rnakin sense: koreanvr

E c u
fyou acived in Los Angeles one weel aftcr the riots, the first rhing you would have noticed wasn't the smoke fronr rhe fires, or evcn the tension benveen the rnany races that make up this most polyglo! ofAmerican c;ries.It was the iacarandas, which blossomed iust nvo or three days afrer the looting began. The blillianr, purplhh-blue, waxy, artifi ciallooking flowers bloomed simuluneously all around LA, from the sunshine of up*ale I{esrwood to the blackened walls of crenshaw Boulevard. By Morhert Day, the jacarandas had competition from dozens of sidewalk flowcr vendors in the Latino ncighborhoods. on bulnt-our inreFections, surrounded by the debris of sutled stores,
they pushed dyed carnations for $5 a just about the only economic bunch aciviry in the area undisturbed by the riots. If what happened here rvo wceks ago was a race riot of blacks against whires, it wa, an odd one lbar left many nore blacks and Chicanos dad and iniured rhan whires. "I wish this riotwas only a black and white problenl Itwould be much easier to resolve," lamented Vibiana Andrade, regioml counsel ofthe Mexican American Legal Delense and Educational Fund. At an angry neighborhood rneting called to discus! limiring the mrmber of liquor srorcs thatcould be reopened in South Central, Alfrcd Livingston, a 34-year residcnr, said, "\fe jusrcan't tak it no more. Like wounded animals, we struck our...but we rveren't aiming particul.rly at nobody. It iust happened to be Koreans." ln fact, the riorers wcre aiming at business establishnents. At the end of the tury, 1.857 Korean businesses were looted or buned. Korean businesses alone suffered an estinated $347 million in plopeny damase- about one'halfofthe rotal loss from the r;ots. The worst damage to Korean

? q

p\\rs

J[[ rri

Ihe lirst ]rlultirultrral Riol$

by Peter Ku.,ong
property, however, did nor occur in the Arrican-American ne'chborhood of South Cenral I-A - only 9 per cent of all Korean businesses in LA are locared rhere. The heaviest loss occuted nonh ofSouth Cenrral, in Korcatown, which is inhabited mostly by poor Larino imnigrants. The Los Angeles riots wcre lueled by a reality nuch more conptex than that presented by the narional media - though you wouldn't know ir from lookingat Ne'rsreet's cover, "Beyond Black &

lnvolces
Thursday afternoon, April30, a few hours after reports of rhe riors in South Certral went on TV, his swap meec was surrounded by l-atinos, mosdy recent Central Ameri@n immigrants who live in rhe rundown tenements nearby. Someone called th police for help. Th LAPD came, but soon wirhdrew. The merchanr! blocked the entrance for a rime, but when a buming bofiie of gasoline was thrown through
a window, the rnob rushed past the shop owners and looted all rhe stalls. As rhe fire spread, eventually enguifing the five-story building,Ile and the other merchants watched rheir livelihoods go up in srnoke. l-ee lost $70,000, of which he stillowes $20,000 to hh wholesale supplier. To nake maaes worse, in anticipation of increasd sales over Morhcrt Day weekend, t ee had invcsted mosr of his liquid capital in new merchandise iust before the riot After paying the mortgag on his house, he has only $50 lft. Lee, who seFed in the U.S. tuny for 10 ya$ before stafting his business, keeps askine, "vhy ne? They w6re my cusromers.I was nice to them.I know rnany are poor and they don'r have legal sratus. Ighen one of rhem had a dearh in rhe fam-

becaus thir locarion was considered high dsk even bfor the riot. Only 500 of rhe 1,857 Korean businc$es dcsuoyed by rhe riots had any covc.age at all. The remaining uninsured ow'ners of sone 1,400 shops were left to contend with home-moltgage, credit-card, tax and car paymentsj not to mention things like school tuirion and daily expenses. In two shon days, these mrchanB were reducd to financial ruin evn though many of them drove back in Cerman,built cars ftom the rubble of their shops in South LA to nice Glendalc or San Gabdel homes. But that tells only a pan of rhe story. Ifhalfthe businesseswiped out in the riots

were owned by Koreans, blreen 30 and 40 percent were owned by larinos, mostly Mxican-Americans and Crbarcs, Morc rhan a third of those killed ;n rhe riots were Latino, and roushly a third of rhe 13,000 affested durins the week of violcnce were Hispanic (rhough most of those arests were nor for looting but for violar-

ilh I donaled $200 for

rhe funeral. Now

really hate thcm," he adds bi$erly. don't even want ro go back ro srarr the business at thc same place again, burl'tl
have to.

'l

I'll

as soon as

ser our ofthis lneirhborhoodl I'vc paid back my debrs."

White," or U.S. Neps asd Woid Report's

"Black vs.Iqhi.e." Thc fixarion on black
versus whitc is outdated and misleadirg. In

fact, the Rodrey King verdicr was merely rhe match thar lit rhe fuse of the first multi.acial class dor in Amer;can history.

I ilrh Inis ilsilllorltod

Jay Lee, who operared a hone,applance stall in a Los Anseles 'swap meeC' (a large, open floor space with individual counters used by various discount merchanrs), is quite clar abourwhar happened to hin during the riors. Ar 4:30

Lee's experience is nor unique. Hundreds of Korean mrchanK, some wirh even more dagic stories, floodd into rhe three relief cenrers set up in Korearown lonc combined fedehl, srale and city ccnter, and rwo set up by Radio Korea and the Oriental Mission Church). They wanred ro find out whether thcy were eligible for di+ aster-assisrance granrs from rhe government's Federal Emergency M.nagement AdministEiion, bu h.y were panicula.ly interested in the disasrer loans lrom the Small Business Adminisrrarion (SBA). To naintian an income, rhey had no opdon but to go back. Most, like Lee, were nor insured,

ins thecurfew). Ther is lirde hard evidence ro suppon popular claims rhat undocumentcd Iatinos are respo.sible for muh of the looting, bur ar least 1,500 of those affested were undocunenred imrnigrants who were lurned over to the Imnisration and Naruralizarion Service for immediare deporlation. The only obvious fact is thar businesses in KoreatoM lcat d near poor inmisant Latino housing were devasrared. Thc Larino population in Sourhem Califomia has swelled in recenr years unril it now constitutes about half of South LA rhough there are no Hispanic elected officials from the riot-torn arcas. And there are sharp class disrindions among Hispanics that creare a culrural gulf nearly as wide as that between whites and Koreans. The brinos who live around Koreatown are mosrly poor, non-Englishspaking new imnigranrs. Many who came lron Mxico are undocumented, while those from the war-rorn areas of El Salvador and Nicarasua live here lesally but with only temporary sratus. Caughr up in rhe mel6e two weeks ago, some war

refugees were rhreained by rhe INS with lons jail terms ifthey rctused to sign vol-

Korean immigrants to Los Angeles in th

and have a highr rate of mployment and

uniary deportation orders.

first place. After the 1955 Vatts riot, politicians

mad pious promises to inProve condirions in rhe inner citics, yet few of the recommendations of the subsequent Mccone Cornmission reporr were implemented. Instead, whites moved wholesale

family unity.

Men they can, the men get jobs by wairing on street corners each mo$ing to be pickd up as day laborers in construc' tio' or lestaurant kirchens and for warehouses or for yard chores. If they do ger picked up, which is notalways the casc) rhey nake brween $20 and $40 a day. Vomen work ;n child are or as rnaids. Some Latino men work as helP in Korean businesses, and women also work as s.amstrelses in garmer! factories i downtown l-A, where more than halfo{ such factoris are Korean-owned. The role of the undocumetrted ktino community is the least unde$tood of all the groups swept up in this riot. They are dhenfranchised, at the bottom ofthe social
orderj their marginal starus is in direct contrast to rhat ofthe upwardly mobile Korean immigrants (however rlative rhat Korear posirion may be). Unlike black workers, they do not aggressively militate for hisher wages, and they have no organi' zarions to representtheir interests- the established Latino groups in Easr LA do not work wirh undocumentd irnnigrants. Urtil the riots, the tensions benveen the

to the westem part of city or plowed over desrt land in all directions to build new'
homogeneous (readr lily-white) suburban communities. The new suburbs are sell ;ncorporated and hrve rules to keeP in. That left 'undesirables" from 'noving the ciry ro the terribly poor and thc terribly

lvith no public investment in their education system thanks to ProP. 13' inner-city youth are no longer wanted bv the econony. They are rhe "throwaway" generation, born into the underclass. And thc systematic oppression dos trot stop ther. V/illiam Julius wilson' the

I
:

rich, the latter ofwhom builtup walls, set

up sophisticated elecFonic surveillance sys' rems and hird privat police rc protect then. Ins Angeles reenrged a scant 10 years later as an even more segregated city of isolated communities Then, in 1976,the whi.e rniddle class launched a successtul tax revolt to lighten its burden for Proposition 13 support of the urban poor in the neigh' the borhoods they had left behind. The result was not just a divorc between whites and rhe ghetro population, but a subsequent retusal ro pay alimony. "Ife are all quite isolared in our own communities," a residcnt of li/esrwood, a mostly white middle-class neighborhood' explained "ve don't know and donl care about the problems in the inner-cities. Driving to work everT day, nost of us don't even except know where Sourh C.nrral is ihat direcmany of us saw the fires from tion when we were stuck in traffic on Thursday afternoon, after most offices let

profcssor of sociology at the Universitv of chicago who popularized the terrn "underclass," gave a lecrure to UCLA sru_ dents the wekend after the riots. He told them Chicaso employers would hire Mexicans, Hispanics or any Asian tarhet than African-Americans becausc of the latter's image as unreliable workrs. The ernptoyers would say: "I cart afford to

! j

"Ko..ans were lured by devlopes to senle and do business in the inner-city" of Los Angeles, contends Royal Hong' executive director of Korean lmrniSrad lvorkers Advocates of Southern Californa Auious to es.ape fron political instability and the high rarc of unemployment at home, Korean professionals ame in droves in drc 1970s. They arriv.d wnh educarion, pcrsonal salings, military training (no one is alowed to migrate from South Korsa without fust serving two years in the armed willineness to work hard. These self-selected capitalists s3w South LA as their stepping stone to the Americatr Dream. They believed they would {ollow in rh. sreps of thos who staned carlier, have already "made ir" and now park their

Bt

gr

latinos and rhe Korean-Americans went umrliculated, smotherd at least in part by

rhe struggle both immigrant groups wre

forced and

p p

rnounring to survive and prosper. Latinos were in no porition ro express racial ani-

nositr

because

oftheir legal andecononic

status, and the Koreans needed rhe Latinos, their mosr imporrant clienrele and a cheap source of labor to run their businesss. They would never have iririated the rioting, but, once k began, !h Latinos did finally find a voie. Howver the major media try to define the violnce as black on white or, to a lessr extent, as black on Korean, the real message for Asians in LA was sent by the undocumented immigrants

Mrcedes beside homes built near affluent

out their staffs early."

Vhite Los

Angetes as a whole has

nade dramaric econonic progress, the inner-ciry has been left behind. In fact, the
gap berween whites and blacks has widened in the 27 yearc since the vans riots. The poverty rate in the South Los Angeles area stands at 30.3 percent, three times the national average; dropouts from the labor force make up 41.8 percent of the adulr populationi some 24.9 pe'cenr are on welfare; and households headed by single women account for 15.8 perent. The statistics would be worse had $is area notexperienced a large influx ofLatinos, who tend to be less dcpendent on wclfare

white neighborhoods. After a tine, they would build up enough noney to nove their businesses out of th ghettos into more profitable white areas. Korean businesses in South LA mainly groceries, liquor stores and swap

were perfectly suited for the meet srands needs of the systcm. The ghetto rnay bc

living all alound Koreatown.

I lirurcr tlitlr llo llimonl

Pundits are quiie right to point to the abandonnent of rhe inner cities by the Americatr political elite as one ofth chief causes of the riors. But what they don't say is that it's this very treglct that lured

poor, butthat doesn't mean there isn't nony to be made ther: These new entrepreneurs provided valuablc retail access to the ghetto for coryorations like Brown Forman distilleries, RJ. Reynolds, General Foods and Coca-Cola. They also provided the major economic activity in impovrished neighborhoods and supplied essential rnerchandise to areas lone abandoned by

?
I

Radio Korea becamc a unifving force for the enrire community, covring rhe riors and their aftermath in gory dctail. Hodified, Korean-Arnricans quickly put away their differences and rallied ro assisr their counbynen. In less thcn a wcek, $2 million in emergency tunds was raiscd and the Koreatown relief centers wr ser up to Fovide free srocedes, rice, cookins oil, milk and fresh eggs to cash-shon vidims. I?ithin 10 days after the riots, dozns of merchants gathered at the Orintal Missior Church relief center. They we.c absolutely panic-sricken as thy tried to complete the complex govemment applica-

Los Anseles: Johi

Gobeaux

earlier, often Jewish-owned, businesss. Bcst ofall, they did rhis withour pufting whites ar risk. During the l6ng American recession, as th maior corporarions laid off employecs, small businesss havc bcome th chief source of new iobs, and nany have ben staned by Asian ;mmigrants. Some 38 pscnt ofthe retail ourlets in LA Corinty are Korean-owncd, and Korean-American businesses in LA proper actually Srew by 27 prcenr in rhc pasftwo years. Thc cohesiveness of the comrnunity gives rhem a sliSht advanrage in acquiring sccd money but not because, as sone people in rhe neighborhood beliey, rhey have been favored by whire banks. Most Korean-Americans

protect thcm. "Koreans escaped from political persecutions at home, andcame here expeciing to enjoy this courtry's respect {or the riShts of individuak," complains Edward Chans, professor of Ethnic and V/omen's Studies at Califomia Polytechnic Posona. "But our constiturional right of equal protdion has ben

rion forms for SBA disaster loans, but communiry translators and some 200 volunreei Korean CPAS pitched in imm.diatcly to spccd the proccss. On May 2, whh less than 24-hours' notice,30,000 Koreatr Ahcricars and their supportcrs held a march at Ardmor Park in Koreatown to show their solidadty. There, the Koran leadcrs broke with their long-held and conservative anitudes toward the local black and Latino commu-

lnrn

Gtrntuitl llolilins

The uniquely homognous nature ofthe Korean-American commuairy is a direct consequence of the Korean lqar. When fighting disruptcd the countryside in the

attain thir capital in one of two waysi Enher they laborat more than one iob for up to 15 hou.s a day, as Jay l,ee did for two years, or they participat in a community savings club known as a A1. In a kye, perhaps a few dozen familieship in belween $500 and $1000 annually; each year, one fanily {decided by lot) gers rhar year's receiprs to stafta business. By American rules, the Koreans have done nothing wrong. They are no differcnt fron thc Jewish, Italian or any other kind ofnerchants who have made their living from the ghettos. That's why thcy woe so sbocked when theywere anacked, and incensed when rh police did nothins ro

early 1950s, millions ofretugees flooded the cities of South Korea and quickly became urbanized. The children of rhese displaced peasants worked to obtah professional deerees but found their imma.ure, export-orierled.conomy offered them few opportunities. So vher U.S. immisration law was liberalizld for professionak in 1 955, they decahpd ir
large numbers -and became one ofthe few immigrant goups in Arneican hisrory ihat was ovenrhelmingly urban, educated and unisenerational. They were also largely Christian. More than the language barrier, this unusuai demographic similadn7 explains why thc Koreans responded so quickly ro their crisis. OverDight, AM
91

nities, attitudes that by and larg have been shaped by Republican values about propen|. Notably, they blamed the police and not the looters for failing to protect Korean businesss in th crucial carly hours of the riot. Even more significantly, they called for justice for Rodney King, thus relinquishing their confrontational stance against blacks. Most Korcans did not speak out about the case of Soon Ja Du, the grcer who was given a light probationary sentetre for the vidcotaped killins of lJ-yeaFold bla& teenager

ktasha Harlins just rwo

days after King's

beatins (Soon had suspcred Harlins of stealine a boftle of oranse juicc). As pan of this sudden change, the Korean cornmuniry placed $e blame for urban violencc on fcderal and state policies. In turn, they also came to see themselves for th first time as vic-

tim! of white racism. "This is clearly

rac;st," says Mna Bonacich, professor of sociology at Uc-Riverside. "If thc dots had spread inro the northem i'rhite neighborhoods, the U.S. Army would have
Th nedia's repeared iuxraposirion of the Soon Ja Du shooring of btasha

But the scarcity o{loans is not as oroblematic as lingering racial tnsions' There is no gefting around the clas isues' Koreans donr liv. in the areas whcre rhev do busines$ Asians constitute onlv 1 9 pciceni of population in South t-4.. The AJrian-Americtn communiF/ can'r help but see then as outsidea sucking pro6t

thi!

out of the comrnunirY. There are other stikv issues on whicl

the two sides nay neve. reach conpro' mise. The p.oblem ofKorean liquor srots in the sheno is a key one. Accordin8 to lhc Korean Grocers Association, there are 184 Korean liouor stores in South Cenffal LA oracticatlv rwo sto.es per block. During rh. n.rs- loc,l residenrs ..Doned rhat all of

ll
Ch

:n1l

wi1

then
Aigeler Ted Solui

wm burned down. h the da' followin8 the riots,

conrnu-

Los

niw and church organizations lobbicd the cirv! Plannine Commission to pass legjsl'rion limitins dte nunber of rcbuild;ns Permirs for
ri.

fol

H.rlins with the police beating of Rodney

King made Korean-Americans feel intendonally malked for violence, and the ftequently broadcast scenes of sun-wieldin8 Korcan visilantes defending their blsinesss only reinforced their fears. \qhen Bush came to LA to insPect the riot danag, 24 Korean leaders net wirh
Some wre pleased when the president extended the neeiing from the oriSinallv planned halt-bour to 50 minutes. But Bush

jobs Koreans leltthir colleses or suburban protect their Parand came back home to
enrs' shops, 5imuhaneou slv ex Periencing

overt racialrhrears for the frrst time in their

reacted with expressions of gradrude f;r all rhit parents had done for them. In lhar sense, the riots had an even lives.

M.nv

foul. efter all, liquor sales are bv far the most lucErive legjrimare ghero business On the dav of rhe public bearine; hundreds of leaden from borh sides addresed theirconcems

"".

itoe.

The Korean communirv cried

rh

h'n.

more profound effecr on Korean-Americans than on blacls- it bridged srowingcultural gaps within families.

front of the coffnissionrs. OnL Korean leader justified the high

nurnber ofliquor stores as a service to older people who often do not have cars ro tnvel ro wealthier neighbothoods ro sbop'

'n

P,

offered more sympathy than subsrance. He politely reiected the leaderi demand for reparations for all business losses sutteted durins rhe riots and offered no new iders

t{o firo

illlr4ltd

A fernale liquor store owner broke down and cried during her testinonv, begSing
the commissionrs not to repeal her liquor

sl

Despne rhe devasurion and,rc;m. manvof rhe me(hanl, willrerum ro South tA. "Thev

for rhe problems of South central LA. The .rgument for reParations came on
rhe srounds rhar "this riot :l disa,rer-'as Edwa td Chans, onc ofthe rehresenratrves who met wirh Bush, Purs it 't'r is a man-made one. lrcould have been

don'r have the epital to compete with larger stores in other areas," Professor Chang explains, "so they'll have to go back Thev don'r have any choice." Going back, however, is not going ro
be easy. Chang Park, ofKorean

Imnigrant

avoided had law enforcernent moved in earlier. The root cause, however, is the wrongheaded government social policv toward the urban poor in rh first place " These mole realisric a$irudes refle$the influence ofthe second and "1.5" (KoreanAmericans not born in U S, but who came hcre as children) senerarions. The crisis so

Igorkers Advocates of Sourhern California, suspects rhat many of the merchants will not be abLe to get government loans. Swap-meet oPerators, who after the grocery markets suffered the secondJargesr
losr {a iolal o( S54,941.100). are parrrcularly vulnerable because oftheir Poor record-keeping and high rurnover rates. Most ofthem will not have adequate docunntation ro qualib/ lor assistance ln facr, Chang Park accuses the Korean leadels who are nor ghefto businessmen for "instilling false hope in the victims."
92

permit: "l have been her for 10 vears workine everv dav from seven in the morning rc r0 at n;gh!. I do not ask for welfare' and I am Drovidins seRices tor the commr:niry. \;rhy does anyone wrnt to drstroy nv livelihood?" But a black south Certral resident, Arlene Palona, countered: "Alcohol is the blight of the cotnnuniry. You crv for vout lost business, burl cry 6Yery lime I se metr laying wasted and dying slowlt fron the Doiron, and I cry every rime I see our voune mcn hooked on the bonle that saps all their yourh. Morover, you worked 10 years ro build your businss, but we waited 300 yats ro be f!e. V/e in the conmunity do not believe that businss interests
should cone tusr'" Operatirg liquor stores in the black ghftos n a serious noral issue. But, as ChangPark asserts, the Prob-

f,

ovephelmed the imnigrant

business peopte

tharthey had !o reLy on thir children many of whon arenorin the ethnic busi

ro help interpreuealitv and to speak out for them. Many of the vounger
nesses

lem lies nor so much wirh rhe urge to profir as it does wirh the structural poverty and racism hemming in the neighborhood. -It would be unfan rc expect ofKoreans to carry the burden ofall rhar;s wrong wirh

making sense: korean voices

Ilrcy $lill [on'l Ell

lnofiintr lor
mong th horrifying images caughr on national relevision flom South Central Los Aageles during the riots were the scenes of armd

lhIe

by Katharine Fong

The American esrablishmenr is srill tryins b fird afl easy villain ro blane. Even beforc the fires had b.cn put our, poiice

4
rg

Chief Daryl Gates accused undocumenred immigrants of being major parricipants in the doring. The I-APD, in collaborarion with rhe INS, has engaged in "sweep-up" operarions to deporffhe .illegals," parricularly those in Cennal Anerican and Mxican neiSbborhoods ofren wirhour followins proper legal procedures. Thsc indiscrininare, racially tinred "irrestt' seriously undermine rhe civil rights ofall people living in rhe lrtino ommunities, be rhey legal or undocunentcd. Since rhe riors, "white flight,, from the city has intcnsi6ed. Real,esrate agencies in Ventura County norrh of LA (a solidly white middle-lass suburb wher Simi Valley is located) have repofted a 75 prcent increase in inquiries for housing fron peopl presenrty living in rhe city. Others arc purchasing guns for prorection. LA gun shops reporred the highesr-recorded eightday sales period ever immediarety afrer the uprising. Many purchasers are acually moving up ro more powertul weaponry. Middle-class night and heightened fears of racial violence are celrainty nor prescriptions for tumre comuniry acord.

untouched and Koreans and other Asians were reponedly harasscd and shot ar. Reiariods betwcen the two groups have been tense for some rime, and not y in LA burrhe ugly footage played ovr and over on TV

-who businesses owned

Koran-American merchaDts firing on predominantly AfricanAmcrican rioters and looters who threatened then shops. Indeed, scores of Korean busincsses were vandalized o. desffoyed by the raging protesrers in manycases left nearby black-

screens was a

grin reminder rhai "rhe

race

problem" exists not only between whites

and blacks.

accepted the stereoryps of each orher per, petuated through mainstream ndia and parenral anirudes. We establish a dialogue wher Koreans, who might think blacks are all sans nembers or substance abusers. can talk to black attomeys, minjsters and vic. versa.It tums the stereotypes on thcir heads." Kim hopes the Alliance will bccome a pilot program for othcr cities. He.iso sees joinr conomic development as another solurion, where state and Idral goYemments insriturc proSrams ro rnatch funds when parmers from rwo or more ninoriry groups go inro businds tqgerhr. But it's of prinary imponance, according to Kim and other KoranAmericahs rhroughour rhe country, rhat rheir connuniiies be organized and vocal, and thar other Asian-Americans nor presume to speak for thcm.

Profssor Villiam Julius Mtson predicts

that Califo.nians are nor only wairine for

the nxr b;g earrhquakci they are also, he believs, wa'rins for anorher, possibty larger quake along the "social fault line.', rn Los Angeles, Chang Park of the Korean Inmisrant Workers Advocares only hopes that, next time, the black cornmunity will be bener organized and have a higher

Friction between Asian-Amcricans atrd African-Americans has been on rhe incrcase in rcent years. Across the country, comnuniry leaders from both minoriry groups are painfully aware of the need to bridge divisive.acial gaps, particularly in the wake of last week's violence. "It's difficult to talk about hope right now," says Bong Hwan Kin, execurive director of the Korean Youth Cenrer in L{, "lt's amazingly tragic for rhe Korean commurity ro be in South Cenral arthis rime in history.
IKoreans and African-Anedcansl are two disenfranchised groups competing for the remaining crumbs alier the sratus quo has finished and lefr rhe table." Bur Kim has becn rryins ro foser comnunication bctween Korcans and African-Americans. He is co{hair ofthe Black-Korean Alliance, a community-based organization thar focuses on substantive

In Sar Francisco, communiry leade$ have been working ro detus. Ecial rensions in such hor spors as Washingron and Lincoln High Schools, where some students carry weaponsj iust days ago, a bhck sfirdeDt shor a Vietnamese srudnt. Noring Rodney KinB\ plea to work our our problerns, since 'we're stuck rogether for

awhil," Rev. Aftos Brown of the Third Baptisr Church says, 'Ve've got ro talk ro
each other. Vhat happened in Simi Valley is that those people never talked !o black

people. We'vc got to acknowledge rhar we

each have

mudal

needs, tharwe've each

got something to offer one another." Bro\rn wants more racial inreracdon
amotrs parents ard business and professional leaders in schools and churches, suggesting that churches and other organi-

political consciousnss - one tharwill finally targe he right enmy. r

Peter kuong

.ontibttes to theVitl^ge

solutions.'WeLe a da /rrro speake.s

Voice, wheft a uelsion of this stoty first

bureau going inro schools and rhe commu-

niry," says Kim. "Kids especially have

91

zations "adopt a s.hool." Such formal and informal prograrns may not be enough to counrr virulenr and pervasive racism in tunerica, madc so appar.nr by rhe Rodney Kins verdic.and