Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992

Which figure or figures do you most closely identify with, either in terms of background or experience or disposition? Do you imagine yourself reacting as they did? Does anything, in their recounting of events, cause you to reconsider views you might previously have held about justice, racial (dis)harmony, and narratives of progress?

Smith provides each interviewee with a professional or vocational title and also a brief description of appearance and setting. How does this influence your approach to their testimony? Do you find yourself regarding some accounts with more or less authority than others? Are there instances where the account, language, or sentiment surprises you, given the interviewee’s background? (If so, explain why and how this might have been part of Smith’s overall plan.)

Smith titles each interview/chapter with a snippet of dialogue snatched from the transcript. What is she doing with these chapter titles? Does their selectivity amplify or distort the reading?