- published: 11 Aug 2015
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The Watts riots (or, collectively, Watts rebellion) took place in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles from August 11 to 17, 1965.
On August 11, 1965, a black motorist was arrested for drunk driving. A minor roadside argument broke out, and then escalated into a fight. The community reacted in outrage. Six days of looting and arson, especially of white-owned businesses, followed. Los Angeles police needed the support of nearly 4,000 members of the California Army National Guard to quell the riots, which resulted in 34 deaths and over $40 million in property damage. The riots were blamed principally on unemployment, although a later investigation also highlighted police racism. It was the city's worst unrest until the Rodney King riots of 1992.
In the Great Migration of the 1920s, major populations of African-Americans moved to Northern and Midwestern cities like Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York City to pursue jobs in newly established manufacturing industries; to establish better educational and social opportunities; and to flee racial segregation, Jim Crow Laws, violence, and racial bigotry in the Southern States. This wave of migration largely bypassed Los Angeles. In the 1940s, in the Second Great Migration, black Americans migrated to the West Coast in large numbers, in response to defense industry recruitment efforts at the start of World War II. The black population in Los Angeles leapt from approximately 63,700 in 1940 to about 350,000 in 1965, making the once-small black community visible to the general public.
Rato de rua
Irrequieta criatura
Tribo em frenética proliferação
Lúbrico, libidinoso transeunte
Boca de estômago
Atrás do seu quinhão
Vão aos magotes
A dar com um pau
Levando o terror
Do parking ao living
Do shopping center ao léu
Do cano de esgoto
Pro topo do arranha-céu
Rato de rua
Aborígene do lodo
Fuça gelada
Couraça de sabão
Quase risonho
Profanador de tumba
Sobrevivente
À chacina e à lei do cão
Saqueador da metrópole
Tenaz roedor
De toda esperança
Estuporador da ilusão
Ó meu semelhante
Filho de Deus, meu irmão
Rato
Rato que rói a roupa
Que rói a rapa do rei do morro
Que rói a roda do carro
Que rói o carro, que rói o ferro
Que rói o barro, rói o morro
Rato que rói o rato
Ra-rato, ra-rato
Roto que ri do roto
Que rói o farrapo
Do esfarra-rapado
Que mete a ripa, arranca rabo
Rato ruim
Rato que rói a rosa
Rói o riso da moça
E ruma rua arriba
Em sua rota de rato
Saqueador da metrópole
Tenaz roedor
De toda esperança
Estuporador da ilusão
Ó meu semelhante