Classes Was Anna Deavere Smith\'s

¶ … classes was Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 since I had to write a paper on LA of today as seen through the eyes of at least five different people.

debating prop (argumentative and analytical)

The following paper is an analytical investigation of that thesis.

rational: explain why "because"

It was fascinating since it gave me a different perspective on the city that I have become so used to living in and therefore unable o see it in a clear manner and as an outsider.

Qualification: narrow down by excluding argument

Interviewing the different people made me see LA in a different way as a tapestry alive with different concerns of different individuals. What was also so interesting is that the City served different functions for different ages and different socio-economic classes. There was the counselor, for instance, who worked with the adolescents of today and she related how she thought their behavior and interactions to be different than that from the past. She thought them to be mainly regressed and attributed that to the increase of Internet and related technological advancements that encouraged youngsters to seclude themselves in their own internal world. She thought too that some States were better than others.

There was the activist who worked with the homeless and did so in an innovative fashion using theater as his prop. I found that fascinating since I thought the idea could be applicable to so many other areas of life. By using drama, the organizer encouraged people to work out their everyday problems and craft their own solutions. Many succeeded in doing so.

This interview with the activist gave me an appreciation both of the overwhelming amount of homeless that wonder the streets of LA as well as of altruism that often passes unnoticed.

That meeting too made me aware of the huge gaps between class and class that are such n intrinsic part of LA and yet, perhaps because it is discomfiting to the residents, becomes imperceptible to us who live there.

The reports of the 1992 LA riot/uprising told me by two people who lived through them also made an impact on me. One saw the riots from the safety and privacy of his house and saw the Black community as an outsider not understanding their intentions and somewhat frightened by their deeds. However, when he saw the raw documentary of the brutal police assault on Rodney King and the unwarranted flogging of the man, he felt a sadness and anger that he had hardly felt before. It was then, he told me, that he understood the actions of the 'other' and suddenly, this other who lived in a ghetto distant form him suddenly relocated to the same State.

The other interviewee was a man who lived in South Central Los Angeles. Whilst he himself did not participate, his son did and he saw many of the actions from his window. Whilst understanding the frustration and anger of the Blacks, the depth and anarchy of the riot bothered him. He was able to distance himself from the riots and feel repugnance for the mess whilst blaming the police and actions of society for the frustration of the youth. They did not have the jobs and opportunities that the wealthy Whites around them had. They were demeaned on a regular basis. He, however, through their actions misdirected and out-of-control.