ABSTRACT
Like the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings a few months before, the Rodney King beating, the acquittal of the Los Angeles police officers who “restrained” him, and the subsequent civil unrest in L.A. flashed Race across the national consciousness, and the gaze of American culture momentarily froze there. Pieces of everyday racial dynamics seemed briefly clear, then faded from view, replaced by presidential politics and natural disasters.
