The Korean American Perspective vs. the African American Perspective
-On March 3, 1991, Rodney King was arrested for reckless driving and was beaten brutally by three police officers as their supervisor watched (Wikipedia Encyclopedia, 2004). Two weeks later, a Korean shop owner, Ms. Du, shot and killed Latasha Harlins for attempting to steal a bottle of orange juice (Wikipedia Encyclopedia, 2004). On April 29, 1992, the four officers involved with the beating of Rodney King were acquitted (Wikipedia Encyclopedia, 2004). These three events affected the Korean Americans and African Americans a great deal. The African Americans caused a riot to vent their anger and frustration on what they felt was injustice towards the acquittal and the small punishment Ms. Du received for shooting Latasha Harlins. The Korean Americans' shops and dreams were destroyed because of the riots.
-Many Korean immigrants came to America because they wanted to give their children a better future and because of the American Dream. They worked hard to achieve that dream; working hard everyday, and saving up every penny (Sa-I-Gu: From Korean Women's Perspectives, 1993). As immigrants, they were only able to get very low paying jobs and made very little. The only property they could afford to buy was in South Central Los Angeles. The property there was cheap because many people/companies didn't want to run a business there because it was in such a bad neighborhood (Sa-I-Gu: From Korean Women's Perspectives, 1993). The Korean immigrants knew how to run a successful business. They worked long and hard hours, and had family members work instead of employing people from the neighborhood. This way, they were able to cut labor costs and were able to survive and...
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...criminated, proving that nothings changed. Thus, making the future very unclear for everyone. Things could stay the same for minorities. Little opportunity and lots of discrimination. Maybe African Americans or other minorities could one day get fed up and cause another riot somewhere other the Los Angeles just to get their voices heard. But then again, that might not happen. More opportunities for minorities could come up and help minorities rise up in the world. Personally, I believe there could be another event such as the Rodney King beating or the Los Angeles Riots. Police brutality still occurs, and there is still so many stereotypes and discrimination. There are so many possibilities, and it's hard to determine what might or might not happen in the next ten years. No one can be certain as to what's going to happen in the next hour, much less he next ten years.
During the years 1992 and 2000, a series of developments and events occurred that changed the way America functions. Of these events, two stuck out in the minds of many people as the national news coverage was hard to ignore. These two events that occurred resulted in many changes, Rodney King and the Los Angeles riots of 1992 and the disputed election of 2000. It proves that one person can be the reason behind an event that will cause local and national governments and officials to stop and think of the consequences, both negative and positive. The Los Angeles riots kicked off on the twenty-ninth day of April 1992 following the acquitting of four officers who had beaten and injured a motorist in the previous year.
Written by Margaret K. Pai, the Dreams of Two Yi-min narrates the story of her Korean American family with the main focus on the life journeys of her father and mother, Do In Kwon and Hee Kyung Lee. Much like the majority of the pre-World War II immigrants, the author’s family is marked and characterized by the common perception of the “typical” Asian immigrant status in the early 20th century: low class, lack of English speaking ability, lack of transferable education and skills, and lack of knowledge on the host society’s mainstream networks and institutions (Zhou and Gatewood 120, Zhou 224). Despite living in a foreign land with countless barriers and lack of capital, Kwon lead his wife and children to assimilate culturally, economically, and structurally through his growing entrepreneurship. Lee, on the other hand, devoted herself not only to her husband’s business but also to the Korean American society. By investing her time in the Korean Methodist Church and the efforts of its associated societies, such as the Methodist Ladies Aid Society and the Youngnam Puin Hoe, Lee made a worthy contribution to the emergence and existence of Hawaii’s Korean American community.
To sum up, I do not believe that past events and attitudes have a very
This incident would have produced nothing more than another report for resisting arrest had a bystander, George Holliday, not videotaped the altercation. Holliday then released the footage to the media. LAPD Officers Lawrence Powell, Stacey Koon, Timothy Wind and Theodore Brisino were indicted and charged with assaulting King. Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg ordered a change of venue to suburban Simi Valley, which is a predominantly white suburb of Los Angeles. All officers were subsequently acquitted by a jury comprised of 10 whites, one Hispanic and one Asian, and the African American community responded in a manner far worse than the Watts Riots of 1965. ?While the King beating was tragic, it was just the trigger that released the rage of a community in economic strife and a police department in serious dec...
A Look Into the Chicago Race Riots The Civil War was fought over the “race problem,” to determine the place of African-Americans in America. The Union won the war and freed the slaves. However, when President Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation, a hopeful promise for freedom from oppression and slavery for African-Americans, he refrained from announcing the decades of hardship that would follow to obtaining the new “freedom”. Over the course of nearly a century, African-Americans would be deprived and face adversity to their rights.
The Chicago riot was the most serious of the multiple that happened during the Progressive Era. The riot started on July 27th after a seventeen year old African American, Eugene Williams, did not know what he was doing and obliviously crossed the boundary of a city beach. Consequently, a white man on the beach began stoning him. Williams, exhausted, could not get himself out of the water and eventually drowned. The police officer at the scene refused to listen to eyewitness accounts and restrained from arresting the white man. With this in mind, African Americans attacked the police officer. As word spread of the violence, and the accounts distorted themselves, almost all areas in the city, black and white neighborhoods, became informed. By Monday morning, everyone went to work and went about their business as usual, but on their way home, African Americans were pulled from trolleys and beaten, stabbed, and shot by white “ruffians”. Whites raided the black neighborhoods and shot people from their cars randomly, as well as threw rocks at their windows. In retaliation, African Americans mounted sniper ambushes and physically fought back. Despite the call to the Illinois militia to help the Chicago police on the fourth day, the rioting did not subside until the sixth day. Even then, thirty eight
“April 26th, 1992, there was a riot on the streets, tell me where were you!? You were sittin' home watchin' your TV, while I was paticipatin' in some anarchy,” these are the lyrics Sublime uses in their song ‘April 26, 1992’ to describe what happened during the Los Angeles Riots of 1992. “First spot we hit it was my liquor store. I finally got all that alcohol I can't afford. With red lights flashin' time to retire, And then we turned that liquor store into a structure fire,” people ,running through the streets, had no pity when demolishing small businesses and taking what ever they may want from them. The streets, neighborhoods, businesses were destroyed by angry protesters. Their reasons were clear, all they wanted was some justice. A video tape of four L.A.P.D police officers brutally beating a male (Rodney King) without any sympathy was made public, which started the bomb track. “Let it burn, wanna let it burn, wanna let it burn, wanna wanna let it burn,” says the song when describing the riots. Throughout these days there was an estimate of more than 50 killed, over 4 thousand injured, and 12,000 people arrested. The damage caused in the city was about one billion dollars, damage that is believed was never fully repaired. The riots and destruction that went on for about a week that showed the people’s rage and that they were not going to tolerate the injustices committed by the authorities.
...s. In both cases people in poverty didn’t have many opportunities coming their way. Although the riots were twenty seven years apart they both shared the same problems. People living in both communities did not have many resources available to them. In those twenty seven years, buildings in those areas were still rundown and many jobs weren’t available. Schools were still not on the same level as those in advantaged areas. What if African Americans were given better jobs and education? If they had received both the riots would not have started. They would have not felt oppressed and let anger just grow inside. Once the resentment started growing, it was only a matter of time before a riot broke out. In both riots you can see how the LAPD’s heavy hand was involved. African Americans were not receiving the same justice as the Caucasian residents of Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles riots were a release of pressure that had build up from the innocent charging of Officer Laurence M. Powell and other Police officers that "Used excessive force" on Rodney King on March 3, 1991, but that was not the only reason.(8) In the words of a singer singing about the riots "They said it was for the black man, they said it was for the Mexican, but not for the white man, but if you look at the streets it wasn't about Rodney King, It's bout this f****d up situation and the f****n' police."(9) Did the riots even have anything to do with King? Was King a minor reason for this to happen, or did King put the level of pressure right over the top? Whatever way you see it, the fact is that on April 29, 1992, anarchy was set free in Los Angeles and before the papers could write about the happenings in this city of angels, the writing on the walls could tell it all.
While the L.A. riots were far larger, and the effects are still being felt, I still feel that the Watts riots had more of an impact. I had known about the riots previously, as I had been interested and looked into it on my own, but I had not looked into the economic at the time. Seeing that there were not any real economic effects from the riot, and in-fact some things may have gotten even worse, changes how I think of riots reported on in the media. Although there has been little in empirical studies done on the impact of the Watts riots, which is odd due to their importance in recent American history, especially now, it is clear that the riots started a trend of misguided racial tension that continues to this day, one that has prolonged the suffering and disenfranchisement of Blacks in the United States. While I do not believe another riot is the answer, researching this riot has shown me that while the riots can be considered important, the reality is that their effects on society are quite minimal, and only the political discussion of the riots is what has lasted to today. The failure of any real reform since then of the treatment of Blacks in general, let alone in the criminal justice world, shows to me a real lack of justice in the United
The United States of America is the place of opportunity and fortune. “Many immigrants hoped to achieve this in the United States and similar to other immigrants many people from the Asian Pacific region hoped to make their fortune. They planned to either return to their homelands or build a home in their new country (Spring, 2013).” For this reason, life became very complicated for these people. They faced many challenges in this new country, such as: classifying them in terms of race and ethnicity, denying them the right to become naturalized citizens, and rejecting them the right of equal educational opportunities within the school systems. “This combination of racism and economic exploitation resulted in the educational policies to deny Asians schooling or provide them with segregated schooling (Spring, 2013).”This was not the country of opportunity and fortune as many believed. It was the country of struggle and hardship. Similarly, like many other immigrants, Asian Americans had the determination to overcome these obstacles that they faced to prove that the United States was indeed their home too.
The Watts Riots was a race riot that took place in Los Angeles in August 11th through the 17th in 1965. The Watts Riot, which screamed and acted violently for six days which ended with about forty million dollars worth of damage, resulting to be the largest and most expensive city-based fighting against authority of the Civil Rights time in history. The riot helped from the event on August 11, 1965 when Marquette Frye, a black traveler, was pulled over and arrested by Lee W. Minikus. Strained forces between police officers and the crowd erupted in a violent exchange. The outbreak of brutal rebellion that followed Frye's arrest immediately touched off a large riot centered in the commercial section of the riot, a deeply extremely poor African American neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles. For many days, rioters burned everything in sight and robbed and damaged department stores, grocery stores, and anything they could damage. Over the course of the six days, over 14,000 California National Guard troops were made ready for action in South Los Angeles and a curfew zone including ...
... to existing problems for many minority groups that eventually changed of over time even if those changes may have took a long time. Many individuals whom have passed on, may have wished that they would have witnessed the day when it really doesn’t matter what your race, color or creed is would have love to be here today. However small amounts of discrimination still exist today race, color, gender , national origin, religion, creed, age, marital status, sexual orientation sad to say, but we are not all the way there as yet, everyone is entitled to equal protection under the law. No one ever believed that we would have ever have a black president (Commander and Chief of the US Military) and we have one now President Barrack Obama, Change is always good when it is for the people in regards to Equal rights and Justice for all.
African Americans had been struggling to obtain equal rights for scores of decades. During the 1960’s, the civil rights movement intensified and the civil rights leaders entreated President Kennedy to intervene. They knew it would take extreme legislature to get results of any merit. Kennedy was afraid to move forward in the civil rights battle, so a young preacher named Martin Luther King began a campaign of nonviolent marches and sit-ins and pray-ins in Birmingham, Alabama to try and force a crisis that the President would have to acknowledge. Eventually things became heated and Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor released his men to attack the protesters, which included many schoolchildren. All of this was captured and televised to the horror of the world. Finally this forced the President into action and he proposed a bill outlawing segregation in public facilities. The bill became bogged down in Congress but civil righ...
In this interview Ben Bagley asks Theresa Han about the difference between Korean and American culture. Theresa is a teenager who recently moved to the United States so she has an excellent perspective for understanding the differences and similarities between these countries.