May 2, 1992: 30,000 Korean Los Angelenos March After the City Burns

On May 2, 1992 about a week after the so-called Los Angeles Riots, 30,000 Koreans marched against police brutality and for a vision of racial equity that included them. The L.A. Riots were the explosion of a series of heinous events, most known the murder of Latasha Harlins by Soon-ja Du and a sentence as light as Vincent Chin’s killers, followed by the police beating of Rodney King. Like other groups racialized as Asian, Korean Americans were a likely and familiar-looking target at a time when White conservatives were inculcating the minds of entire generations with personal responsibility and multicultural rhetoric. Koreans lost half of the $1 billion in assets laid waste by fires and looters while police and military guarded nearby havens of White wealth like Beverly Hills. Less than four decades before, the internment of Japanese Americans (more to come on that later) was accompanied by millions in asset seizures and lost generational wealth in another example of the great timing of the political economy. <a href="https://medium.com/urbanitymag/may-2-1992-30-000-korean-los-angelenos-march-after-the-city-burns-a2886925000d">Visit Now</a>