Ethnic Peace in the American City: Building Community in Los Angeles and Beyond

The Los Angeles riot of 1992 marked America’s first high-profile multi-ethnic civil unrest. Latinos, Asian-Americans, whites and African-Americans were involved as both victims and assailants; nearly half of the businesses destroyed were Korean-American-owned, and nearly half of the people arrested were Latino. Describing the economic, political and psychological dynamics of race relations in inner-city Los Angeles, this is an investigation of the nature of contemporary inter-ethnic relations in the United States. It draws on local as well as international examples, and presents strategies such as coalition building, dispute resolution and community organizing. Moving beyond the stereotyped focus on negative interactions between minority groups such as Korean-owned businesses and the African-American community, and challenging the white-black or bi-racial paradigms of American race relations, the authors explore practical means by which ethnically-fragmented neighbourhoods around the country can work together to start addressing their common concerns before tensions become explosive.