Racism in the Unites States.

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GCSE MODERN WORLD STUDY

Racism in the Unites States

1.The cause of the black riots in the 1960’s consisted of many things.  Firstly there was he issue of race; blacks could not get jobs, whites wouldn’t employ them many whites preferred to employ Chicanos as their skin colour is slightly lighter.  There was great tension between the Blacks and the Chicanos both for jobs, houses and federal money.  Blacks where getting more money than the Chicanos even though there where more Chicanos living in Los Angles. The next reason for the riots was that many Blacks could not afford houses, they couldn’t afford the houses as no-one would employ them and the jobs they did get they where paid half the amount a white man would be paid to the same job.  It was very hard for Black people to get loans to buy their houses and they where not allowed to move into white areas.  Areas where set aside for Blacks but the housing there was limited.  Blacks had been and where still I many respects segregated from white people.  Blacks had different areas to live in; different drinking fountains, different shops and different restraunts and they even had to sit in different parts of a bus to the white people.  The school system for the Blacks and the Chicanos were immensely worse than that of a white child’s.  They where being taught by unqualified teachers, the schools where overcrowded, the buildings where poor and the curriculum was pitiable.  It is as in no way equal to a white school.  The poor literacy and dropout rate was far greater than those in the white areas.  The poor education of the Blacks led to them not being able to obtain good jobs and afford housing; as they could not do the job down to no qualifications or being incapable of doing due to lack of schooling and they where Black.

Finally, there were the negative and unconstructive encounters with the white police officers and the Black people.  Not many people knew about these encounters but it made the Blacks resent them.

A lot of motivation that caused the 1960’s riots where the years of ‘Jim Crow’ laws that the Blacks had to endure.  The Jim Cow laws where passed in 1896; they where laws that frustrated the Blacks as it segregated them to control their behaviour; they consisted of laws like marriage between Blacks and Whites where forbidden, Black people could not give blood to white people and Black’s and whites where just generally segregated from each other.  This was because the whites attitude was that Blacks were lower than whites and they could not be mixed.  

Blacks were discriminated against by the Los Angeles Police department.  White police officers lied in their reports on routine felony cases.  Blacks where tortured even if they hadn’t done anything wrong.  Their fingers where bent back, their handcuffs tightened and their heads where slammed in car doors.

With all this inequality between the Blacks and the Whites the riots where inevitable, the Blacks could not just sit by and let this happen to them.

2.The causes of the 1992 riots where not too dissimilar to the causes of the riots in 1965.  

The main cause and motivation was the attack on Rodney King.  Rodney King, a black man and his friend Allen and Freddy Helms where stopped by four L.A.P.D officers after a high-speed chase.  Allen and Freddy had been drinking and behaving erratically the police had every right to stop them and would have stopped a white person in the same situation.  But what followed was totally deplorable and sparked off the racial tension which lead to the riots.  The four police officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Brissendo and Stacy Koon, beat Mr King repeatable with their batons.  The injuries Mr King received where severe in the extreme, he suffered from a fractured skull and internal injuries.

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The publicity surrounding the case was huge, as the incident had been caught on camera by a Mr George Holiday.  Many more people knew about the case in 1992 than they would have in the 1960’s.  Sky and cable T.V had been introduced and everyone all over the world would have heard about it and seen the evidence from the tape.  

On the 15th of may 1991 an independent commission came out with the verdict that the L.A.P.D used excessive force and institutionalised racism.  They recommended the resignation of police Chief Daryl Gates.

In April 1992 the four police officers ...

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