{"id":465,"date":"2011-08-10T14:29:40","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T12:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=465"},"modified":"2015-04-21T14:09:29","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T12:09:29","slug":"we-havent-learned-anything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/we-havent-learned-anything\/","title":{"rendered":"We haven’t learned anything"},"content":{"rendered":"

These are crazy times. On one TV channel, mobs<\/span> are destroying cities in England. On another channel, mobs are destroying San Francisco. The first is presented as news, and I’m supposed to be shocked by it. The second is presented as entertainment, and I’m supposed to enjoy it.<\/p>\n

Is this sick or what?<\/p>\n

Obviously the makers of Rise of the Planet of the Apes<\/i><\/a> (Planet der Affen: Prevolution<\/i>) didn’t anticipate<\/span> this coincidence<\/span>, but they should have. Rise<\/i> is an unnecessary remake<\/span> of Conquest<\/span> of the Planet of the Apes<\/i> from 1972. And Conquest<\/i> itself is based on a true story \u2014 just one without apes in it.<\/p>\n

On August 11, 1965, a white police officer stopped a 21-year-old black man, Marquette Frye, who was driving drunk in Watts, a poor neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles. An argument with Frye and members of his family turned into a struggle that ended when more police arrived and hit the Fryes with their batons<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people began to gather around. The crowd turned angry and threw stones at the police cars as they drove away. Part of the crowd then began to attack white people who were walking or driving by. The next evening, as many as 10,000 African-Americans were looting<\/span> businesses and setting them on fire. Gun battles ensued<\/span>. Only the arrival of 13,900 soldiers from the National Guard, and the arrest of 4,000 people, made it possible to restore<\/span> order several days later. By the time the violence ended, 600 buildings, worth $40 million, had been destroyed.<\/p>\n

The Watts riots<\/span> were, at the time, every bit as shocking as 9\/11 was in 2001. America needed to understand and come to terms with<\/span> this painful time in history. That’s where allegory can help. Paul Dehn, screenwriter<\/span> of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes<\/i>, based his story<\/a> on the African-American experience of slavery and, later, the Watts riots.<\/p>\n