Was I Wrong About The Rodney King Riots?
05/01/2012
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Last week in The Secret History of the 1990s, I suggested that the 1992 Los Angeles riots served as a shameful wake-up call to blacks at the nadir of the crack / gangsta rap era to check themselves before they wreck themselves, and that the relative improvement in black performance in the later 1990s may date from that turning point.

A number of commenters demurred, pointing out, among other objections, that I hadn't produced a lot of quotes suggesting that African-Americans had actually been ashamed of how significant numbers of their younger people had behaved during those three days two decades ago. 

So, I did a Google search on 

ashamed 1992 riots south central

and came up with ... not much. 

A Korean academic claims, "I was embarrassed and ashamed, because many Koreans had established a negative image among the media and the African Americans. " 

"US policeman looks back on LA riots with shame."

That kind of thing ... 

This isn't to say that black private individuals didn't feel ashamed by the riots, but it sure isn't part of The Narrative.

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