The most unbelievable thing about the Gabriel Bell story is not that the Sanctuary Districts would exist, but that Americans would see the inherent humanity of the poor and actually do something to help them after a riot and hostage crisis.
today i was reading about the LA Riots, and in each instance of "awful group of black men attack innocent passerby", there is a direct follow up of "black men see victim of attack and render immediate aid". but all my life i only heard about the first part, so i agree with your point that even when poor people "do the right thing" in these situations it gets ignored.
Seems like the only times I see the LA riots mentioned these days is when people fantasize about the roof Koreans and the idea of minorities killing each other.
I've seen some Asian diasporans celebrate the Roof Koreans as "finally taking a stand and not letting people push us around anymore" to which I always reply "then why do we not do this when white people push us around?"
The whole thing was a needless tragedy all around and it sucks that people keep trying to glorify it.
Ehhh, I don't think it's helpful to take swipes at the Koreans either. While I don't have much sympathy for petit bourgeoisie using force to defend their property, a targeted campaign of violence based on ethnicity is not good even when carried out by an oppressed ethnicity. Besides, the complete withdrawal of the LAPD from areas where many Koreans lived points to a conscious plan or desire to let minorities fight it out so they can't unite against white supremacy.
I'm not saying the original Korean store owner was not a racist and a bad person or whatever, just that we should not celebrate factionalism.
Nah, not really. More like rolling my eyes at the fact that they get lionized by the far right for living out the castle doctrine fantasy that lurks in the lizard brain of every incel and every small business petty tyrant, and because it just happened to be along race lines, which feeds into the far right narrative even further. I didn't mean to imply that the convenience store owners themselves were racists, just that they're held up as "the good ones" by foaming-at-the-mouth racists.
we aren't any more ready for it now than we were then unfortunately. A lot of people would get shoved into unmarked vans, merc'ed in parking garages, etc.
yeah... I guess you're right. I was going to say we're not "much" more ready but then I realized I was only saying we're more ready because I feel more ready on a personal level, the population as a whole? nah. Orgs? some but barely