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The Los Angeles Times’ Coverage of the 1992 Rebellion

Still Burning Matters of Race and Justice

University of Texas, Austin and Vera Institute of Justice, CEJJES Institute, Pomona, NYJVargas{at}Vera.org costavargas{at}mail.utexas.edu

Focusing on staff writers’ articles and editorials published in the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles rebellion, this article examines the Los Angeles Times by paying attention to how race in general, and African Americans in particular, were depicted in its pages. What notions of society emerge from this newspaper’s coverage of the 29 April 1992 civil unrest following the acquital of four police officers accused of brutalizing Rodney King? How do representations of racial differences reflect and consolidate such notions of society? By investigating the Times’ narrative between 30 April 1992 and 4 May 1992, this article will also analyze related concepts of politics and justice that emerged in those days. This article argues that, while the Times erroneously cast blacks as the main perpetrators of the rebellion, it expressed widely held views on race and, ultimately, through its specific understandings of politics and justice, justified racial oppression.

Key Words: 1992 LA rebellion • African Americans (representations of) • Los Angeles • politics • social justice

Ethnicities, Vol. 4, No. 2, 209-236 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1468796804042604


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