Race Relations Improve Amid South City Demographic Shifts

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Race Relations Improve Amid South City Demographic Shifts

Mixed Messages 10 Years After The Riots

By CLAUDIA PESCHIUTTA

Staff Reporter





Race relations are getting better in South Los Angeles and the area’s changing demographics may be playing an important role.

Many Korean merchants have left South L.A. since 1992, scared away by the rioters and looters who targeted stores owned by Korean-Americans, who some African-Americans felt were taking advantage of the black community. “Black owned” signs popped up on several storefronts during the uprising to keep angry mobs away.

Today, there are an estimated 300 Korean markets in South L.A., accounting for about 45 percent of the area’s total. That’s down from 1992, when Koreans owned closer to 60 percent of the markets in the area, according to Charles Kim, executive director of the Korean American Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Meanwhile, the Latino population of South Central L.A. (the area identified from Western Avenue on the west to Central Avenue on the east) rose from 44 percent in 1992 to 54 percent in 2000.

“The issue of black-Korean relations is not so intense anymore. It’s a relic of a past era,” said Joel Kotkin, a senior fellow at Pepperdine University, who added that the focus these days has shifted to Latinos.

Once an attractive area for newly arrived Koreans, who found the rents affordable enough to open businesses with little money, South L.A. no longer appeals to newcomers, Kim said. Korean storeowners who stayed in the area saw property values decline after the riots and many second-generation Koreans are reluctant to take over their parents’ businesses, opting to go into more lucrative professions.

For those who have remained in the area, Kim’s group is one of several that have been working over the past decade to improve understanding and cooperation between blacks and Koreans. The Korean American Coalition started the 4-29 Center, which trains and sends out black, Korean and Latino consultants into the community to help local merchants and consumers deal with problems.

(The center’s name indicates the date the L.A. riots started)

A Korean grocers association also has worked to help increase understanding within the community. Some of the tensions come down to simple misconceptions, such as mistaking a Korean storeowners’ silence or avoidance of eye contact for unfriendliness.

Kim insists there is no racial divide between Koreans and blacks, only problems between merchants and consumers caused by simple misunderstandings. For example, some faulted Korean shop owners for not hiring people from the community without realizing that many of these family-run businesses make little money and can’t afford to pay for employees, he said.

“The media tried to promote it as a Korean-black problem,” Kim argued. “Unfortunately, that’s also actually what added fuel to this inflammatory situation between Korean merchants and black consumers.”

Religious organizations, like the First AME Church, stepped up after the riots to improve race relations in the area. There were “pulpit exchanges” between black and Korean congregations and visits to each other’s churches.

Community organizations have put on events and organized cultural exchanges to help promote unity. One example is the World Cultural and Sports Foundation Inc., a local nonprofit that has taken a choir from Crenshaw High School on tour to South Korea and put together visits to L.A. for students and others from South Korea.

The Los Angeles Human Relations Commission also sought to breed calm after the riots, but Joe Hicks, the group’s former executive director, believes the city’s efforts and those from the community itself did little to mend relations between blacks and Koreans. Instead, he attributed the improvement to job growth after the riots and individuals’ own willingness to change.

Hicks said that people are more likely to get along, “if you have a job and you’re earning your own way in the world and you’re not resentful of others in the community.”

Now executive director of the Center For the Study of Popular Culture, a local think tank, Hicks added that his years on the commission made him question how effective government can be in improving race relations and whether it should even get involved in such matters.

“My theory is that people, at a very grassroots level, are wise enough to work it out,” he said.

L.A. City Councilman Nate Holden said he doesn’t see any more tension between blacks and Koreans than there is between, say, blacks and whites or any other group. He also pointed out that many blacks stepped up to protect Korean businesses during the riots.

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