The Rodney King verdict sent shockwaves throughout the nation back in 1992. His brutal beating caught on camera, just one year prior caused a media frenzy although blacks already knew this was happening in communities across the country. The world finally viewed concrete evidence of how blacks are unfairly treated by police.
King was brutally beaten by four LAPD officers as a witness recorded the entire scene. Open-and-shut case, right?
The images were plastered all over the place. Everywhere you turned, the world knew Rodney King’s name. His visible bruises and the “can’t we just get along” speech are relics from most of our childhoods. Despite the excessive force and blatant violation of King’s civil rights, a predominantly white jury decided to acquit the officers on all charges leading to one of the nation’s most devastating riots in history.
At the time, the writers and producers of A Different World used the King aftermath in one of the show’s most controversial episodes. To this day, the two-part episode is considered one of the reasons why ADW didn’t survive for a seventh season.
Using comedy and real life subject matter, the show premiered season six to complete Whitley and Dwayne’s surprise wedding cliffhanger. ADW went where no other show or network wanted to go. The episode entitled “Honeymoon in L.A.” (part one and part two), picked up where the main characters’ vacation ended. The happy couple sat amongst friends recounting their visit to Los Angeles with a fictionalized version of being in the midst of the riots when the verdict was handed down.
As they’re driving, Whitley is jamming out to a tune on the radio. To her surprise, Dwayne abrubtly kills her vibe and switches stations.
Whitley: What are you doing?
Dwayne: They’re getting ready to announce the Rodney King verdict.
Whitley: Oh, we know what they’re gonna say, “Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!”. Everybody saw that videotape.
Dwayne: You never know.
Whitley: Are you going to tell me that the members of that jury don’t have VCRs? This is America. The land of justice for all.
Dwayne: Yeah, right.
And here we are today, quite evolved from VCRs, where it’s not uncommon to see black men on video brutalized by police and cleared by the justice system.
The episode goes on to highlight conversations we continue to have today.
Whitley is oblivious.
Sister Souljah reads Whitley.
this is still relevant.#blacklivesmatter pic.twitter.com/g5dKcXjWzE
— 🙂 (@EARTH2TEN) July 7, 2016
Dwayne is stopped by police.
Freddie educates herself.
Lena’s bias.
And so appropriately, during the flashbacks, students are being registered to vote.
Whitley’s revelation.
Even in the 90’s, race relations weren’t too far advanced.
But this line from Col. Taylor is probably the most profound from the entire episode.
“A lot depends on what we do after we leave this room. We’ve got to work together so that your children won’t feel in the next 20 years that their only solution is to burn their own communities down.”
Dean Davenport so cleverly comes through, rounding out the moment with a sneak diss.
“Excuse me people, what are you doing sitting around on your butts? This is not congress.”
The episode premiered five months after the officers’ acquittal. Here we are in the aftermath of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. We see their injustices on video. Twenty-four years later, and it doesn’t look so much like “a different world”.
