The Fire This Time

Overview

This 1994 documentary is a detailed look at the history of race relations in Southern California, using the Watts riots of the mid-1960s and the rioting following the Rodney King verdict in 1992 as starting points for the analysis.

In case the viewer thinks the interpretation provided in this film reflects a biased viewpoint or part of some “left-wing agenda,” virtually everything said here has been further reinforced through at least three different commissions: The Kerner Commission, the McCone Commission and the Christopher Commission.  Also, information about COINTELPRO and the demise of the Black Panther Party was confirmed by a senate committee called the Church Committee (mid-1970s).

The Kerner Commission dismissed the view that this was some sort of “communist conspiracy” and said that the nation was divided into “two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal.”  The Commission also stated that “white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto.  White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.”

The film’s revelations are still appropriate today, as the inner-city ghettoes are cauldrons of despair and the predictable violence that goes with such despair.  It traces the history of black-white relations starting with the great migrations from the South in the 1930s and 1940s and the incredible racism that existed wherever black people ended up, whether in Chicago or Los Angeles and every other major city.  The film documents the red-lining practices of the real estate industry and the discrimination within the labor force, not to mention the racist practices of the criminal justice system, especially the police.

I have watched this about a dozen times during the past few years and each time I do I notice something else I missed before.  In what follows I will highlight several points raised during this film that I have in the past written on the board as the film was being shown.  Putting these points in writing will make it easier for you to reflect on the film after viewing – also it will save hurting my arm writing all over the board!

Some Key Ideas

1.                  What is your reality?  Did it come from you or does it come from outside of yourself, such as the reality presented by the “authorities” or “officials” or the media?  If you accept, uncritically, external definitions of reality, then you are not in control; others control you.

2.                  Most of us look at the problem of race relations through “white suburban lenses” and we need to see the problem through “black urban lenses.”

3.                  History – black pioneers came west after end of Civil War and the great migration to LA started in the 1920s and 1930s

4.                  Ran into “red-lining” by banks and real estate institutions

5.                  Poor or non-existent medical care – had to take a 2 hour bus ride

6.                  Post-WWII era found blacks getting jobs in arms industry and by 1965 there were about 650,000 in the ghettoes of LA

7.                  Watts was a “vibrant community” with all sorts of housing, businesses, culture, etc. – eventually it got wiped out.

8.                  Rise of the Black Panther Party (BPP) in 1960s as jobs began to disappear in the manufacturing industries, followed by “white flight” to suburbs, taking with then tax dollars

9.                  FBI began to infiltrate the BPP

10.              Don Freed of USC has called this a process of “slow motion suicide” and even a form of “genocide”

11.              When in doubt, “follow the money.”  In the past 30 years there has been a huge increase in money flowing into the criminal justice system and a corresponding drop in money flowing for schools, social programs, etc.

12.              Comment by doctor as he was looking out the window at the recently opened county jail that if the programs had been tried and worked, we would not need this new jail.

13.              Unemployment has always been a key issue – the McCone Commission reported a rate of 55% in Watts around the time of the Watts riots.

14.              Currently the local jail system houses about 30% of population of Watts, while children are 5 times more likely to be somewhere in the criminal justice system than in college.

15.              Lack of school resources (one woman quoted as wondering why there were no tools, not even wood, in the so-called “wood shop” in one school).

16.              California now ranks 33^rd in the nation in school funding – huge increases in prison money (current budget is more than $5 billion per year).

17.              Police often take photos and create special ID’s (“field identification cards”) for young black males.

18.              Watts riots caused by build-up tensions and years of racist practices; the “spark” was a rather routine arrest of a black person by a white cop.

19.              Plenty of “looting” – note the comments by the doctor about “looting.”

20.              Police not trained to control the rioting and so the National Guard had to step in.

21.              Note the announcer calling this an “insurrection” by “hoodlums” who were influence by “outside agitators” such as “communists.”

22.              There has been a movement toward the “privatization” of public housing in Watts, often called “urban renewal” – should be called “black removal.”

23.              Putting in freeways, replacing housing (freeways often divide one gang area from another).

24.              A form of “balkanization” (division of an area, region, or group into smaller and often mutually hostile units) has occurred; segregation greater than ever or what researchers have called “hyper-segregation.”  About the only white face seen in Watts comes with a badge and gun.

1965                            1992

Black-owned property in Watts                        70%                             30%

Proportion of Watts who are black                   90%                             40%

25.              “The Projects” – called “reservations” (why use this term?)

26.              Why so many liquor stores (more than other businesses)?

27.              COINTELPRO – FBI Counterintelligence program (secret and illegal)

a.                   Black Panthers eliminated in 1960s and early 1970s

b.                  Street gangs took their place

c.                   Police used as “agent provocateurs”

d.                  Divide and rule

e.                   Taking  a gang member and dropping him off in a rival gang’s territory

28.              Violence is the language of the inarticulate!  Rap and rappin’ are forms of expression revealing the reality as seen by residents of the inner-city.

29.              What happened to the “25-year Plan”?  It literally disappeared!

30.              Local police seen as the “first line of defense” against what amounts to an “internal colony” - Police seen as an “occupying force.”

31.              Police often infiltrate black groups.  After gang leaders called a truce, undercover police tried to instigate violence, keeping the gangs at war.

32.              Rodney King verdict and subsequent riots re-opened old wounds.

33.              “Violence is as American as apple pie” – Andrew Young

34.              Where do the guns come from?  Is this just an “urban legend” or is there some truth to this?

35.              Also, where do the drugs come from?  Why so many drugs and alcohol in the ghetto?  To “pacify” them so they won’t revolt?