An interesting book on race relations in Los Angeles before and after the Rodney King riots (1992). The authors do not seem to have been in LA during the riots which lessens the impact of their conclusions. This is an academic book but it’s short so it is readable even for non-students. The authors take the interests of Latinos, Koreans, and African Americans into consideration fourteen years ago (c. 1999). Some of their survey data was ten years old at the time Ethnic Peace was published but academic works are usually relying on and incorporating other published work. This work is very concise which is the hallmark of all good research. If someone can be pithy as well, so much the better. No pithiness to be found here, however. This book has many logical and methological flaws but is still important in that it even considers the Korean community in the mix of social, political, and economic relations. The authors mention the shooting of Brenda Hughes which happened in Highland Park but was not covered by the media in the way the Latasha Harlins tragedy was. This book does critique the media’s coverage of race relations that served to inflame the situation when it could have easily been a stabilizing force. The authors endorse alliances to solve their shared problems. Unfortunately, these alliances are part of an ‘immigrant ideology” which is based in a belief in (white) oppression. The solution proposed, for Los Angeles’ Koreatown and South-Central, is to have established communities of dialogue which will help to defuse potential riots before they erupt. They do not advocate that they should be government funded but no indication of how they would exist otherwise is given. Lastly they propose rezoning of property to have less commercial parcels and more of a ‘suburban town model’ which encourages economic investment. The sad reality is that we have just that scenario blossoming in many immigrant communities. It’s now call gentrification and the city political players say it is necessary to spur economic investment. The only drawback is that gets rid of the ethnic communities themselves (for a small political contribution) who desired the change in the first place. Oh, the irony!
Interesting Bibliography.