Mediators Work to Defuse Escalating Racial Tensions : Neighborhoods: New breed of experts offer counseling and education in a culturally explosive environment.

Isadore Breaux’s foster daughters ran home from the store on a recent afternoon in tears, telling a story that so enraged the South Los Angeles man that he instantly took matters into his own hands.

“No one,” he said, “is going to call these girls black bitches.”

Breaux confronted the Korean-born liquor store owner, demanding to know why he cursed at his daughters during an argument over a bag of caramel corn.

But the merchant did not appear to fully comprehend all the English words Breaux hurled at him and did not answer his questions. Seething, Breaux shoved a counter display. In English, the merchant yelled, “Go back to Africa!” Breaux replied: “Go back to Itaewon! “ a shopping district he knew about in South Korea.

“My first thought was to hurt him,” Breaux said. “I wanted to go back to my neighborhood and organize a group to protest against him.”

The incident has a chillingly familiar ring to those who have lived for the last year in the shadow cast by the shooting death of Latasha Harlins, the 15-year-old black teen-ager killed by a Korean grocer in a violent argument over a bottle of orange juice.

But this dispute did not escalate.

Instead, Breaux and the merchant turned to an agency that specializes in resolving racially and culturally sensitive conflicts before they erupt into fights, protests or violence.

Increasingly, as residents in Los Angeles County’s diverse neighborhoods compete for space, resources and services, everyday skirmishes--exacerbated by cultural baggage, language differences and ethnic stereotypes--self-ignite into racial incidents.

Arguments between students, customers and merchants, or landlords and tenants can quickly escalate into tense dramas of anger and retribution in such a culturally explosive environment.

Emerging from the fray are a new breed of human relations experts who find their skills at mediation, counseling and education in high demand as racially charged crimes multiply.

Some specialists are like human relations paramedics, rushing to the scene of a dispute to help calm flaring tempers. Others are more like multicultural social scientists, drafting regulations and forming sophisticated peacemaking coalitions to encourage coexistence amid the daily minefield of urban life.

Jolting evidence of the need for race relations experts was revealed in figures released last month showing that hate crimes in Los Angeles County soared to a record-breaking level for the seventh consecutive year. The 672 documented incidents include a disturbing trend of increased violence.

The shooting of Harlins by Korean-born grocer Soon Ja Du is only one sign of turbulence. In the past year, a string of bloody fights broke out between Latino and Chinese-American high school students in the San Gabriel Valley. Anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted on school walls in the San Fernando Valley. A dramatic rise in Japanese- and gay-bashing incidents was reported throughout the city.

“We are sitting on a powder keg and there are sparks flying all around us,” said Alex Norman, professor emeritus at UCLA and a specialist in community organization.

The new generation of racial conflict specialists has emerged from the ranks of advocacy groups such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Asian Pacific Legal Center, those on the front lines of racial and ethnic issues. Others cut their teeth in neighborhood and church groups.

“We can’t ignore the racial undertones of arguments because they contribute to misunderstandings that grow into larger disputes,” said Marcia Choo, program director of the Asian Pacific Dispute Resolution Center. “Arguments can’t be settled from a colorblind perspective anymore in Los Angeles.”

The specialists unabashedly use words such as proactive and dialoguing and speak in terms of coalition building and multiculturalism when describing their tasks.

“For a long time we have been reacting to crises as they happen. But now we have to make a concerted effort to be more pro-active,” said Kathleen Hiyake, director of a new group called Leadership Development in Inter-Ethnic Relations. “How do we build relationships in diverse communities as well as provide a response system for crisis?”

Choo’s organization and another group, the Martin Luther King Dispute Resolution Center, are the models for confronting disputes complicated by racial undertones.

The King Center opened in 1989 to help mainly black residents settle neighborhood arguments without police or court intervention. But as South Los Angeles underwent demographic changes in the 1980s, the types of arguments changed. In 1991, about 15% of the 500 cases involved attempts to settle racial or ethnic animosities between blacks and Latinos or blacks and Asian-Americans.

“What’s stunning is that the previous year the disputes were only between African-Americans,” said center director Dennis Westbrook, who expects about a quarter of 1992 cases will involve racial incidents.

Likewise, Choo’s mediation center opened in 1989 primarily to help the Asian-American community. Now, more than 50% of the disputes they mediate involve cultural misunderstandings.

Breaux and the Korean-born merchant are typical of the King Center clients who turn to mediators such as Westbrook and Edward Paik.

“I felt that he didn’t want to understand blacks or try to figure out the problem,” Breaux said of the store owner. “I wanted to find out what happened.”

After his temper cooled, Breaux called the resolution center, which he remembered from a public service advertisement.

At first, the merchant--who declined to be interviewed for this article and requested anonymity--did not want to participate in discussions, said Paik, a Korean-American mediator.

But a mile away, protesters were picketing a store where a black man, Lee Arthur Mitchell, was shot by a merchant during an alleged robbery attempt.

“I pointed out (to the merchant) that if he didn’t get this settled it would grow into a larger problem and he could end up like the other liquor store a few blocks away,” Paik said. “He felt he did not speak enough English to understand the proceedings.”

The merchant finally agreed and met with Breaux and two mediators at the center. Through Paik, he described how shoplifting and vandalism at his store force him to watch customers vigilantly. When he saw the girls handle several items, he feared that they would pocket something. After they refused to buy a bag of carmel corn at the counter because of the price, he angrily ordered them out.

Breaux countered that the girls were not stealing and the merchant should not make the assumption that black youths who enter his store are intent on vandalism.

When Westbrook felt that the discussion was about to erupt into another argument, he asked the merchant, whose 13-year-old daughter attended the session, to think about how he would feel if someone cursed at her.

“All of a sudden his body language changed. He took off his dark glasses and talked with his daughter. She told him she thought he overreacted and she felt sorry for the girls,” Westbrook said.

The merchant apologized to Breaux, saying he should have treated the youths with more respect. Breaux apologized for losing his temper. The two signed an agreement to be courteous in future transactions. They shook hands and embraced.

Underscoring cultural differences, Breaux viewed the incident as an exemplary accomplishment. The merchant, however, is embarrassed to discuss personal problems publicly. Not all mediation efforts succeed, however. Often, warring parties refuse to meet with a mediator. And sometimes the help of a referee cannot clarify cultural customs.

Westbrook recalled the case of a black woman who refused mediation, saying she would rather move than work out differences with a large Latino family next door. At the height of the dispute over parking, noise and building upkeep, the two families’ teen-age children challenged each other to fights.

“I kept wondering when the police would be called out as the result of physical violence,” Westbrook said.

In an attempt to avert dangerous arguments from erupting in the first place, many specialists in racial disputes say that rules for living and working together must be established. More and more they are drafting codes, writing pamphlets and producing videotapes to explain cultural traits.

West Hollywood’s social services director, Tom West, is writing a pamphlet to address an increasing number of tenant disputes between Russian immigrants and gay men and lesbians. Because the city is home to a large gay population and many Russians have recently moved to the area, it is not uncommon for the two groups to live in the same complex.

“They get into an argument and the neighbor starts calling them faggot or dyke and the issue goes beyond noise or junk in the main lobby,” West said.

The pamphlet, which should be completed in several months, will explain to immigrants that West Hollywood was founded on principles of tolerance for the lifestyles of all people. It will also explain customs of privacy and building upkeep.

A similar approach is being taken in South-Central Los Angeles, where the Rev. Gailen Reevers, co-chairman of the Black-Korean Alliance, and others are drafting a code of ethics to explain explicitly how customers and merchants should behave with each other.

The 3,000-member Korean American Grocers Assn. has recently adopted its own code that includes pledges to “maintain an atmosphere of courtesy” and “thank (customers) for their continued business.”

Ron Wakabayashi, executive director of the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission, is overseeing the production of a videotape for immigrant merchants in which actors demonstrate service-with-a-smile transactions and handle deals gone awry.

“It’s really rudimentary kind of stuff,” Wakabayashi said. “But we have to have to get back to basics in many ways.”

More sophisticated efforts to ease racial tensions are being targeted at school-age youths, largely devised by parents thrust into action in times of crisis.

It was a series of schoolyard fights between Latino and Asian-American students in the San Gabriel Valley that prompted parents to confront the racial tensions. The coalition they formed in August is widely viewed as a prototype for dealing with inter-ethnic fighting.

Two fights at San Gabriel High School--one in which two Chinese-American brothers were beaten by a group of Latinos and another in which four Vietnamese were attacked by two Anglos--became symbols for long-building animosities. In both fights, racial epithets were used.

Some were upset that school administrators initially discounted the racial undertones of the fights, dismissing them instead as typical schoolyard brawls. A group of parents, fearful of more violence, decided to confront the problem in a series of meetings.

“We had to face it,” said Jose Calderon, a parent leader. “This was going to continue and more incidents would occur and more children would get hurt.”

At first, there were suspicions on both sides, said Calderon and Marin Tse, a Chinese-American parent leader.

“It took many months, but I told the parents if we didn’t reach out to the Hispanics, our people will never be accepted,” Tse said.

In September, the two groups united to form the Multi-Ethnic Task Force of the San Gabriel Valley. Their goal is to push for a review of discipline procedures, add courses on cultural and historical diversity of Latinos and Chinese-Americans, and urge the hiring of ethnically diverse school staff.

The region’s diversity has also spawned a mini-industry of race relation specialists for hire who devise cultural awareness programs at schools and offices. The National Conference of Christians and Jews and the Anti-Defamation League sponsor some of the most popular seminars.

Many agree, however, that the multiethnic coalitions in which common goals are charted by diverse groups will become increasingly powerful.

UCLA’s Norman said that except for the handful of professional dispute mediators and government human relations staff, those involved in resolving racial conflicts are generally low-visibility volunteers working out of the “goodness of their hearts.”

“There are woefully too few people and too few models to follow,” Norman said. “L.A. is now a world city; ethnic groups are only growing. If we do nothing, there will be all kinds of conflicts that will emerge into full-scale battles. But I think the future is inventable, not inevitable.”

Words of Understanding

The Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission has turned to the printing press to help dispel racial and cultural misunderstandings in a series of booklets that delicately explain customs and traits of racial and ethnic groups. On Latinos in the workplace:

No work is menial as long as it is an honest way to contribute to the welfare of the family.

On Asians’ values:

Asians are reputed to stick together. Perhaps. Sometimes they are inclined to mutual support, particularly among those with whom they have the most in common.

On Arab traditions:

Traditions include: family as the center of life, women as homemakers and a ready welcome to any visitor. . . . Arab society is conservative and formal compared to general American practice.

On how to communicate with limited English-speaking immigrants:

It’s worth the time to tell the immigrant what you are going to do (“I’m going to ask you some questions”) then do it, and then tell him or her what you have done (“We have completed this application form”) .

On Vietnamese culture:

As with most Asians, physical contact among the Vietnamese is limited to close friends and family, and even then verbal expressions may be preferred. . . . Vietnamese women working among Americans sometimes experience great discomfort, even distress, at the casual physical contact between men and women, such as a touch on the arm to interrupt a conversation.

On Chinese stereotypes:

There is some truth in commonly held assumptions about Chinese-Americans--that they are responsible, industrious, scholarly, quiet, frugal, modest and family oriented. They will, and do, kid among themselves about the things that are “typically Chinese”; but more and more, the younger people are insisting on the right to be individuals.