ABSTRACT
The violence and destruction that followed the Rodney King verdict again exploded the myth of a shared consensus around American justice and democracy. The blind injustice of the Simi Valley “not guilty” verdict produced a rainbow coalition of people—old, young, of all colors—who had few or no reservations about looting stores owned primarily by Koreans and Latinos. It soon became clear that the nation's professional, academic, political, and business elite were ill-equipped to deal with the complexity of issues before them, captured in the simple but straightforward plea by Rodney King: “Can we all get along?”
