Meeting Seeks Ethnic Unity at the Neighborhood Level

A year ago, after moving into her Mt. Washington home, Koina Freeman was struck by what she felt were divisions in her new neighborhood.

She didn’t find as much interaction among whites and Latinos in the neighborhood as she would have liked. “Something had to be done,” Freeman said.

So she delivered questionnaires to some 60 homes in the neighborhood, asking residents about their concerns.

The replies--whether from rich or poor, white or Latino--spelled out the same worries: crime, graffiti, traffic, trash on the sidewalks.

What Freeman learned was echoed frequently on Saturday as neighborhood activists from across the city gathered at a Crenshaw district church to discuss building bridges across racial divides.

“We live segregated, isolated existences,” said Stewart Kwoh, president of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, which sponsored the symposium. “We have to look at the common interests, at each other’s interests. Otherwise we will have division.”

With Los Angeles now standing at a political and social crossroads, the need for ethnic unity is as great as ever, Kwoh said.

The question of charter reform is due to be settled in the coming months. And, with the census count and political redistricting also looming, racial tensions could mount as ethnic groups compete for political power, speakers at the symposium warned.

“Most of the city is segregated along its racial or agenda groups,” said Joe Hicks, executive director of the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission. But there are solutions, he added.

Creating inter-ethnic coalitions in neighborhoods to fight for each group’s interests could help soothe such racial friction, he said.

As those who gathered at West Angeles Church of God in Christ discussed these issues, some said they had already begun the process of coalition building.

The Rev. William Monroe Campbell spoke of working with Catholic, Jewish and Islamic leaders to push for a living-wage ordinance for workers at Los Angeles International Airport.

Five Asian American high school students told of their efforts to span the racial and language barriers separating Asian and Latino garment workers in their Lincoln Heights neighborhood by holding educational meetings.

“Now both groups realize they have the same concerns,” said Carson Tran, 17.