LA Rising: Korean Relations with Blacks and Latinos after Civil Unrest

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Description

The Los Angeles unrest in 1992 proved devastating for the Korean community and the city. More significantly, the beating of Rodney King and the subsequent acquittal of the officers involved in the incident have become a touchstone for discussing race relations and the criminal justice system in the United States. In LA Rising: Korean Relations with Blacks and Latinos after Civil Unrest, Kyeyoung Park revisits the Los Angeles unrest of 1992 and the interethnic and racial tensions that emerged during the unrest. She examines how structural inequality impacted relations among Koreans, African-Americans, and Latinos. Park explores how race, citizenship, class, and culture were axes of inequality in a multi-tiered racial cartography that affected how Los Angeles residents thought about and interacted with each other and were emphasized in the processes of social inequality and conflict.

Reviews

Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork before and after the Los Angeles unrest in 1992, this study focuses on the relations among African Americans, Latinos, and Koreans in an area that was undergoing rapid demographic and economic changes. Race, class, citizenship, and culture were the axes in a "racial cartography" of structural inequality that impacted the hierarchical power relations and conflicts among the three groups. Illuminating and innovative, the insights here are highly pertinent to those interested in the future of race relations in this country. -- Franklin Ng, California State University, Fresno
Advancing a generative concept of racial cartography, Park deftly illustrates how different axes of inequalityrace, class, culture, and citizenshipprofoundly shape the types and overall tenor of relations between groups of color. Drawing upon ethnographic and interview data, Park highlights not only patterns of resentment and conflict between racialized groups, but moments of understanding and cooperation as well. -- Michael Omi, University of California, Berkeley

Author Bio

Kyeyoung R. Park is associate professor of anthropology and Asian American studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.