Burning Los Angeles: Jake and Joey

Jake:

“One of West's subjects is how Los Angeles erases memory, replacing it with sensations that inscribe themselves on the mind like vivid nightmares, only to be immediately forgotten.”[i]

We started with a prediction. The Burning of Los Angeles, foretold by Tod Hackett in The Day of the Locust. As we worked away from West’s masterpiece, our first novel seemed to

slip to the back of our minds. Noir’s femme fatale, the immoral workhorse, frayed racial relations—themes of Los Angeles sped by. But 53 years later, Hackett’s prophecy came true. Los Angeles erupted into riots, and our class came full circle.

            Mike Davis blames a dying freedom for the 1992 riots in Anna Deavere Smith’s piece of documentary theater Twilight Los Angeles, 1992. “I mean, there is no freedom of movement or right of assembly for youth” (Smith 31). But Hackett foresaw the burning of Los Angeles nearly 30 years before the civil rights movement that Davis highlights. Were the failures of universal freedom in Los Angeles already prevalent enough to spark Los Angeles’ burning? Or was there something else already there? Immigrants from further east were all but tricked into moving to Los Angeles. Both Matthew Ellenberger and West agree that this caused massive dissatisfaction. But how did this make the future so clear?

            Smith’s first chapter, “The Territory,” proposes many reasons for the LA Riots beyond Davis’. From Theresa Allison and Michael Zinzun’s blaming of the police to Cornel West’s patriarchy, to Stanley Sheinbaum’s polarization, each option revolves around conflict. Los Angeles, from 1939 to 1992, fostered conflict between…who? between races? classes? police and youth? Whatever it was, it was clear to Nathanel West when he wrote The Day of the Locust.

            Scott Kurashige’s “Between ‘White Spot’ and ‘World City’: Racial Integration and the Roots of Multiculturalism” reflects the same sentiment as last year’s City of Angels class’ Monterey Park travel guide: “Los Angeles, seemingly paradoxically, is both renowned for its multiculturalism and disparaged for its homogeneity.”[ii] As booster literature devolved into the promotion of Los Angeles as the world’s new Aryan hub, our city somehow experienced massive immigration from minorities. And when waves of Midwesterners poured into Los Angeles in pursuit of the “pure” white idyll, they became upset when that idyll was “spoiled” by the immigration of non-white populations. The bones of unhappiness were in place. Is Los Angeles really a city built upon unhappy relationships between races—between people?

            Whatever power of prophecy Nathanel West had to envisage The Burning of Los Angeles, Los Angeles has burned. 24 years ago. Nearly a quarter of a century beyond the LA Riots, what has our city become? Who are we today? Have we stopped our city from burning a second time by making it a better place, or by subduing our upset population?

            It is impossible to answer these questions with certainty. But thoughtful hypotheses are more than welcome. In fact, I would even say that they’re the point of the class. For my part, I’ll close out the Thursday blog posts for City of Angels 2015 with a quote from Yoda. “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” The anger, hate, and suffering are clear in Los Angeles’ past. But where did the fear come from?

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[i] http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-caw-paperback-writers16-2009aug16-story.html

[ii] https://sites.google.com/a/polytechnic.org/city-of-angels/home/travel-la-monterey-park

Joey

Following the pattern and thread of connections we have knit in our City of Angels class, Anna Deveare Smith weaves together an image of struggle in Los Angeles by looking at the Riots through a lens of intersectionality. Each story connects and presents an alternative viewpoint to the Los Angeles Riots. She synthesizes voices to represent diversity, but also provides a platform for each voice to have an equal importance to any other voice in her collection of stories. “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992” is special because we are only impacted by the words of each story and the content of each voices’ argument or beliefs rather than the portrayal of a story through a sponsored media outlet.

As I think about the dialogue we have and class and our dialogue of the we have our dialogue, I think about Anna Deveare Smith’s “level playing field” in a sense, how she gives each voice the same value. Obviously, in a classroom, it is nearly impossible to give everyone the same voice with an open dialogue, but I think we should look deeper into the way “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992” allows diversity in voices. Is it possible to replicate this balanced way of discussion?

Anna Deveare Smith’s acceptance of irresolution or absence of a conclusion could also be helpful for our dialogue. I have noticed a trend where we all feel the need to argue to find “the answer”. The final solution. While in “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992”, Anna Deveare Smith enables the reader to come up with an independent solution or solutions from the stories told in the collection. How can we use these stories to better shape our dialogue?

The Awesome™ Project: Everyone's Voice

          We would like to take this opportunity of a blog post to continue the discussion we had on Wednesday, specifically about our final two choices in the Awesome™ project. We all were able to observe the fairly even split in the class, and with this post we all will have an opportunity to clearly and thoughtfully share our opinion on the matter. The blog post allows everyone to have the same voice and opportunity, and anyone can take time to formulate their thoughts before posting. We will both post our thoughts on the matter to start the discussion.


Townsend:

            As many probably know, I opted for the Awesome™ Project to pursue Dean’s public art wall idea. The art walls would not only be highly visible to the surrounding communities and give an outlet to the many people who have the desire to create, but also act as a containment measure against local graffiti. I feel that I gravitate more towards this idea as opposed to the library boxes simply because if someone has the desire to read a book there is no barriers for them to seek out their passion, but an individual who wants to create public art faces much greater risks. What this means is that the library boxes wouldn’t be necessary to people who want to read, but an art wall is exactly what public artists need to hone their craft and show off their creativity. Permitting would be an issue for both ideas, but an art wall just needs the consent of a building owner while library boxes would require government access for bus stations or sidewalks. We are moving into a digital age in terms of literature, making this idea of paper books in boxes appear out of date. A physical art wall will last for years and years, and has the potential to become a local cultural monument.

Lucas:
           I voted for Rachel’s library box from the beginning. The ingenuity involved in her proposal clearly came from a place of passion. These boxes do not represent a solution to illiteracy nor will they make every Angeleno put down her or his device; however, each book represents a chance for inspiration. A chance for one person’s eye to catch the bright colored binding of a book and be provoked to pick it up. A chance to change that one person. One person is not the far-reaching impact the Awesome foundation has in mind, but that is just the  paradoxical point that makes this book-sharing idea worthwhile. Books are inherently personal. They attempt to connect with the reader on an individual level. With this idea, however, Rachel has taken that personal connection and broadcasted it city-wide, using the metro rails as her airwaves. I urge each one of us to consider how many people this idea has the power to change.


         While keeping in mind thoughtfully considering others' opinions, state your position to debate and discuss the merits of the idea you stand behind. There are no limits to how many comments you may post, so feel free to come back to and respond in a way which will further our understanding.

Group 2: Dec 13

Group 2 is in the process of reviewing and scoring applications. In the past week, the flow of applications sped up quite a bit, so we have over 30 ideas to sift through to narrow down to 6 ideas and people we want to interview this week. We initially had specific criteria that we were grading these ideas on (creative, practical, impact), but now we are questioning whether or not that system is the most effective way of finding the best idea. Any suggestions regarding the grading process would be appreciated. This week, Group 2 just needs to evaluate each application by Monday afternoon and then begin interviewing to find the most awesome idea.

Chutes and Ladders

Terra Magee
Mr. Donnell/ Dr. Stogdill
City of Angels
10 December 2015

Chutes and Ladders

 There is a ladder. One that we do not notice, one that we do not like to talk about, but it is there and always has been. Over the years the wrings have, as I have been led to believe, become closer. The US, beacon of industrial freedom under the law, prides itself on its easy accessibility to this ladder– go as high as you want or as low as you wish. But you must understand that it is hard work that allows you to climb to gain more power... or is it?

Perhaps my privileged life with my Gucci sunglasses do not allow me to see this ladder they speak of because I am allowed to move on it freely. Why would I notice something I never encounter? I can't say the same for others, however. Sorry to disappoint you, and it is a secret I'll let you in on so don't share it with anyone, but my neighbors rungs have been sawed off. And my neighbor's neighbors rungs are missing too. In fact, millions of people in Los Angeles and the United States as a whole have ladders with broken rungs. How do they climb?

If He Hollers Let Him Go illustrates this ladder clearly through characters like Madge or the dirty white woman who entered the bar. White men are shown to be at the top of this ladder followed by white women, black men, and black women. The dirty white woman who has no power over a white man and who would be kicked out of any white person's bar for the ways she acted contrarily had incredible power to ruin the lives of the black people in the bar because she is simply a few steps higher on the ladder. As Bob put it, she was dirty and gross, "but she was white."

The outsiders who see the world without sunglasses, like Bob for example, notice the ladder sagging with the weight of minorities pushed to the bottom wrung. However, of the blacks in this novel, no matter how simple-minded or educated, like the people in Bob's dream or Alice and her parents, choose to not pay attention to the ladder because they have given up on accommodating to the white's ideal version of a black person. Elsie, Madge's sister in law, spoke of these types of blacks in Texas who keep to themselves and created their own society– their own ladder.  On the other hand there is Alice and her parents who play into the game of chutes and ladders, believing that the next rung above them is just within grasp– one step closer to the white sunlight.

How do we fix the ladder or is it fixed today? In what ways have the ladder changed in Los Angeles since WWII? Bob says revolution, breaking the ladder and making a bonfire of it, is how to fix social mobility. Do you agree with this statement? How would you go about fixing the ladder if you believe it needs fixing?

Group 2 12/6

Group 2 is currently in the process of receiving applications, and we're worried that it's not going too well. So far we have only received 3 applications, and one of them was a prank, one of them didn't really get the point of the project (they wanted to donate the money to charities), and the last one is decent but we want more. We need some more help from Group 1 to get this out there! At this point if we don't receive more applications, this could go south very quickly. Anyone who has ideas to solicit more should bring them (or just do it themselves). If we could get the engineering classes to have to submit applications, that would really help out a lot.

Please, everyone, keep soliciting applications! Advertise on your own! I don't think that any of us want to be making a decision from one or two applications.

Thanks!

Group 1: 12/6

This week has not been that eventful as we just put out the application via email. Fliers are in process as we have the logo completed, but it seems like not many students have really contemplated submitting anything for our awesome $1000 give away! Any ideas on how to push for more applications would be much appreciated. Our group has somewhat discussed entering other classes during B & E periods and reminding people who could be interested about  the project so they can meet the deadline and understand more in depth. I think we just need some sort of factor that would motivate students to be creative and help their community. Maybe we could find some other sort of small but worthwhile prize to be rewarded to the winning recipient.

Group 3 Update 12/6

So, as Lucas posted in our last update, Group 3 does not have a ton to do in the immediate days/weeks. We have continued trying to contact news sources, but so far, we have had no responses. 

Annie: I think someone from our group talked to you already about possibly getting in contact with the LA Times via your dad? Not sure if that would be a possibility, but it would be great if you could ask him about it.

Is anyone in the Paw Print? We are going to contact one of the editors, but if someone is a staff member that would make life easier.

Let us know if you guys have any cool ideas for the documentary/promo video we are making for the cumulative project. If you are working on any especially-interesting aspect that you think should be part of the film, definitely tell one of us.