In a Los Angeles Times op-ed piece following the riots, Michael Lerner, editor of the liberal Jewish magazine Tikkun, notes that "looting is the dominant way of life in America, and the hypocritical cries of outrage at what happened in Los Angeles were not wrong because the rioters were justified but were wrong because they were classically racist: They selected and condemned one group for behavior of other groups that are not being equally condemned."

So singling out the rioters is a "racist response" prompted by the fact that "most of us know that we are complicit with the culture of looting."

The problem, according to Lerner, is that "we've made our own little compromises, hurt or disadvantaged other groups to get ahead, and turned our backs, closed our ears, averted our eyes to the consequences of social selfishness."

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