As a product of the East Coast, here’s one way that I’ve come to process what’s occurred in California in recent weeks: cicadas.
If you’re not familiar with the word, it refers to an insect that emerges from the earth—some annually, some periodically—to engage in the business of perpetuating the species.
In that respect, California has its own cicada that appears with alarming regularity, every 27–28 years or so. It emerged in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles in August 1965, again in LA’s South Central neighborhood (now South Los Angeles) in April 1992, and this year in wider portions of Los Angeles County (most notably, the upscale pockets of Beverly Hills and Santa Monica).
The two defining characteristics of the California species: (1) an unforgivable act of violence against a black male that triggers outrage and anger; (2) despite lawmakers’ promises, post-rioting, to get to the heart of California’s many divides, the end result is relatively little progress.
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