Ignorance, the Root of All Evil
By: Samantha Grey
Tags: Police Brutality, Pakistan, Injustice, Rodney King, Malala

Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 is a documentary that follows the events surrounding the police brutalization of Rodney King, the trial of officers involved in Rodney King’s beating, and the riots that followed the trial of those officers. The film mainly focuses on opinions and viewpoints after everything had occurred, but is able to use these accounts to construct a cohesive story of what had occurred from these sources.

This immediately resonated with me as being extremely similar to cases of police brutality earlier this year like Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. These people weren’t armed and posed no threat, but they were attacked inhumanely, without any reasonable cause. It causes me disbelief that these events even occur in our modern society, the so-called ‘land-of-the-free.’ 30 years isn’t a terribly long time, but I would hope that in that time there would be sizable reforms or training or any sort of new system in place to replace what is leading to these mass brutalities, but sadly that seems to not be the case.

Being from Maryland this film also made me think of the death of Freddie Gray and the riots in Baltimore that soon followed. I was in middle school at the time and not having much knowledge of the situation that took place I didn’t pay much attention to it. Basically, Gray was arrested and despite complaining of pain in his back and neck, he was put into a police van, unsecured. During the ride to the police station, he suffered more injuries from his head violently striking the inside of the van, causing him to go into a coma and later die. A lot of people in Maryland didn’t think much of this, because Gray’s death wasn’t directly caused by an officer beating or killing him, but to me, this is still inexcusable. When people complain of any serious pain like that of their neck and back they should be treated accordingly. In no circumstances should an individual go unsecured in a police vehicle. This was unthinkable for me because it’s illegal to not wear a seatbelt in Maryland. These same people who are portrayed as protectors of the community and benefactors to society cannot possibly be who they say they are if they fail to secure the safety of a person they are arresting. Criminal or not a person is a person. That being said Freddie Gray was arrested for possessing a knife, which is BS in and of itself. It makes me so disappointed that events like this occur in our country, and we need to do whatever we can to make sure they are brought to an end.

It can feel impossible to put yourself in the same shoes as the jurors in the brutality cases surrounding the officers who beat King. How would they find these officers not guilty? Isn’t the video recording evidence enough for a conviction? Judith Butler explains the thought process of these jurors as a sort of white-paranoia towards dark-skinned individuals. She states, “Watching King, the white paranoiac forms a sequence of narrative intelligibility that consolidates the racist figure of the black man: “He had threatened them, and now he is being justifiably restrained.” “If they cease hitting him, he will release his violence, and now is being justifiably restrained.” King’s palm turned away from his body, held above his own head, is read not as self-protection but as the incipient moments of physical threat,” (Reading Rodney King, 16).

Further emphasizing this ‘white-paranoia,’ Nicole Maurantonio reports on the effects journalism had during the beating of Rodney King, and the riots that followed thereafter. She explains, “While journalism fulfilled its larger social function in preserving order, it had also reified hegemonic whiteness, calling the viewer to identify with the white victim, Denny….” While journalism is often intended to be strictly non-biased, in hind-sight the journalism surrounding the events that happened in 1992 was partial towards the police officers and people of lighter skin colors.

In a completely different time period, we have different race relations. I was raised to believe that everyone should be on equal footing no matter their skin color or nationality. Because of this, it can be hard to understand race relations in 1992’s Los Angeles. Yong Sup Song explains the relations at the time connecting it to Niebuhr’s theology of the sin of pride. He states, “Niebuhr’s theology of the universality of the sin of pride helps to understand that the L.A. riots were fundamentally fueled by institutional racism of the mass media against Korean American and African American communities under unjust social structures, rather than by existing racism within the minorities. Selective and discriminatory responses of the media repeatedly victimized the African and Korean American communities. Many African Americans were led to violence, such as looting, vandalism, and arson in the riots, by the sensational broadcasting of the mass media. Korean American merchants were targeted for violence and were identified as both the oppressed and the oppressor in their relationship with the African American community. The African American community was deprived of the dynamics and moral basis for justice to fight the racism embedded in the social structures of U.S. society as a result of the institutional racism within numerous institutions,” (Song, 344). While both Korean-Americans and African Americans were oppressed compared to the White man, because of race relations at the time it was almost like they were put against each other in a boxing match. When rioting broke out in LA there was sure to be targeted violence against the Korean-Americans because they were identified as the oppressor of African Americans, even though this was not really the case.

In Class Dismissed: Malala’s Story the filmmaker details the story and journey of Malala Yousafzai, a girl in Pakistan who wishes to be educated but militant groups such as the Taliban pose as violent opposition to the education of women. Malala’s father is the proprietor of a local school for girls in the Swat valley of Pakistan. This area was ruled by the Taliban at the time of the documentary which creates a massive risk for anyone taking part in the education of women. Beheaded bodies are frequently in the streets of the town and Malala’s family lives in constant fear of being caught by the Taliban. This is made worse because her father is on a Taliban watch list and often sleeps in a different home to avoid harm coming to his family if he was to be caught by the Taliban while sleeping.

Malala and her father are eventually forced out of their home when the Taliban occupy the village they are residing in. She and her father organize protests for the reoccupation of the Swat valley by the Pakistani government and meet with a US ambassador to help secure education for women in Pakistan, but their cries are never really answered. Her father’s protests for reoccupation seem to go unheard while Malala is told that the US is already providing aid in military defense and medical support and that her country clearly has a lot of problems, without providing any direct answer to her requests. Eventually, the valley is taken back from the Taliban, and Malala and her family return to a village that has been scarred by war, buildings riddled with holes, and livestock dead from starvation.

Throughout this documentary, I felt a compelling feeling of unfairness. Just like during the Rodney King or George Floyd protests people shouldn’t be forced to live as if they are inferior to another. People shouldn’t have to live in fear of death. The US ambassador’s response to Malala’s request is especially angering for me as he never answers her proposal for educational aid and even chuckles when saying her country clearly has problems, which while it is an attempt to lighten the situation it is entirely inappropriate. This matches a lot of the government’s response to the Los Angeles Riots in 1992 and recently the George Floyd protests where there was a clear outcry for reform but while some people listened it also fell on many deaf ears and many people even opposed the idea of widespread police reform or decommissioning. If there is a problem, it should be fixed.

Twilight: Los Angeles and Class Dismissed: Malala’s Story both address societal issues surrounding the rights and injustices of marginalized peoples. Twilight: Los Angeles focuses on the events that transpire after the public beating of Rodney King and the acquittal of the officers involved, which lead to a massive protest in metropolitan Los Angeles. Class Dismissed: Malala’s Story documents the struggle of Malala and her father in trying to support the education of women in Pakistan while the Taliban pose as an active threat and are violently opposed to the idea. While both these sources of media were created in the past and focus on events that happened in the past, they are still greatly applicable to the current world we live in. Recently there have been massive protests for police reform and defunding after the police killing of George Floyd and the later deaths of other African American citizens like Breonna Taylor at the hands of police officers. Similarly, there is still an ongoing fight in southern and south-western Asia for the rights of women. Both sources are invaluable in aiding the ongoing fight for the rights of the individuals portrayed within them.

However, the two films have their differences which need to be addressed when looking to understand them. Malala’s story is a documentary that attempts to portray what is happening within Pakistan and specifically Malala’s life and family, while Twilight is a film adaptation of a play that uses artistically represents the events during and after the Los Angeles Riots through quoting interviews surrounding the riots. Twilight is centered entirely within the US and applies to societal practices within the country but while Malala’s story is based entirely in Pakistan, the events portrayed apply to much of south-western Asia, where similar practices occur. Twilight also only focuses on racial practices and injustices while Malala’s story focuses on gender inequality and oppression. That being said, both works are largely portrayed by a female person, Anna Deavere Smith in Twilight and Malala in Malala’s story.

1. Gooding-Williams, R. (Ed.). (1993). Reading Rodney King/Reading Urban Uprising. New York: Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203699997

2. Maurantonio, Nicole. “Remembering Rodney King: Myth, Racial Reconciliation, and Civil Rights History.” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 91, no. 4, Dec. 2014, pp. 740–755, https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699014550094.

3. Song, Yong Sup. “Christian Ethical Analysis of the L.A. Riots in 1992: The Media and Institutional Racism.” Religions 11.7 (2020): 344. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11070344