Above is a video featuring Korean business owners that appear exasperated over the riots which resulted in, as the video states, 41 businesses being torched, and dozens being looted. The presumed reason behind this is due to another reason (aside from justice for Rodney King) that the riots occurred - the death of Latasha Harlins. The targeting of Korean-Americans had been due to Harlins's incident, as the 15-year-old had entered a Korean owned store to purchase juice, but instead left with a bullet in the back of her head, the owner that had been tending to the store had believed Harlins was attempting to steal the juice. After the woman, Soon Ja Du, grabbed her backpack which lead to Harlins fighting back, the teenager soon backed off to leave the store, but as she did, Du shot her. Black upset had begun from the unjust manslaughter of the girl, as well as the only mild sentence of the store owner.
Being that these stores had been in predominantly black and latinx communities and yet the Korean-Americans kept to themselves lead to a racial and social divide, causing unrest between the groups. The Latasha Harlins incident simply ignited the carrying out of actual violence towards the businesses. Because of the riots, Korean-American business owners had thus developed a fear and caution for the well being of their stores.
The racial divide is what's upsetting. It's unfortunate that innocent people are targeted and seen as villains because of one corrupt member of their group. While it's understandable why participants of the riots did this, it still isn't a proper way to approach the issue, and certainly this violence wouldn't help in possibly patching up the divide in the future. I know I'm in no place to say what they should've done with their anger, but putting it into destroying people's businesses, sources of income, and essentially livelihoods is not the right way to go about the issues. This type of destruction is so difficult to recover from, and it is not even deserving.
On the other hand, while I'm sure many of these store owners were good people that would not create an incident such as that of Soon Ja Du, hopefully this destruction taught people to be more careful and considerate towards anyone of any background so as to avoid more acts of violence. Furnishing hate from hellish acts don't lead anywhere good. Admittedly though, hoping for peace is wishful thinking, as decades later there is still social unrest. I only hope people would not attack the masses for something a single person or group had done. Generalizations are a part of the problem. Protest the higher authorities instead. Make voices heard in a way that people will listen instead of just fear. Destruction only leads to more destruction.
- Amber Grizzle 😼
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