Clancy Sigal on L.A. Riots
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In his commentaries on the Los Angeles riots, Sigal trivializes the deaths of more than 50 people, the incarceration of 13,000 or more, and the violent destruction of a major part of the city by claiming that there is no connection between enforced poverty and social explosions. He makes no attempt to understand the insights presented previously in The Times by community leaders like the Rev. Cecil Murray (May 3) or Prof. Melvin Oliver (May 1) that explain the structural causes of the anger and despair that fueled the riots.
By claiming that L.A. has been mugged by youths from impoverished communities, Sigal obscures the imperative to help them. By targeting (for example) “girls (who) use a child as a passport to being supported by the state,” he fails to acknowledge the necessity for redistributing wealth and power in this society. Sigal’s polemics read more like the start of a public relations campaign by a neoconservative publicist than the opinions of a patient and principled investigator into the causes and consequences of the riots.
GEORGE LIPSITZ
STAN WEIR, San Diego
Lipsitz is professor of ethnic studies at UC San Diego and Weir is publisher of Singlejack books.
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