Surreal experience last night. I went to a showing of Hip Hop and the LA Riots at the Grammy Museum. They had a panel q&a afterwards with John
Posted by
jnine (aka jnine)
Apr 27 '12, 11:06
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Singleton, Arsenio Hall, Kurupt and others involved in the documentary. The guy sitting next to me through the doc gets up to sit on the panel and I realize I've been sitting next to the guy who had his foot firmly on Reginald Denny's neck, holding him down so he could be beaten, Henry Kiki Watson. He seems to have no remorse in the doc or while answering questions on the panel, said nothing has changed and he wasn't going to feel bad for one beating when there's been 400 years of beating and oppression and that he wasn't going to apologize. John Singleton nods in agreement during these statements. His apology to Denny years ago on Donahue was apparently coerced.
There was plenty of blame to go around, but his palpable anger was scary. I was standing next to him in the elevator and it radiates from him. There was a cocktail party upstairs afterwards and I watched in amazement as black journalists, rappers and community representatives, including a professor from USC, thanked him for what he did that day. Then, I saw a number of older, apparently wealthy, white women go up and shake his hand and tell him how amazing he was and brave to speak out.
The documentary itself is excellent and very thought provoking, it's going to be shown on VH1, and there is plenty of blame to go around, especially the way the LAPD operated at the time, but I saw nothing to praise him for.
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