A GATHERING OF HEROES

The media called them Good Samaritans, those brave souls who rescued drivers trapped at the Florence and Normandie intersection- -ground zero of the '92 L.A. riots. Alan-Williams, an African- American actor, was one of them. Here, his short but impassioned report dovetails his role at the intersection with reflections on black rage, mob violence, individual responsibility, and the dangers of stereotyping. Alan-Williams hears the Rodney King beating verdict on his car radio. After his aerobics class, he drives purposefully to the already notorious intersection, his large hope being to save the victims from their aggressors and the aggressors from themselves. The actor was no saint. He had been badly bruised by racism during his Iowa childhood and understood the self-destructive rage that ensues, but he had also—as an aspiring Marine eager to show he was ``one of the fellas''—participated in a despicable group attack on a fellow-recruit. At the intersection, he plunges into the mob to rescue an Asian truck-driver, beaten to a pulp. He drags him away, drawing for support on the ``gathering of heroes'' inside his head, those who had taught him compassion (like the Mayan woman in Mexico caring for her disfigured child) and those who had taught him steadfastness (his Marine drill instructors). Perception is everything. Where Alan-Williams sees in the driver his battered childhood self, a furious teenager sees a justly punished ``Korean motherfucker.'' (The victim is, in fact, Japanese-American.) Minutes later, an LAPD squad car approaches the blood-soaked Samaritan and his charge, sees human refuse, and speeds away. But there is a happy ending. Overcoming his prejudice, Alan-Williams entrusts Takao Hirata to a ``brother'' wearing a shoulder-length ``doo'' rag, who delivers him safely to the hospital. A moving illumination of the meaning of brotherhood. It deserves to sell and sell and sell. (Eleven photographs—not seen)