Fact-Finding Project Begun : Anti-Asian Bigotry: An ‘Alarming’ Rise as Refugees Pour In

A black-owned newspaper in Los Angeles recently advised its readers that “It’s time for blacks to wake up” and to stop patronizing the increasing number of stores in their neighborhoods owned by Korean immigrants.

“We are asking everyone who reads this paper not to give those Koreans a dime of your money,” said a December editorial in Money Talks News.

In Monterey Park, bumper stickers and signs reading “Will the last American to leave Monterey Park please bring the flag” have been seen at various times over the last few years.

The latest version adds slanted eyes to underscore the San Gabriel Valley city’s increasing population of Asian immigrants, particularly Chinese.

Trend Detected

These incidents are among the most recent of what some local Asian-American and Pacific Islanders call a continuing trend of antagonism, bigotry and even violence toward Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Philippine and Indochinese refugees in Southern California.

“During the last four years, there has been a noticeable rise in these incidents,” said Stewart Kwoh, director of the Asian Pacific Legal Center of Southern California.

In response, a “Racial Violence Monitoring Project” has been established at the center to collect information on anti-Asian or Pacific-American episodes as they occur in Southern California.

“While we see this alarming development of racial antagonisms,” said Kwoh, a 36-year-old Chinese-American attorney, “no one is consistently and thoroughly tracing them.”

The racial tensions have continued long enough that public officials and the larger community need to be made more aware of them, Kwoh added, “and we need to prove our case with statistical breakdowns.”

One official who said he would like to see any such proof is Lt. Glenn Ackerman, head of the Asian Task Force of the Los Angeles Police Department.

“I haven’t had any reports” of anti-Asian problems, he said, adding that he was not sure there were any.

“We stay closely tuned with community leaders from all of the Asian groups. We would be in a position to at least hear about any significant increase. My experience is this is a really harmonious kind of city. But if that occurs we sure would be interested in hearing about it.”

Kwoh and others believe the reasons for anti-Asian problems include cultural differences, the past economic recession and trade imbalances with Japan, along with what some describe as a “pre-existing latent racism.”

Improvements in the economy have not improved the problem, Kwoh said. “There is still a concern over immigration itself, a concern over what immigrants do to American society, especially in your neighborhood.”

Buying Small Businesses

That has been the crux of the problem in South-Central Los Angeles neighborhoods, for example, where Korean immigrants have bought a number of small grocery, liquor or gasoline outlets. Locals found they could not communicate with the newcomers due to the language barrier, and also found, according to B. W. Swain, publisher of Money Talks News, that they seemed reluctant to hire blacks.

After Swain wrote editorials telling blacks not to shop in stores that wouldn’t hire them, he said, “A lot of people said I’m a racist, a bigot. I’m not. I’m interested in accountability. When you make money from a neighborhood, you should try to give something back, help improve the community, not just drive back to Koreatown.”

The black-Korean problem has raised concern in the Korean community, said Tong Soo Chung, president of the Korean-American Coalition, adding that the situation is “a national problem for Koreans” that also is faced by Korean merchants in Chicago and Harlem.

On the other hand, Koreans, Chung said, often feel they are “targets” of crime by blacks in Koreatown.

Documentation Sought

The antagonism between Koreans and blacks is the kind of situation that the legal center’s monitoring project hopes to document, Kwoh said, and then demonstrate to local government and school officials the need for “positive multicultural programs.”

The project will collect material through individual reporting, monitoring of ethnic newspapers and “networking” with community groups, said Mel Ilomin, monitoring project coordinator. So far the legal center has raised $10,000 to support the project, and another $50,000 is being sought through grants.

Concern over anti-Asian bigotry already has led to other actions in Southern California and elsewhere, however.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is conducting a study to determine the extent of the problem, with a report expected next September.

The study is focusing on areas with high Asian immigration, such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia and the gulf area of Texas, as well as Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Sacramento and Central California.

Human Rights Commissions

Over the last 14 months in California, for which the 1980 population census listed 1,312,973 Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, hearings on the issue were conducted by local human rights commissions in Los Angeles, Orange, Sacramento and Santa Clara counties.

A two-year Commission on Racial, Ethnic, Religious and Minority Violence was established by state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp in May, 1984, after he was approached by a group of Asian-American lawyers. It will study whether state laws and policies are adequate to protect minority groups.

A monitoring system to try to collect anti-Asian data statewide was set up in 1983 by the Asian Pacific American Advocates of California, a coalition of more than 600 community organizations around California that addresses issues of concern to Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Alan Seid, a Palo Alto psychiatrist who heads the coalition, said the group’s statistics are being compiled for release in March and are not now available. Generally, however, he feels that incidents are still under-reported, and local offices such as one set up in Los Angeles could bring more reports by individuals than the Sacramento-based coalition receives.

“Proximity is helpful in resource banking,” Seid said, “and I feel it would be good if similar efforts were made in Boston, Chicago, Dallas and New York.”

History of Bigotry

While earlier episodes of anti-Asian bigotry and violence date to the 1800s, the most recent cycle began to get national attention in 1979, when Vietnamese fishing boats were firebombed in Seadrift, Tex., after two refugees were charged in the death of a Caucasian crab fisherman.

The problem was spotlighted again in 1982, when a 27-year-old Chinese-American, Vincent Chin, was beaten to death in Detroit by two Caucasian men who mistook him for Japanese and blamed him for the depressed American auto industry.

A judge sentenced the men to probation and fined them $3,000. After an outcry led by Asian-Americans, the U.S. Justice Department reopened the case. The men were retried last year for violation of Chin’s civil rights; one was acquitted, and one found guilty.

In Davis, Calif., in 1983, Vietnamese refugee high school student Thong Hy Huynh was knifed to death by a Caucasian student after a racially motivated argument.

Memorial Defaced

Last year, a memorial marker in memory of the slain student at Davis High School was defaced with swastikas and the words, “Death to gooks.”

In Los Angeles County last June, a 17-year-old Chinese student in San Marino was beaten by three Caucasian students at Huntington Junior High School in a confrontation that began with the yelling of racist slurs. It was the third race-related school fight between white and Chinese students in San Marino in a year.

On the San Bernardino Freeway near Monterey Park last December, two Philippine women stopped by officers of the California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department for a minor traffic violation ended up with cuts, contusions and, in one of their cases, a concussion.

Their wounds, the women said, were caused by the officers, who countered that the women reacted irrationally to their orders.

The women, who were daughters of Monterey Park City Councilman Monty Manibog, face trial this month on misdemeanor charges of interfering with an officer. Philippine community leaders called the incident racist, claiming the encounter between the women and the officers would not have escalated had the women been Caucasian.