April 29, 1992
There was a riot on the streets
Tell me where were you?
You were sittin' home watchin' your TV
While I was participating in some anarchy
-Sublime-
Today's the ten year anniversary of the Los Angeles riots following the acquittal of the police officers who beat Rodney King by an all-white, Simi Valley jury. All over the news and radio, there are stories about race-relations, retrospectives on the beating and "How far have we come," kind of stories.
Bullshit, really, epsecially when most reporters are living on the right side of the 10 freeway, where the separation between white and black is so complete that you can pass weeks without seeing a black man or woman. In The Big Nowhere, the city is still sliced into wide swaths of racial separation. North of the 10 are the cities of Hollywood and Beverly Hills, stretching to Pasadena and the Simi Valley. South of the 10 are Watts, South Central and East L.A., stretching to Inglewood and Compton. Is there still racial tension? I can't tell. I don't live where there's tension on the streets, where I'm faced with it every day. This is L.A. I drive from point to point, never stopping where I don't need to. In the car, it's out of sight, out of mind. And that's a problem.
MTV showed their 10 nastiest moments of spring break 2002. Mmm... vacuous television. Couldn't resist.
One of the moments - David Holmes getting spring breakers to do outrageous stunts for a handful of pesos. One of the stunts - eat guacamole out of a spring breaker's armpits. The subject: this big, tan, darker guy lying on the beach, wearing shorts, sunglasses and a bemused expression. On the right armpit was some blonde girl. On the left armpit was a white guy from St. Louis. The one who ate more of the guacamole would win the cash.
After a minute and a half of unbelievable grossness, with the girl gagging on some of the armpit guacamole, it was over. The guys left armpit was cleaned of Guacamole. The white guy from St. Louis had a shit-eating grin after he was done. And David Holmes asks him, "Are you questioning your sexuality right now?" The white guy hesitates for a split second, then looks up at the host. He can't believe he's about to say what he's about to say. "Dude, I'm all about gettin' on him." Fuck yeah.
Take your parades and flags and such. I'll take the spring breaker, mouth still reeking of guac from someone's armpits, not backing down from the microphone shoved in his face, and outing himself on MTV. Now that's pride.