Written by Grace Moon of NYU Asian Pacific American Coalition
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the 1992 L.A riots.
On March 3, 1991, America watched as Los Angeles Police Department officers viciously beat Rodney King with their batons. People watched all 56 baton strikes fall onto King. Two weeks later, Soon Ja Du, a Korean American liquor store owner, shot and killed 15-year-old African American Latasha Harlins over a suspected orange juice theft. Soon Ja Du received a light sentence of 5 years probation and 400 hours of community service. Finally, on April 29, 1992, the four officers who assaulted King were acquitted despite the outstanding evidence of excessive force.
The 1992 Los Angeles riots are considered the worst of its kind in U.S. history, leaving over 50 dead, over 12,000 arrested, over $1 billion in property damage. Korean-owned property suffered between 35 to 40 percent of that destruction. While race relations have arguably improved since then, many of the issues that fueled the L.A. riots, such as racial tension, inequality, poverty, and police brutality persist to this day.
We sat down and talked with Sungkwan Jang, the program coordinator of Korean American Civic Empowerment (KACE) to reflect on and remember the LA Riots, and its significance today.
HC NYU: Tell us a little about yourself.
SJ: My name is Sungkwan, and I’m a program coordinator at KACE, or Korean American Civic Empowerment. KACE is a non-profit organization dedicated to voting rights advocacy. Since 1996 we’ve been assisting Korean American voters to register to vote to stay informed for elections and other public affairs in general. The goal of the organization is to really empower the Korean American community in New York City and beyond through active civic engagement elections or otherwise.
HC NYU: When and how did you start becoming interested in the LA Riots?
SJ: I started getting interested in the LA Riots during high school. I grew up in a small town in New Jersey with about fifty percent of the population being Korean immigrants– the rest being Greek, Italian, or third and fourth generation immigrant families. But what really surprised me was that despite the so-called numerical advantage or majority, Korean American visibility was lacking to say the least, and it was pretty clear both explicitly and implicitly that the town and outside of it looked down upon Asian Americans and Asians.
That didn’t make sense to me because: 1) A lot of these European immigrant families don’t speak English, but rather, another language at home just like us. 2) Really the only difference that I perceived was that they were white and their families got here just a couple of decades earlier. That got me wondering and my identity crisis started then. I started digging into the 60’s civil rights movement, African American civil rights leaders’ work, and Asian American history by myself, primarily through Wikipedia. One of the first things I stumbled upon was the LA Riots. Because my parents got here after the LA Riots happened, they didn’t know anything about it; I didn’t have an aunt or uncle who had experienced it either. I didn’t really have anyone to ask, only the Internet and my own curiosity.
HC NYU: After the LA Riots, many Korean immigrants were pushed to reexamine, “what it meant to be Korean American in relation to multicultural politics and race, economics, and ideology”. What does being Korean American mean to you?
SJ: The term or idea of Korean-American did not exist pre LA Riots. Before, it was just “Koreans” or “Korean immigrants”. These Koreans were kind of visiting or staying in the US to either make money or open stores, eventually planning to leave sometime later. Even though some of them were 1.5 gen, or had resided in the States for twenty or thirty years, they never thought of themselves as Americans of Korean descent even if some of them had citizenship.
To me personally, a lot of times people think you have to be Korean or American, and I completely disagree with that. I don’t think it is mutually exclusive and being who I am and who we are, it’s just impossible to be one or the other. Because we are American citizens, as long as we are here, and we are of Korean heritage and culture, it is undeniable and I really think it’s overdue that we should do away with that false dichotomy. For me, being Korean-American means to be an American citizen with keen awareness and acceptance of my cultural background.
HC NYU: What do you think that Korean communities were thinking as the riots were going on?
SJ: After the LA Riots, there was a shock wave in the country– not just in South Central LA. A lot of these Koreans had made a lot of money and built a comfortable life. For many of them, everything they had disappeared overnight. I think that the awakening they had was that money is important but it is not everything. I think that the key reason that the Koreans suffered the greatest damage was that they insulated themselves from the community they were in, which is still common today. They never saw themselves as part of the community. Many of them thought, “I do enough. I go to church everyday. I hold X title at my company, and that’s more than enough.” But that’s not the deal.
However, this lack of civic engagement, or sense of ownership in their community, birthed the term “Korean-American”. People began to realize that they were no longer just Korean immigrants. They began to apply for citizenship and exercise their rights in order to make their voices heard.
HC NYU: The shooting of 15 year old Latasha Harlins (1991) by Korean store owner Soon Ja-Du intensely pre-fueled the narrative of Anti-Blackness in Korean communities in LA. Where do you think that these sentiments are rooted from?
SJ: We are so insulated. We have to remember that a lot of the store owners back then, and still today–they literally built their businesses from scratch. From nothing, they created the life they have right now. You are bound to get a little paranoid, a little desperate, right? To add, the lack of interaction with African American communities, and really, with other non-Korean communities, added to these sentiments. I’m sure there are a couple of other factors mixed in there, but as far as where it is rooted, I’d say that those two are the biggest factors.
HC NYU: After 1992, there was a strong political reorientation among Korean communities, “paving the way for the ascent of new leaders who could work with government agencies, speak to the media, and become deeply engaged with U.S race relations.” How should Korean immigrants balance homeland politics with US politics?
SJ: Well, for me this is my homeland, and Korea is my motherland–even if I was born and raised there for most of my childhood. I am here and my family, friends, and life is here. This is my home now. A lot of immigrants are here to stay, and as long as you are here to stay, I think that politics here come before Korean politics. These issues affect you directly, here and now. But the truth is that it’s not the case for a lot of people, which saddens me.
When the LA riots broke out, other Asian communities turned their backs on the Korean communities at the time. They cite that the biggest reason that they did so was that Koreans were so exclusive. I think that this still rings true today– Allyship is important, but it’s also difficult. Not so much in fostering allyship, but rather distinguishing the times where you need to stand with the Pan-Asian American community versus when you need to stand as the Korean American community. For example, the former would refer to racially biased violence such as the death of Vincent Chin, but the latter would refer to the rising tensions in the Korean peninsula right now. There’s a lot of talk about rapid escalation, but where is the Korean American voice? We’re the only people in America who can talk about this because we are personally and very deeply affected by it. And yet, I don’t see a Korean American voice in this discussion.
HC NYU: Despite it being 25 years since the LA Riots, many Koreans still greatly lack empathy to relate to the struggles of our Black brothers and sisters. What can we do to help those in our community realize that our pain and liberations are bound to each other?
SJ: It’s true that Asian Americans especially Korean Americans feel as if we are separate from this racial dialogue, and often times even immune to racial discrimination or racially biased attacks- physical or otherwise. That’s because we are the middlemen minority, the “in-betweeners”, or the “honorary whites.” But, I think that a lot of people realize that no matter how much money they make, or how much of a social stature they build, they can never be white.
Unfortunately in a lot cases, that means that they will never be accepted as Americans. And unfortunately again, a lot people equate being American to being white. But, if we turn back to history and even recent events and examine them just a little bit, throughout history, Asian American have been subject to the same discrimination that affect other people of color. Perhaps not as much in magnitude, but surely if we were to divide those affecting and the affected, we belong to the latter category. I think that a lot of people lack the knowledge of history or awareness of these incidents, so I would say that that would be the starting point: to learn our histories and talk about it.
Korean American Civic Empowerment (KACE) is a non-profit organization, dedicated to empower the Korean American community through active civic engagement. To that end, since 1996 KACE has assisted with voter registration, civic education, voter organization, and delivering the voice of the community to policymakers.
Its national programs include KAGC U which empowers college students as civic leaders for a positive change on and off the campus. The 2017 KAGC U National Conference will take place in Washington, D.C. on July 24th through 26th. The largest conference of Korean American students with over 200 attendees from 62 universities, the national conference features Asian American role models as speakers, a discussion to explore the Korean American identity, seminar on the Asian American history, and an opportunity to take direct action on Capitol Hill.
Apply at https://KAGC.us/u/. Accepted students can attend with complimentary lodging and transportation.