“Twilight 1992” by Anna Deavere Smith tells the story about the mayhem that ensued in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict. According to Wikipedia, the riots and violence broke out in L.A. for three continuously because, out of the four officers, who were involved in allegedly beating Rodney King, only one of them was found guilty of using excessive force and the others were cleared of all charges. This had a great impact on the citizens of L.A. “Twilight 1992” is a series of monologue which is based on the interview Smith conducted with different individuals who were involved in the L.A. riot. Among them, Rudy Salas, Stanley K. Sheinbaum and Jason Sandford intrigue me the most.
In “Twilight” Rudy Salas, Sr. the Mexican sculptor and painter seem almost consumed with hatred towards white police officers. Because of his Mexican heredity he says he was called inferior in school by the “nice white teachers” (2). No wonder he called them “the enemy”. Even so he doesn’t exactly hate them. But rather he says he has “an insane hatred for white policemen” (Smith 3). That is because of the fact that he was beaten and turned deaf by four cops when he was a teenager. He was kicked in the head and his eardrums were fractured. Here Salas contradicts himself by saying “I don’t like to hate, the way my uncle Abraham told me that to hate is to waste energy and you mess with the man upstairs” (Smith 3). But then again he can’t deny how he feels towards white policemen.
Rudy Salas, Sr. is one of those citizens who were wronged by police, to be more specific “by white policemen”. Just as Rodney King case, Salas’ was also the one that had racism written all over it. In “Twilight” he further says that while reading the paper about cops being shot down on the street he can’t help but think “maybe he’s one of those m*****f*****s that, y’know…” (4). This clearly shows that his