Joe Viola is a television writer who recalls dropping off his daughter’s registration forms for Berkeley and witnessing a car pull up with a kid inside toting a nine-millimeter gun and making threats. Viola recalls rushing home to his wife and kids in a panic, feeling disbelief that such violence could happen “right here,” in his neighborhood. Viola’s account illustrates his white privilege. Like many of the other white characters Smith interviews, Viola is completely unaccustomed to witnessing the violence and unrest that are an accepted fact of life to the Black youth growing up in the projects.
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Joe Viola Character Timeline in Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992
The timeline below shows where the character Joe Viola appears in Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Butta Boom
Smith interviews Joe Viola, a television writer. Viola recounts where he was when the riots first began. He had...
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A week later, Viola read a newspaper article that clarified some of the details he couldn’t discern about the...
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