An Analysis of Latino-Korean Relations in the Workplace: Latino Perspectives in the Aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest

Abstract

Mainstream interpretations of 1992 Los Angeles unrest had little to sat about Mexicans or Central Americans. Instead of, TV commemorators honed in on the black-Korean tensions while neglecting Latino-Korean relations. As Jinah Kim points out, overemphasis on the subjugation of black subjectivity “overshadows other systematic diagnoses of the civil unrest and places the focus on blackness as the object of, and solution to, social discord; African Americans remain America's (race) victims and America's (race) solution. “ Through largely portrayed in the national media as a black uprising were a near majority (approximately 49 percent) in the neighborhoods most affected by the unrest: South Central, Koreatown, and Pico Union. From a total of 5,633 arrests, “51 percent of those arrested were Latino; 30 percent of those who died were Latino”, more than 12 percent of the damaged businesses were Latino owned. A third of the Latinos arrested were turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) an...