COMMUNITY WATCH : Coming Together

Photos of armed Korean-American merchants protecting their stores during the riots seared a powerful new image of Asian Americans on the collective conscience of Los Angeles.

For Korean Americans, the need to resort to guns symbolized their political impotence. And now in the rebuilding of Los Angeles, a sense of being invisible and powerless again has gripped them and other Asian Americans.

Frustration within the various Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Cambodian communities has brought them together to form the Asian Pacific Americans for a New L.A.

The organization’s first priority is to help small, riot-damaged businesses and to improve communication among Asian communities and among these groups and blacks, Latinos and whites.

The coalition faces the challenge of providing a collective voice for various communities, which are far more different than they are similar. The census category for Asian and Pacific Islander Americans consists of 16 ethnicities. They differ by generation, culture, language and economic status.

Geographically, Asian Americans are scattered throughout Southern California but are a growing presence. Residents of Asian ancestry now total nearly 1 million people in Los Angeles County, almost the same population as African Americans.

In joining together on public-policy issues of common concern, Asian Pacific Americans for New L.A. are only seeking political clout commensurate with their numbers.