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FEATURING LYNN MIE ITAGAKI – It has been about 24 years since one of the country’s largest metropolitan areas was wracked by violence. The 1992 Los Angeles rebellion was sparked by the acquittal of police involved in the videotaped beating of Rodney King and resulted in 55 people killed over 6 days.

Many people have tried to make sense of what that moment meant in the history of race relations in the US. Today, given the growing influence of the Black Lives Matter movement, the questions of race and racism are more important than ever.

Lynn Mie Itagaki, Assistant Professor of English and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and program coordinator in Asian American studies at Ohio State University, author of Civil Racism: The 1992 Los Angeles Rebellion and the Crisis of Racial Burnout.