Platform : Racial Healing: ‘People Have to Talk, People Have to Listen’

To improve relations and meet the human relations needs, we all need to respect and understand the cultural heritage and the cultural characteristics of the various communities in Los Angeles because there are a lot of perception problems and misunderstandings.

The first thing we have to do is get leaders from the various racial and ethnic communities to meet and identify problems and areas of misunderstanding. Unless we hold such a meeting, some community leaders might try to solve problems based on incorrect perceptions.

Community leaders could meet at a symposium to identify issues, analyze issues, decide what needs to be done and develop a plan for implementing solutions. For example, I’d like to see a symposium involving Korean-Americans and African-Americans presenting their views.

The various groups would then develop some programs. They might develop joint educational programs. They might decide on joint business ventures. Or, they might develop programs to promote more social contact between groups. Symposium leaders might then turn to universities such as UCLA or institutions such as Rebuild L.A. for help in implementing programs.