UNDERSTANDING THE RIOTS PART 5 : THE PATH TO RECOVERY : ETHNIC COALITIONS : America’s New Ellis Island Must Hear All of Its Voices

I watched in somber silence at media images of Los Angeles burning during the first few days and nights after the verdict in the Rodney King beating case. A city in racial turmoil, I heard people saying, so far from what we had hoped for in this city of tomorrow. A city in decline, our critics repeated, too big, too diverse, too different from any other place in the world to achieve its dream as the first viable multicultural metropolis. As we looked for meaningful answers in the aftermath of the upheaval, many questioned our ability to overcome this latest challenge.

The recent events are reminders that the Los Angeles of 1992 is remarkably different from the Los Angeles of yesterday. I juxtaposed in my mind the burning images of the riots with reflections of my first years in Los Angeles, back in 1956, as an 8-year-old immigrant child. The city was beginning to grow into the dynamic, prosperous city it has become. It was the city I grew up in and the city I came to love. The disturbances tested my love for Los Angeles and forced me to think of, and to look at, this place I call home through different eyes.

Do I love Los Angeles any less today than two weeks ago? No. But today I must deal with the difficult question that many Angelenos are asking: “Where do we go from here?”

It is a question that deserves extensive thought and deliberation and requires the participation and input of all the diverse communities in Southern California--Latinos, whites, African-Americans and Asians. We are in a defining moment in the development of this city, and our actions during the next several months will determine our success in finding real solutions to the social unrest.

We cannot look for simple or short-term remedies that do not address the real socioeconomic disparities and the feelings of hopelessness felt by many who live in South Los Angeles and other depressed areas. We must look for more effective ways to ensure that the voices of the less powerful segments of our society are heard by local and state government officials. Our elected and community leaders must spend more time in the communities they represent, getting to know the people who live there and making decisions based on first-hand knowledge of the communities’ needs.

The needs of South Los Angeles have changed with the city’s dramatic change in demographics during the last 10 years. What was once a predominantly African-American community has now become a majority Latino community, still poor and disenfranchised, but with different priorities and needs. As we have seen, and as leaders within these communities repeatedly have stated, ignoring the needs of Latinos and African-Americans during the last decade will not move this city forward. All of our city’s residents must know that they need not engage in violence or destruction to receive the attention they warrant.

The changes and challenges in South Los Angeles are similar to the changes and challenges that lie ahead in cities across the country. We must rebuild not only the physical structures, but the moral and spiritual fabric within our communities. We must build upon the concept of community and the public covenant. We must all work together to ensure that each of us has an opportunity to reach for the American dream: to provide a good education for our children, to live in safe neighborhoods, to get a job to provide for our families and to have an opportunity to enjoy all that this country has to offer.

The nation and the world is watching as the people of Los Angeles determine what our course of action will be. Those who look with derision at our attempts to be a “global” city are placing bets that we will not effectively meet this latest challenge, that we will be held back in our efforts because of our differences. We recognize the differences that exist within our various communities, but many in the Latino, Asian, white and African-American communities appreciate the similarities and the commonalities among us.

Los Angeles is the new Ellis Island: people from every corner of the world seek the American dream here in Los Angeles. They come with different languages and different cultures but with a desire to succeed in an experiment that has never worked before, anywhere. Los Angeles is not an anomaly, it is a picture of the future. Everyone must have a vested interest in seeing that we succeed because if we fail, the future does not bode well for the United States, nor the rest of the world. The real American dream is people of different races and ethnic groups learning to work together to understand and respect one another. Los Angeles is going to make it.