Breaking News: White People Riot Too
A sad echo of the Lakers championship riots of 2010: Racists seemed to come out of the woodworks to blame the mayhem on Latinos.
YouTube White-on-car violence in Vancouver.
Guilty.
But here's the thing: One out of every two people in L.A. is Latino. So, yeah, when shit goes down, good or bad, there's bound to be one of us involved. We even get caught up in sexting scandals too, it seems.
Last year a couple of post-Lakers-riot videos appeared on YouTube, and the tone was vaguely racist.
In one that aimed to sway public opinion against a proposed downtown stadium, a couple of young white guys talk about the "shady people" downtown (and that shade is brown). One of the bros even claims, falsely, that people died during the mild Lakers unrest.
Another anti-downtown-stadium video was set to Randy Newman's "I Love L.A." and depicts a taxi going up in flames during the riot. Many of the shots in the video are of Latinos aping victoriously.
Well, we have news for you (L.A. talk radio hosts): White people riot too. In Vancouver last night people of the fairer race went apeshit after their hockey team lost the Stanley Cup to Boston.
"It's totally unlike Vancouver," bar owner Jennifer Richie told CNN.
(But it happened before, in 1994).
Listen folks, drunk sports fans riot. They do it Europe. They do it in Uraguay. Even Asians do it. (Well, no, they don't. But you get the picture). The amount of melanin in your skin or salsa on your taco doesn't really seem to make a difference.
Take note and stop blaming Latinos for everything in this town. Or wash your own damn car.
[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]
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