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.Given the highly politicized nature of theera, young people not only were aware of injustices but encountered ampleopportunities to get involved.The Civil Rights MovementThe first event that served to politicize activists was the civil rights move-ment.The movement affected activists in two ways.First, all minorityactivists in Los Angeles saw the civil rights drama on television and felt a 68 / RACE, CLASS, AND ACTI VI SMstrong sense of moral outrage that caused them to rethink hegemonic nar-ratives of democracy and freedom.Televised images of nonviolent protes-tors being brutalized generated support for the movement and served topoliticize viewers.Second, the civil rights movement contributed to youngactivists political consciousness through direct experience.Several soon-to-be activists participated in nonviolent protests and were subject to policeabuse.One former Panther went downtown to take a postal service test andfound himself suddenly involved in a civil rights protest.The day I was supposed to take the test was the same day as a demon-stration about Selma, Alabama.I went where the people were blockingthe driveway, hundreds of nonviolent protestors.The police, the newsmedia, everybody was there.The deputies, or the U.S.marshals, orwhatever they were, came out of the building, about fifty of them.They waded into the crowd and started beating and arresting [people].I m standing on the side just watching this, and the next thing I knowa guy runs over and grabs me.Then four guys are beating me up.Theyarrested me as part of the demonstration.I went to jail and I got bailedout by the civil rights people.Upon his release from jail, the budding activist felt somewhat obligated tothe movement and began exploring various civil rights organizations, but hewas dissatisfied with their nonviolent philosophy, especially in light of hisexperience.He eventually helped establish the Southern California chapterof the Black Panther Party (BPP) because he felt strongly about communitydefense against the police.Another Black activist, while attending California State University, LosAngeles, participated in demonstrations organized by the Congress of RacialEquality (CORE).We went and demonstrated at the Board of Education.One of the thingsI remember most was sitting in the hallway while board members camein.We had gone through self-defense training, passive resistance, andhad been told that if somebody starts beating on us we should ball up,that sort of thing.So a group of us were sitting in the hallway and afew of the board members came in and somebody said something.Thiswoman became upset and kicked this guy in the face.Growing up inSouth Central L.A., I had seen violence before, but this was so unex-pected: we were well dressed and at a peaceful demonstration.I thinksomething clicked at that point, like, I don t know if I want to do thisagain, because I want to be able to defend myself. The significance of being beaten while engaging in nonviolent protest can-not be overstated.Besides provoking moral outrage, it made activists seri-ously rethink nonviolence as a strategy.23 Edward Escobar, in his study of THE POLI TI CI ZATI ON OF THE THI RD WORLD LEFT / 69police relations among Mexican Americans found that law enforcementexperiences perceived as unfair not only angered people but also contributedto further politicization.24 This process was clearly evident in the civil rightsmovement and both contributed to and intensified the Watts riot andChicano Moratorium, with important implications for the Third World Left.The civil rights movement also politicized non-Black people of color,including this former East Wind member, as it forced Chicanas/os and AsianAmericans to rethink their racial position and identities.When I was at Cal State Los Angeles the civil rights movement was infull swing in the South, and Asians were getting a lot of flak fromBlacks.Those of us who had Black friends, most of us did at the timebecause we lived in the ghetto and barrio, we were being asked, So,what side are you on? There were demonstrations at the FederalBuilding, and just watching it on television freaked me out
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