PERSPECTIVE ON RACE RELATIONS : Look for Remedies, Not Scapegoats

Two blocks from my home in the West Adams District of Los Angeles is a small neighborhood market. It is owned by a family of Korean immigrants.

On a recent trip to the store, I noticed that the proprietors had installed a bullet-proof plastic barrier that shielded them from their clientele. I asked whether or not they had been robbed, and they responded negatively, saying that the protective cage was a preventive measure.

I also witnessed the displeasure of some of the predominantly African-American clientele to the merchants’ decision. Several reacted with impatience and verbal hostility when the merchants took longer than usual to bag their purchases.

Meanwhile, in the Flatbush section of New York, a simmering feud continues between African-American residents and the Korean owners of two neighborhood markets. Coincidence? Or are these inter-ethnic rivalries the inevitable result of social-cultural design? To the extent that these disparate events are similar in origin, they may suggest both the causes and the solutions to such hostile relations.

In both instances, African-American residents view with resentment, the invasion of their neighborhoods by outside merchants. This intrusion is like rubbing salt into the wounds caused by generations of economic impotence and despair. By any measure, the economic status of America’s ethnic-minority in ner cities has worsened during the 1980s. In many buyer-seller relations, suspicions occur naturally: sellers suspect buyers of theft; buyers suspect sellers of overpricing policies. But when the sellers are immigrant Koreans, and the buyers are African-American urban dwellers, additional suspicions pervade the relationship, including longstanding racial biases that infect attitudes and behavior. The ideology of white supremacy (the cornerstone of which is black inferiority), is evident throughout the world. The continuing portrayal of African-Americans in the media as criminally inclined or pathological reinforce these pre-existing biases. Unfortunately, the kernel of truth in these biases imbues them with a false sense of validity.

It is true that African-Americans are over-represented among the poor, the violent and the criminal. Less obvious are the objective life circumstances that produce these symptoms of pathology.

In addition, anti-Asian prejudice is a reality that must be acknowledged. As Americans, we were taught to distrust Asians through motion pictures about World War II and through other portrayals that dehumanized Asians. American biases against those who do not speak English well impede the formation of harmonious relationships with first-generation immigrants.

These ideological underpinnings of the contemporary conflict between African-Americans and Korean immigrants result in justification for inter-ethnic scapegoating. Anti-black prejudice is widespread; anti-Asian bias is a reality in the African-American community.

With their long history, solutions to these issues will potentially involve generations of conscious and deliberate action.

First, we must re-socialize ourselves regarding racial differences. Instead of amplifying them, we should recognize that the concept of race is a political invention with little or no scientific basis.

We must recognize that the current plight of African-Americans is not of their making, but the product of centuries of de jure discrimination. We must learn that our attitudes toward Asians are largely the result of superficial portrayals.

Second, we must learn that cultural differences are a valuable resource. All groups have unique cultural histories and characteristics that are of value to others.

Koreans display a laudatory collective spirit of economic cooperation. It is not so much that wealthy Koreans are “invading” African-American communities as it is that Korean immigrant families are pooling their comparatively meager resources to purchase businesses in economically distressed areas.

African-Americans have shown the world a certain moral consciousness, notably exhibited by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Other blacks also contributed to the development of modern civilization by the invention--in antiquity--of written script, mathematics, politics and architecture. Thus, anti-black biases are unfounded, and the same is true of anti-Asian biases.

We must learn to nourish our ethnic, racial and cultural differences. They illuminate both the diversity and the commonality within our species.

A remedy to the current Korean-African-American conflicts must be found. A recognition of the shaping of public opinion by popular media (such as motion pictures), alleviating economic anomie and a recognition of each group’s contribution to modern society, are beginning steps toward this positive resolution.