A Tarnished Future : BRANNDI : ‘L.A. Is a Very Messed-Up Place’

In December, View profiled four eighth-graders at John Burroughs Junior High in the Mid-Wilshire area. They talked about growing up in Los Angeles, their joys and their fears. In the wake of the Los Angeles riots, Times staff writer Beverly Beyette revisited Branndi Johnson, 13, Ramsay Davila, 13, and Elisando Duran, 14, to find out how their lives, and their thinking, have been affected. (Jean Burtch, 14, has moved out of the area and did not wish to be part of the ongoing story.) View will continue to report on them from time to time.

Six months ago, Branndi Johnson--a fun-loving, above-average student who shares a one-bedroom apartment in Mid-City with her mother--wanted to be President when she grew up. She plans to attend Cornell University (her mother’s alma mater), law school and become an attorney.

I might have changed my mind about being President. Even if I did make it, I know I’d be assassinated right away. The KKK would have a contract out on me. With everything that has happened, I see how America really is.

I guess I’m ashamed of America. L.A. is a very messed-up place. L.A. is pitiful. I’m ashamed to live here. Those jurors were either blind or prejudiced. The judicial system is telling us, “We can kill your kids and beat your men and get away with it.” I felt like crying.

What stopped me from going out and looting was not because I knew it was wrong. I can voice my opinion here: I didn’t have to go out and loot.

People need a way to let go of their feelings, and violence is the only way some people can do it. I don’t blame any particular race for the looting and burning. I don’t condone it, but I don’t blame them. I blame those 12 jurors and I blame the four police officers. The Reginald Denny beating was terrible. What those four black men did was just as senseless. I think they should go to jail. The ones who beat Rodney King should go to jail, too. I hope they find more evidence that will make all the officers go back to trial.

Our car was stolen from in front of our house. They found it without an engine. They might as well have taken the whole car. Now we have to take the bus everywhere. I can’t go to choir rehearsal at church. I’ve been tardy at school mostly every day. The buses don’t always run on time. We’ve moved. There was just too much going on in the other area (near Crenshaw and Van Ness).

I’ve become more prejudiced than I’ve ever been before toward all other races. My race? We’re just literally moving backward. If George Bush decided to go back to slavery, there’s nothing anyone could do to stop it.

Every week, more and more kids are killed by black gang members and no one is going crazy about that. I’m not turning against my black community. I’m just turning against black gangs. This gang truce, I don’t know, I hope it will last. But the problem is lack of jobs and lack of education. If everyone had a job, if everyone had a chance. . . .

The gangbangers, you don’t ever see them going to church and praying to get rid of their problems. They do something destructive.

Young black men are harassed just because they look like gang members. Mothers need to teach their sons to keep their hands on the steering wheel, always call police “sir” and avoid trouble. They can say whatever they want when they’re out of their presence. I don’t put all police officers in the same category. I don’t want police officers to put all black people in the same category.

I would never be ashamed of my race, no matter what happened. I’m glad I’m African-American because people will listen to what someone young and black has to say. I have a chance to do something. I can help fix L.A. I want to meet George Bush and Dan Quayle and have a debate.

Young blacks may give up, but not everyone is going to let them. They go off to school without even a folder in their backpacks. If I had a son, I’d go to school with him every day to make sure he got there in time. Parents have to get involved.

All of the good teachers are going to be leaving to go to private schools. I could probably get into a private school, but I choose to go to a public school and be around normal, everyday people and not have them looking at me because I’m there on a scholarship and they can pay.

How can George Bush blame the riots on the poor? He was just looking for a way out. The only reason George Bush and Dan Quayle responded so quickly was it’s an election year. They haven’t lived in L.A. If you live in L.A., you know how everything could have happened--Latasha Harlins, Rodney King, Reginald Denny. . . .

Everyone is always saying how free and beautiful America is, but they don’t know how it really is.