I lived in LA at the time of the riots. The response to the chaos by the vast majority of other white people was some version of "Not my problem. Let 'em all kill each other if that's how they're going to be," paradoxically combined with hysterical fear that the riots would spread into their own neighborhoods. Very few seemed to have any awareness of, or concern about, the systemic pattern of police brutality against Black folks that was the actual catalyst. Meanwhile, all my Black friends were terrified to go outside, even far away from the riots. They weren't afraid of rioters; they were afraid of the way they would be treated by any police they encountered. Because of all of that I was not at all surprised that us white people -- collectively -- didn't learn anything by seeing what happened to Rodney King.
I lived in LA at the time of the riots. The response to the chaos by the vast majority of other white people was some version of "Not my problem. Let 'em all kill each other if that's how they're going to be," paradoxically combined with hysterical fear that the riots would spread into their own neighborhoods. Very few seemed to have any awareness of, or concern about, the systemic pattern of police brutality against Black folks that was the actual catalyst. Meanwhile, all my Black friends were terrified to go outside, even far away from the riots. They weren't afraid of rioters; they were afraid of the way they would be treated by any police they encountered. Because of all of that I was not at all surprised that us white people -- collectively -- didn't learn anything by seeing what happened to Rodney King.
It was so very sad to see all the destruction that occurred.