The Rodney King Verdicts--30 years later
Friday Flashpoints!
30 years ago today, four LAPD officers were acquitted of their brutal beating of Rodney King. For those of us who were not from Southern California, back then, we had no idea that once the trial was moved to predominantly white Simi Valley, California that there was a slim to none chance that four white male police officers would be found guilty of beating the unarmed King to a bloody pulp!
When the acquittals were announced, Los Angeles erupted into chaos and in the following days, 64 people were killed and over $1 Billion in property damage was sustained.
LA on fire 30 years ago today
While not as deadly, the City of Atlanta erupted into chaos on April 29th, too, when students from the Atlanta University Center were joined by local residents in a march downtown that devolved into violence, looting, and mayhem.
Downtown Atlanta 30 years ago today…
That night, then Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, a Morehouse Man, convened a meeting at historic King Chapel to condemn that day’s march and subsequent violence. We had listened to Brother Jackson speak many times on that very stage, but it was clear to me as a 19-year-old sophomore that more chaos was to come from the looks in my schoolmate's eyes that ranged from frustration to rage.
I had missed that day’s events, interestingly enough, because our quiz bowl team was only two weeks away from heading to, ironically, Los Angeles for the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge National Tournament—and we were practicing in earnest! After I heard from some of my friends (who will remain nameless) how heavy-handed the cops had been during their peaceful march earlier, I knew good and well when I saw some of the more passive and non-violent Brothers on the yard looking like they were ready to rumble, I suspected that once a larger contingent of Morehouse Hellions got involved, that a far more protracted engagement was probably inevitable—regardless of what Brother Mayor Jackson or Brother President Leroy Keith had to say about it.
Well, the very next morning, I received a call in my dorm room from none other than my father, Charles Sr., around 6:30 a.m. The call went something like this:
Ring, ring, ring...
Me: "Hello..."
Hobbs Sr.: " Junior, it's me, Dad..."
Me: "Good morning..."
Hobbs Sr.: "I've been up watching coverage of all that Hell being raised out in Los Angeles, and I just saw where some AUC students were raising Hell in Atlanta yesterday, too..."
Me: "Yes sir..."
Hobbs Sr.: "I assume that you weren't in that number, were you?"
Me: "No sir, I wasn't..." (Truth)
Hobbs Sr.: "Good. I need you to stay out of any mess up there with the police, am I clear?"
Me: "Yes sir..."
Hobbs Sr.: "I mean it, do not do something dumb like get yourself arrested or killed up there, understand?"
Me: "Yes sir, I won't..."
That was the only time in my 28 years of living with my father (from my birth in 1972 to his death in 2000) that I straight up lied to him—I was tying my shoes the entire time that he spoke in preparation for heading to the cafeteria with the crew since we didn’t know when we would get to eat outside of the confines of some jail cell, if it came to that. After we fueled up on grits, eggs, and bacon, we walked off into what was easily the wildest day of our young lives as we marched...and whatnot...for justice! 30 years later, I can still smell that choking tear gas that the police shot down on us from helicopters hovering overhead. 😠
A few tragic scenes from day two of the AUC uprising as it was called, on April 30, 1992:
While my nearly 50-year-old self can understand why my father sounded so nervous that morning, and while I realize that much of what happened that day was wrong, especially the looting of the stores in the AUC, where I struggle is in realizing that when it comes to the police abusing unarmed Black folks like Rodney King, 30 years later, we are still only a police encounter from suffering the same (or worse) fate.
I also realize, as my Morehouse Brother and fellow Rodney King upriser William Easley wrote earlier, that the hundreds of heavily armed Atlanta police officers that we clashed with that day were far more than the handful of officers dispatched on January 6, 2021 to quell the MAGA Riots in Washington, D.C.
Lest we forget...
Hobbservation Point Pop Quiz
Without consulting Google or some other search engine, for 100 cool points in the category of American history, which federal position did Elbridge Gerry, Richard Mentor Johnson, and Schuyler Colfax share in common?
A. Members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
B. Supreme Court Associate Justices
C. Attorney General
D. Vice-President
E. Secretary of War
F. None of the Above
If you chose "D," or vice president, you are as cool as Ol' Hobbs and just may be ready to challenge me in a quiz bowl match 😆.
If you didn't know, it is ok, because as the first Vice-President, John Adams, once quipped: "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."
Fortunately for John Adams, he would later serve as President (as would his son, John Quincy), but for the most part, the Vice-Presidency has usually been out of the spotlight with rare exceptions (Dick Cheney, VP for President George W. Bush, springs to mind).
But seriously, when I read a fairly consistent criticism of late that VP Kamala Harris is "missing-in-action," outside of Cheney, what matters of public significance did VP Mike Pence spearhead under President Donald Trump? Or, while he received some credit for working his old Senate colleagues during the push for the Affordable Care Act in 2009, then VP Joe Biden was NOT the architect or running point on that matter—that was his boss, President Barack Obama.
VP Kamala Harris
My point is that I strongly sense that much of the negativity towards VP Harris stems from the "likeability" factor, one that boils down to the fact that Harris, like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has alot of detractors who dislike her for myriad reasons. The criticisms that I've read range from VP Harris being "pro-police," to personal attacks about the color of her spouse, to her biracial heritage, or the catch-all: "I just don't like her," which I've read many, many times over the past few years.
My personal estimation is that for some, the idea of a woman ultimately sitting in the Oval Office is problematic. Now, this is not true for all Harris critics, but it surely is true for some, which is deduced when I ask: "name a woman that you would actively support for president"—and the silence ensues.
But I just wanted to remind, on this Friday evening, that whether you dislike VP for political or personality reasons, please don't dislike her for not being out front as Vice-President because as history shows, most Veeps get out front only when they are elevated to the front following the death (or resignation) of their President.
Teachable Black Greek Moments
Many of my Hobbservation Point readers are not my Facebook friends or followers, which is why every so often, I post one of my Facebook updates within this blog to keep my readers dialed into my up to the minute thoughts on a given day.
Yesterday, Genyya Parrish, a 17-year-old girl, posted a graduation photo spread of herself decked out in pink and green while flashing the symbols of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
For those unaware, the post went viral and the comments got really ugly once the child and her older family members began clapping back at the women and men who tried to correct her post constructively (some), or destructively (most who chose rhetorical violence did so after the child and her family doubled down on their defense of the photos).
This morning, I wrote the following short post in response to what quickly became a very serious matter for some AKA's and other Black Greek Lettered Organization members who found great offense in the child’s missteps: "About 20 years ago, I was coaching a youth league football team in Tallahassee and noticed that on our first day in full pads, many of the boys on my team, whether it was catching a 5-yard out, running for a touchdown, or making a bone jarring block or hit, would emerge from the pile and immediately throw up "the hooks”—just like they had seen Michael Jordan, Ray Lewis, Steve McNair, and other sports superstars do time and again. I reckoned that most of the boys did not know that those men were/are members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, and that the gesture was one that Omegas use to rep their set.
I then explained just that to my players; one boy, my hard hitting safety named Tyler, said "Coach Chuck, are you an Omega" to which I replied "no sir, I'm a member of Kappa Alpha Psi" and I shot the "yo" symbol that we Nupes often use.
So, on that day, I took 10 or so minutes of practice time to teach 29 young Black boys (and Tyler, nicknamed "hitman" due to his on-field toughness, who was our lone white boy) about Black Fraternities—and they left that day with their first lessons on Kappa, Alpha, Omega, Sigma, and Iota. Being that they were 10-11 years old, from that point on during the season, most didn't throw the Omega hooks up but every now and again, one would do so with a sheepish grin, including the hitman, Tyler, who in one game splattered a ball carrier and did his own hybrid—both hands in the Kappa "yo" and arms up in the Omega hooks. Tyler grinned while I yelled "good hit—but you know better" with a mean mug that compelled him to take 'em down as he ran up and hugged me on the sidelines.
Such is why it is still my hope that the 17-year-old child who blew up the internet yesterday with her Alpha Kappa Alpha looking graduation photo shoot, will take some time to learn the history of that legendary organization of Black women and be inspired, as many of those members suggested to her on those threads, to later pledge and serve all mankind.
Again, so many youth only see what they see on social media about BGLO's, which are the colors, the hand signs, and the cool strolls and step routines on Tik-Tok and YouTube. Instead of getting too angry, we all should try to show a little tenderness when those who don’t know, simply don’t know!
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a great weekend!