Judith Tur Character Analysis

Judith Tur is a ground reporter for LA News Service. Her monologue, “War Zone,” introduces the Reginald Denny beating, which, like King’s beating, was videorecorded and widely viewed by the American public. Tur witnesses the attack while filming it for her news station from a helicopter overhead. Tur has no sympathy for the Black people who beat Denny. Although she claims not to be racist, she refers to Denny’s attackers as “animal[s]” who “don’t deserve / to live,” using dehumanizing language. Seeing the “war zone” of the riots makes Tur proclaim, “this is not my United States anymore.” It’s implied that Tur has no problem with such violence occurring in “her” United States, so long as it remains invisible to her and doesn’t affect her life directly. Likewise, she has no sympathy for Black people living in poor neighborhoods, believing that “we’ve all had a rough time in our life,” and hardship isn’t an excuse not to work and to resort to violence. Tur functions as a stand-in for the white Americans for whom the riots, and Denny’s attack, confirmed their prejudiced attitude toward Black people, and their belief that the Black community posed a threat to the prosperity of the city’s white population.