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A conspicuous feature of the commentary on the recent Los Angeles riot was the many comparisons between racial conflict in America and the most murderous ethnic strife abroad. More than once, Los Angeles was likened to Yugoslavia, and frequent parallels were drawn between conditions here and in South Africa, with neighborhoods like South-Central Los Angeles identified as the American version of Soweto. Ethnic and religious hatred in the Middle East was also invoked. The British Guardian headlined one article, “Beirut in L.A.”; inevitably, black neighborhoods were portrayed as similar to the West Bank, with blacks cast as America's Palestinians, and the riots characterized as a black intifada. Some black political figures, particularly Jesse Jackson and Maxine Waters (who represents South-Central L.A. in Congress), referred to the riot as a rebellion, with the implication that the rioters should be regarded as the heroes of a struggle against despotism. Yet the black mobs who beat into senselessness white motorists who had strayed into the wrong neighborhoods were not participating in a rebellion; and most of the victims of the killing, burning, and looting were members of their own race. As for those engaged in the looting, it was difficult to believe that they were telling us anything other than that human beings will often yield to temptation if there appear to be no sanctions involved.

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