>At USC. In South Central.

i currently attend the university of south cent.

>And I was so dismayed by
>the looting and burning of
>all of the small businesses
>in this area. You
>may or may not know
>that South Central has (or
>had at the time, I
>don't know about the statistics
>now) a higher percentage of
>home OWNERS (vs. renters) than
>Pasadena, a predominantly white, middle
>class city nearby.

i'm not surprised. most people from my neighborhood (92 and western) have been living there for decades.

>So
>I never was exactly clear
>who was driving the small
>businesses out of the neighborhood.
> It sure didn't seem
>to me to be serving
>the best interests of the
>neighborhood.
>
>And posting signs that said "Black
>owned" didn't seem to make
>any difference.
>
>And all of the corner stores
>that made their living on
>alcohol sales but which also
>provided necessities and staples to
>their little areas, things like
>diapers and milk, had to
>re-apply for alcohol sales permits
>and most were denied by
>the city.

southcentral has more liquor stores than some states. those spots are not missed. we had quantity. we need quality.

>I agree that protests were necessary.
> I condemn violence, however,
>irrespective of who is committing
>the violence. And I
>wonder whether the homeowners of
>South Central feel as though
>they got anything out of
>the riots/uprising.

i'ont know...peace is nice, but wasn't any peace here...alot of the spots that got burned down were perpetuating violence.

once again, the uprising was reactive, which is why there were just as many negative consequences as positive. but it did tap into a potential resource, the anger which we've been misapplying all these years. although it was used in this case destructively it was refreshing for me to see folks mad instead of apathetic. now we just need to use that to our advantage.

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