I was just eleven years old in 1991, when LAPD officers beat Rodney King within inches of his life on camera. Here’s how omnipresent that beating, not-guilty verdict and subsequent riots have been to the cultural and political imaginary of my generation: I can’t remember whether or not the question, “Can we all just along?” was a cliché before or after King uttered it in his bewildered response to the violence in Los Angeles. I started paying attention to politics and the news for the first time that year, and I remember only two things that figured prominently: the Clinton election and Rodney King.

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