martin shooting. George Zimmerman, the man who killed Martin, was released without charges and people saw that race was the main reason for the decision. The author of this article did a good job of explaining the incident of Rodney King for those who did not know anything about it, and making the reader understand more about how racism can hurt more then one person in different ways. i think the article was great and it really had some interesting facts that make you think a bit more about what racism really is.
1 comment:
It's difficult for me to see issues like racism and sexism as still being prevalent problems, because I'm not racist or sexist. At least not in a hateful way. There are those who would say my comments are not politically correct, but that is neither here nor there.
I'm always so surprised to hear about heinous acts of racist violence in America, and yet I know that it's still going on. It's very disturbing to say the least. It's still a long road to equality.
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