Reading Rodney King/Reading Urban Uprising keeps the public debate alive by exploring the connections between the Rodney King incidents and the ordinary workings of cultural, political, and economic power in contemporary America. Its recurrent theme is the continuing, complicated significance of race in American society. Contributors: Houston A. Baker, Jr.; Judith Butler; Sumi K. Cho; Kimberle Crenshaw; Mike Davis; Thomas L. Dumm; Walter C. Farrell, Jr.; Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; Ruth Wilson Gilmore; Robert Gooding-Williams; James H. Johnson, Jr.; Elaine H. Kim; Melvin L. Oliver; Michael Omi; Gary Peller; Cedric J. Robinson; Jerry Watts; Cornel West; Patricia Williams; Rhonda M. Williams; Howard Winant.

Like so many "news events," the Rodney King incidents the beating, the trial and the uprising that followed have all but disappeared from public dialogue. "Reading Rodney King/Reading Urban Uprising keeps this public debate alive by exploring the connections between the incidents and the ordinary workings of cultural, political, and economic power in contemporary America. Its recurrent theme is the continuing though complicated significance of race in American society.
The Rodney King incidents raised a number of questions regarding the relationships between poverty, racial ideology, economic competition, and the exercise of political power. What is the relationship between the beating of Rodney King and the workings of racism in America? How was it possible for defense attorneys to convince a jury that the videotape it saw did not depict an excessive or unjustified use of violence? In the burning of Koreatown, what role did racial stereotypes of African Americans and Korean Americans play, and what role did various economic factors play? What is the significance of the fact that the L.A. police department, when responding to the uprising, sent its officers to Westwood but not Koreatown? And how, finally, are we to understand the fact that not all of Los Angeles' various Latino communities took part in the uprising?
"Reading Rodney King/Reading Urban Uprising includes essays by prominent philosophers, social scientists, literary critics and legal scholars. They explore these issues from a variety of distinct, theoretical perspectives, offering a nuanced picture of the Rodney King incidents. Avoiding reductionism, they illuminate the complex interplay of ideological, political and economic forces impinging on urban America.
With America's black, Hispanic, and Asian populations continuing to grow, the issue of race has come to dominate political debates on public policy and educational struggles over multicultural curricula. Expressing cynic

". . . very impressive . . . These works are not about race and urban uprising. They are about all of us, not the American Dream but the American Real." -- The San Diego Review"The book Reading Rodney King/Reading Urban Uprising offers a timely reminder that the beating of Rodney King, the outcome of the Simi Valley trial of the police officers involved in it, and the subsequent uprisings in response to the verdict are best understood in social, cultural, economic, and political contexts. The authors demonstrate that a critical analysis of popular representations of these events can illuminate the larger subject of race relations in American society. The book suggests that a multidisciplanary approach is needed to appreciate fully the vast and interlocking dimensions of the problem." -- Gail Lee Dubrow, Journal of the American Planning Association