remembrances

This morning I woke to this StoryCorps piece about the riots in Los Angeles.

Just hearing the intro brought a flood of memories to mind.

At this time, twenty years ago, I was desperately trying to finish my senior thesis at Princeton. I was writing about Oscar Acosta and the alienation from his own ethnic heritage I found in his novels.

In the background, I listened to the coverage of the trial, and we waited for a verdict.

I remember walking through campus one day behind several (white) women who were talking about the trial...you can imagine what their opinion was.  My mind was wrapped up in my thesis and the racial climate survey we (students) were conducting on campus because the university didn't think there was a reason to do it.  ...all of these thoughts swam in my head as I stayed up all night, gritting my teeth, drinking Pepsi, and writing.

As we approach the 20th anniversary of the riots, we also approach the 20th anniversary of my senior thesis, due coincidentally days after the verdict was read, by that time, the riots had begun and ended, and we were conducting open mic gatherings to give people a place to air their feelings.

I will never forget those days, even though on some level they should be a blur.  I remember a classmate, a black woman who had trumpeted her conservatism for four years.  We called her Shelby Steele's daughter.  I don't know if I remember her real name, even if I do, I wouldn't out her here, it is the nearly anonymous spot after all. 

There she stood in the wake of the verdict and in the middle of the riots, crying, telling those assembled she couldn't believe the legal system had let her down.  Hadn't we all watched the same video with the police beating King?  I looked at her with a mixture of empathy and disbelief ... she was actually looking at the world around her with new eyes.

... and, of course, we are also fast approaching my 20th reunion at Princeton.

I am too busy most days to think about it -- but then something happens to remind me of the 20th ... the tickets are bought, the airfare arranged and the hotels secured... we'll see how it goes.