LA Rising : Korean Relations with Blacks and Latinos after Civil Unrest

The Los Angeles unrest in 1992 proved devastating for the Korean community and the city.

More significantly, the beating of Rodney King and the subsequent acquittal of the officers involved in the incident have become a touchstone for discussing race relations and the criminal justice system in the United States. In LA Rising: Korean Relations with Blacks and Latinos after Civil Unrest, Kyeyoung Park revisits the Los Angeles unrest of 1992 and the interethnic and racial tensions that emerged during the unrest.

She examines how structural inequality impacted relations among Koreans, African-Americans, and Latinos.

Park explores how race, citizenship, class, and culture were axes of inequality in a multi-tiered “racial cartography” that affected how Los Angeles residents thought about and interacted with each other and were emphasized in the processes of social inequality and conflict.