UNDERSTANDING THE RIOTS--SIX MONTHS LATER : Touched by Fire / A Legacy of Pain and Hope : Q & A: Angela Oh, President, Los Angeles Korean-American Bar Assn.

Q: Why do you think people are having so much difficulty getting along right now?

A: I think people do not understand each other in the most fundamental of ways. In times of plenty, people will find it in themselves to extend a certain amount of tolerance, to stop and think about something other than their immediate needs. But right now, everyone is so focused on immediate needs. . . . You can talk about rebuilding or building a new L.A., but if you don’t have the human relations and community relations elements down, it’s going to be meaningless.

Q: What in the rebuilding or recovery process should come first?

A: What comes first is the things that are the easiest to do--bringing in the business and the dollars, giving people jobs. Those are the things we can actually identify a strategy for and resources that just need to be tapped. . . .

People who have never talked to each other have to talk to each other--that’s what coalition building is all about. . . . I don’t think we are through yet; I think we are still in the middle of it. The waiting for the feds to prosecute the four officers who beat Rodney King, the liquor store situation in South-Central. We have so many flash points out there and nobody is turning in their guns. There is a lot of firepower out there.

Q: What needs to be done differently this time around?

A: There’s nothing new about rebuilding devastated areas. What is new is that this rebuilding effort from its inception understands the need for community involvement. . . . Because of all the destruction and violence, they see how devastating it will be if we don’t take this principle to heart. What is operating right now is a level of fear that we have never seen before on the part of all the established institutions and structures and people who have been in complicity with these established institutions for the past two decades.

Q: What are they afraid of?

A: It’s rooted in racism and a fear of poverty. I believe that many people . . . see the homeless on the street, see the overwhelming problems facing our nation and our state, and in their minds they think, “There (but for) the grace of God go I.” I really think that’s why everyone is so concerned at this point.

Q: What issues do you think should be addressed in the upcoming mayoral campaigns?

A: We need to think about police-community relations. I don’t know who the next mayor will be, but we cannot have a situation like we had in our recent history where the mayor is not working with the Police Department and vice versa. . . . For all the economic development that is going on, unless the community feels it is safe and has confidence in law enforcement, a lot of this economic development will be very difficult to achieve.

I know this is very unpopular, but we’ve got to find a way of raising revenue. I was sort of in disbelief when, after the uprising, we could not get a temporary 1/2-cent tax increase. Obviously it is going to take additional dollars to do the work that has to be done, and I don’t think we can get there without thinking in terms of increasing our tax base to realistically address the huge problems that are confronting our city and our state.

Q: What needs to change about the way business is conducted, to make it more inclusive?

A: The human relations angle needs to be incorporated in every structural program that is introduced. I don’t think there is a special class you can take; you learn those things in the context of working on other projects. Business doesn’t get done at the conference table; business gets finished at the conference table and at places where poor people and women of color traditionally don’t appear. . . . We’re talking about business not going on as usual. . . . We’re talking about trust as a fundamental operating concept. Trust is what makes the deals happen--you look at someone and say you know that this person’s instincts are right, this person’s energy level is right. That’s how business gets done, that’s how coalitions are formed, that’s how people fall in love. It’s one of the most important things that happens in life.

Now there is a risk, when you look for and include people who don’t think just like you and don’t look just like you and don’t act just like you. It’s a hard thing to do. . . . But I think we--and I mean communities of color and women--are ready to help make decisions and we’re ready to take responsibility and we’re ready to be accountable for our decisions. We will make mistakes, as we are entitled to do as human beings. Hopefully, they won’t be big mistakes, but we are ready to try.

And that’s what is going on right now. We are trying to communicate that in very clear terms--we want to be there when decisions are made and we want to give you some guidance. And I think the guidance we have to offer is different from the models that have been operating in the past. And it’s going to require taking a few risks and that leap of faith that all important decisions in life require. . . . But it’s going to take us a lot farther. I know in my gut that it is much more effective to work on a coalition basis than within the community alone. You will only get so far that way. And I think what has happened on a societal level is that the network that has been operating has reached its point. . . . It is now time to think in terms of broadening. And we ought to look for leaders who are open to that.