By To-wen Tseng, Examiner.com
Even as the national debate over race relations continues to simmer in the Trayvon Martin shooting, a recent poll found most Angelenos believe the city is safer and more racially harmonious two decades after the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
The riots began on April 29, 1992 after a jury acquitted four L.A. police officers accused of beating a black motorist pulled over after a pursuit. Over the next three days, parts of the city burned in arson fires as people rioted and businesses were looted. In the violence 53 people died, thousands were injured, and property damage mounted close to $1 billion.
A large amount of the damage was sustained in Koreatown, one of the epicenters of the violence. As businesses went up in smoke, some Korean immigrant shop owners took up firearms. At the end, many of those who were uninsured or underinsured lost their live savings.
Ten years after the riots, in April 2002, Korean American journalist K.W. Lee wrote, “Their ‘seoul’ remains deeply scarred; inside, the weight of pain, impotence and self-loathing is too much for them to bear,” marking L.A. riots one of the most devastating events of the Korean American experience.
Many perspectives haven’t changed since—but some have. A recent survey conducted by the Loyola Marymount University’s Center for the Study of Los Angeles found nearly 70% residents felt racial and ethnic groups are now getting along well in the city. Many residents also say Los Angeles is unlikely to see future uprising like the 1992 riots.
Journalists from the Korean American, African American, and Hispanic American communities will be on the California State University Northridge campus on April 25th to tell the stories that the mainstream media left untold. The event is open to the public. For more information, email Dr. Taehyun Kim at taehuyn.kim@csun.edu.
Even as the national debate over race relations continues to simmer in the Trayvon Martin shooting, a recent poll found most Angelenos believe the city is safer and more racially harmonious two decades after the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
The riots began on April 29, 1992 after a jury acquitted four L.A. police officers accused of beating a black motorist pulled over after a pursuit. Over the next three days, parts of the city burned in arson fires as people rioted and businesses were looted. In the violence 53 people died, thousands were injured, and property damage mounted close to $1 billion.
A large amount of the damage was sustained in Koreatown, one of the epicenters of the violence. As businesses went up in smoke, some Korean immigrant shop owners took up firearms. At the end, many of those who were uninsured or underinsured lost their live savings.
Ten years after the riots, in April 2002, Korean American journalist K.W. Lee wrote, “Their ‘seoul’ remains deeply scarred; inside, the weight of pain, impotence and self-loathing is too much for them to bear,” marking L.A. riots one of the most devastating events of the Korean American experience.
Many perspectives haven’t changed since—but some have. A recent survey conducted by the Loyola Marymount University’s Center for the Study of Los Angeles found nearly 70% residents felt racial and ethnic groups are now getting along well in the city. Many residents also say Los Angeles is unlikely to see future uprising like the 1992 riots.
Journalists from the Korean American, African American, and Hispanic American communities will be on the California State University Northridge campus on April 25th to tell the stories that the mainstream media left untold. The event is open to the public. For more information, email Dr. Taehyun Kim at taehuyn.kim@csun.edu.
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