Money Not Race

I find this picture very interesting because of an earlier reading, "The Los Angeles "Race Riot" and Contemporary U.S. Politics," which speaks of the 1992 incident as being about more than race. This picture is delineating the conflict of what seems to be people of the same race. The reading exemplifies that these riots were because of socioeconomic issues. There wouldn't be people of the same race fighting each other in a race riot. They would see that the other races were against them because of the color of their skins and nothing else. This would cause unity within a race, but what we see here is the opposite. Instead, we see what seem to be Latinos fighting each other.

Due to the problems being socioeconomic, we can see people fighting others of the same race. The deeply rooted issues during this time were due to the large loss of jobs in the area, so there were already hardships that people were going through well before the trial that ignited all of the metaphorical fuel that was built inside the low-income peoples of Los Angeles. Those enraged didn't attack others of different races specifically because they hated the race, but because they were angry that there were others that were well off while they and they were stranded in a poverty-ridden state.

Seeing this image reminded me that although there has always been an inestimable amount of racism in the United States, money is the root of all evil. Those who are much more well off than others do not have to involve themselves in the affairs of the latter. This was seemingly the most evident when only the poorest areas of LA were in ruin while the surrounding cities and even more affluent parts of LA were intact.

-Kristian J. Leiva