We need to prove we belong as we see ourselves through the judging gaze of other communities. Have we only played supporting roles, always aligning ourselves to forces larger than ourselves? Would the outcome have differed? Other Hmong Americans are now blamed for Thao’s inaction. The Rodney King images on television shocked me. I started working at a sewing factory downtown. So that’s when we were in such terror, thinking, ‘What do we make of this? In 1991, anti-Black sentiment and stereotypes led to the death of a young Black girl named Latasha Harlins at the hands of Soon Ja Du, a Korean store owner. Because we are citizens. I think that event led Koreans to a different thinking. The designation of Asian Americans is a convenience, a lumping of many people of disparate backgrounds for the sake of politics and for the sake of simplifying the story of race in America. He expressed ambivalence about his supervisor. The incident escalated tensions between Korean-American and black residents of Los Angeles. We cannot forfeit our humanity for the sake of the collective, no matter how expedient it feels in the moment. Even before I saw the papers, the radio had announced that there had been a Korean victim. Yet another paper cut-out in line behind the masked doctors, emotionless engineers, voiceless grocery store owners, and Chris Rock’s accountants. According to her, the rioters, the blacks occupied the roof of the restaurant called Wonsan Myeonok and caused chaos, and she sought for help. Many uninsured businesses never re-opened, uprooting the lives of Korean-American families who had labored for years to build their livelihoods from scratch. Because though he was born here, he experienced the difficult times when he was young, when we had brought him to our workplaces in our struggling days. From that, we paid the rent, the electricity bill, and… and I had not realized it then, but life was like a war… Others came for studies, but for us, it was for survival, and we had not brought much money with us….we worked at places like Swap meet, cleaning jobs at night. When Asian American writers outside the Hmong community stake a claim to Thao, there is a confusion in perspective. He had an older sister here, so we came to LA. Looking back, it was a hard life. What do we know of his character, his general demeanor? It deprives us of our own cultural frameworks and perspectives. During World War II, the U.S. government made Japanese internees the symbol of Japan’s military threat. In this story, Thao is reduced to a symbol: Of white oppression; of police brutality; of white adjacency; of Asian American silence. So it scared me, and I did not like the darkness that resembled the prison color. Latasha was in Soon’s store, picked up an orange juice, put it in her bag and had money in hand to pay for it. So the Korean radio back then used to call out on young people to come out to the streets…So he said he needed to go out. Asian Americans’ call to arms in the shadows of Tou Thao’s inaction is a screed of shame: For not having done enough for our Black friends; for being too successful; for not having suffered as much as our Black and brown friends; for having aunties with racists views; for enjoying the privileges of capitalism; for taking on the wrong survival strategies; for not being brown enough. — -- Jung Hui Lee and her husband emigrated from Korea to the United States in 1972, settling first in Virginia and later in California in pursuit of the “American Dream”. Reducing the survival strategy of more than 20 million Asian Americans as “white adjacency” ignores the centuries of history of diverse groups of people who immigrated with their own value systems as well as social and economic strategies acquired over generations. We cannot avoid comparing ourselves to other ethnic groups, even as it plays into the hands of racist policies that set up success as a zero-sum game. Or if not, help at least. What if something happens?’ That was our first encounter with a riot. Du Soonja shooting at the back of the girl leaving [the store] it’s 100 percent the woman’s fault.I only knew that Du Soonja was beat up by Harlins and had a black eye. If a system creates its victims, does it not also create its villains? Vincent Chin, a Detroit hate-crime victim, became the symbol of Japanese automotive industry’s dominance. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. The teen was shot in the back of the head by the store’s owner, Soon Ja Du, a 51-year-old Korean woman who suspected Latasha … Even when he was young, he would go camping or fishing to somewhere far. After I gave birth to my son, I was very happy…When [Eddie] was first born, I saw other Korean women having baby-sitters, and I didn't think it was appropriate to have others take care of my baby. I wanted to go out, too, honestly. And in the black neighborhoods… This is something I heard later in the media. Many argue that Tou Thao, an Asian American officer who stood guard while Derek Chauvin suffocated and killed George Floyd, symbolizes Asian Americans’ silence on racial strife in America. In the midst of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, Asian American writers and activists have flocked to urge fellow Asian Americans to speak up in support of the movement. Tou Thao has unleashed all of our misgivings. We have been reduced to symbols many times in this country. More than anything grand, I imagined that I would work in a big office building, where I would go to work early in the morning, and leave by 5pm and have a plenty of leisure time for hobbies, like eating out at a fancy restaurant. His vulnerability in those terrible minutes spoke louder than any statistic or missive. They forget that they are insiders only for the sake of political unity. During World War II, Korean Americans and Chinese Americans wore buttons that said “I’m no Jap” and “I am Chinese” when Japanese Americans were rounded up like cattle and thrown into pens in the middle of forlorn deserts. The current BLM protests were fueled by George Floyd’s humanity. All we need to know of him is the record of complaints against him and his appearance in the nine-minute video of the killing where he stood by, weaving in and out of frame, speaking into the radio in his vest. It was written through the merciless killings of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Walter Scott, Alton Sterling, and countless others. She had gone in to buy some orange juice, but Soon Ja Du, the Korean owner, assumed she was stealing and she shot her, even though the innocent girl had cash in her hand. As Asian Americans, we are caught in a fishing net. Soon Ja Du and her family migrated to Los Angeles in 1976 when she was 35 years old. This must have angered them… Yes, this conflict was initially between the black and white races. All rights reserved. September 21, 2020. So he was very active even in his thoughts and preferred being outside over studying at a desk. Discover the best of 2020. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. So we said amongst ourselves that this shouldn’t be. In Virginia, we couldn’t even rent a room because of racial discrimination… And later we realized that they had never seen Asians before. Soon Ja Du was tried and convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Harlins’ death but served no jail time. He is loved. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. During that time, our son was with us, our daughter was with us, the entire family was together. At that time, I wondered, who will speak for us? His family and friends have different reactions to him, even after he helped to restrain Floyd physically. Maybe we will get there if we put down our stones long enough to own up to them. He does not belong to us. Check out IMDb's highest-rated movies and TV shows of 2020, most-viewed trailers, top stars, memorable moments, and more! It rained a lot and houses were made of bricks. Thankfully I lived without conflict until then. But the second and third generations are the ones to lead that united Korean community, and I hope for that. Unlike Thao, Alex Keung has been given a complex narrative, a Black man out to change the system, even as he is caught in a horrible scene of injustice. Related News Humanizing one in our mix who does a grave wrong requires us to speak, even when it is inconvenient. We should speak up —- loudly and with indignation. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. What was his intent, his goal, his expectation? Harlins approached Du with $2 in her hand. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. In Korea, I met my husband. There are important reasons to support Black Lives Matter. They cast silence as adjacency to whiteness, a miscalculated strategy of social mobility and position of privilege that only foments further harm against Blacks by playing to the myth of the model minority. The presence of a Black officer at the scene complicates the story. I am not suggesting we give up on collective action. Our designation as Asian Americans is a handle of expedience. In this binary framework, we negate ourselves as people with different, unique perspectives, with the ability to pave new paths. Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sihk, killed in a hate crime shortly after the September 11 attacks, was touted as the symbol of Al-Qaeda. On March 16, 1991, Harlins was shot and killed by 51-year-old Soon Ja Du, who erroneously accused Harlins of trying to shoplift a bottle of orange juice. There is power in numbers, but we will never be seen or heard as a group unless we are seen and heard as individuals. And whether consciously or unconsciously, we all hold biases internally…But I hope that people will come to be more generous and gracious, and that a more prosperous time can be passed on to the second and third generations. When we have been cast as the enemy, as in the Red Apple boycott or the L.A. It was at this location that Soon Ja Du would shoot Latasha Harlins on March 16, 1991. But when I went to a market, I would be met by stares of people looking at me as a stranger. We are given the illusion of choice, but it is clear that the cost of membership is to align with one of the two identified groups. He becomes another soulless scoundrel, a degenerate, a viper. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. So without knowing the full story, I just thought, “wow, she’s badly beaten.” But I don’t think it was justifiable to kill. Later, it was discovered he was shot by another Korean-American by mistake. Riots. So in the earlier days of our immigration, we worked three jobs. We have been interchangeable. We must condemn a culture that promotes a sense of safety for some at the cost of others. It is not simply enough to support BLM; we have to fall on our swords and repent. And they made money and started driving nice cars. When it comes to explaining the motivations, frameworks, and the conditions of our individual lives, generalities do not suffice. What remains is a thin narrative of us. Riots, the only voices that rang out were those asking for police protection, which never came. Then many Koreans, after I had already immigrated to the United States, came in the 80s. No Korean American, Chinese American, or any other hyphen-American has the right to speak for Thao. We earned about $300-400 combined. SOON JA DU. Because Rodney King was just one person, but if you saw it on television, several officers beat him with a club and kicked him… I did not imagine that he would survive after such beatings. The owner believed the teenager was trying to … We can speak up because we care. When the verdict was read on television we became ill at ease thinking, “The black community will not take this. Thao is a strawman, the one we need to knock down in order to build the case for our own consciousness, our superior, enlightened understanding. Something might happen.” We sensed it. We even worked night shifts. Koreans made money in black neighborhoods, lived in white neighborhoods, drove nice cars; even I would have been jealous of this… And with the money they earned there, they should have served the community back, but they didn’t. I generally thought the United States was a country that helped realize any young person’s dream. Giving Voice to the Korean American Community, With no recognition of differences in ethnicity or history, we live in a black-and-white dichotomy | By Shinyung Oh (Summer 2020 issue). As a college student in April 1992,  I watched, glued to the TV to news footage of the Los Angeles Riots, as Korean American shopkeepers standing on the roofs of their stores were portrayed as menacing vigilantes. The Korean grocer’s killing of a 15-year-old black girl, Latasha Harlins, in a dispute over a bottle of orange juice, raised tensions in the black community just two weeks after King’s beating. We have also stood alone when alliance was not available. I heard this story myself. This grouping deprives us of the original background that may explain some of our motives and understandings. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Is his story not a counterpoint to the model minority myth, one we have been gasping to tell? On April 30, 1992 Edward was fatally shot by crossfire. ET In March of 1991, 15-year-old Latasha Harlins was killed by one of the owners of the Empire Liquor convenience store in Los Angeles, Calif. Latasha had entered the store to buy a container of orange juice for $1.79 when she was fatally shot by Soon Ja Du, who assumed that she was going to steal the drink. ... June 20, 2020 at 2:40 am. A policeman, a soldier, he always wanted to become one. Add a bio, trivia, and more. I think we didn't think far enough. My son was shot by someone who had fired from the roof, and it turned out that the people on the roof weren’t blacks, but Koreans. Getting by was the priority, to establish a living. What did he understand his role to be? It is possible to speak up without shaming each other or effacing ourselves. Getting by was the priority, so we were not choosy over which job to work at. Soon Ja Du is a Korean immigrant whose family owned the Empire Liquor Store at the intersection of 91st St. and Figueroa Ave. back in the 90s. Would he tell the story of a people paid in rice to fight America’s secret war against enemies who looked more or less like themselves? We arrived in Virginia in April or early May. Harlins-Kilgore was just 14 years old when her cousin was shot and killed by Soon Ja Du, a 51-year-old Korean American convenience store owner. Just because others cannot tell us apart does not make our stories interchangeable. We have been interchangeable. Filed Under: Black Lives Matter, Opinion Tagged With: Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, L.A. This loaded story was written long before Thao even showed up at the scene. But when you put Koreans into the scene, this must have made them think, “Yes, that owner of the liquor store only took money from me, but never gave back.”. Trailer for New John Ridley Documentary About 1992 LA Riots. That’s what I thought. Money comes and goes. The life was… in another word, I felt like we were not treated as human beings. Hmong refugees were resettled in some of the most neglected neighborhoods, and many of them are among the poorest Asian Americans. But by then I did not have the luxury of dreaming on any longer; all the dreams had dissipated. Sara Li in InStyle cast Thao’s inaction as complicity. During the 1992 L.A. uprising, Lee’s 18-year old son, Edward Jae Song Lee entered the fray to help protect his Koreatown neighborhood, which was virtually abandoned by police. Perhaps it is this limitation that allows writers like Jeff Yang to ask on CNN, “Do we seek adjacency to whiteness, or coalitions of color?” or for an op-ed in Truthout to claim that Asian Americans have been complicit in “white supremacy.”. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. But from their perspective, Koreans did not seem to have suffered much, yet came to their neighborhood and made easy money and became well off. Copyright ©2021 Korean Quarterly. Shortly before 10 am that Saturday, Harlins entered the store. A mere 39 percent of Hmong Americans can afford health insurance. These cookies do not store any personal information. Update information for Soon Ja Du » Quick Links. Yesterday marked 29 years since Korean store owner Soon Ja Du shot and killed 15-year-old Latasha Harlins.’ Du shot Harlin’s in the back of the head over a $2 bottle of juice March 1991 in South Central, L.A. And I was very scared of that unkindness…. SOON JA DU . The suit dated from early last year, when the grocer, Soon Ja Du, shot the girl, Latasha Harlins, during a quarrel that stemmed from a misunderstanding over … 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. We are forever sidekicks. Before, people used to be more self-absorbed in trying to make it out here, but the thought that it should no longer be so, that Koreans must rather unite, that Koreans should not just be in hiding, was birthed in the mind of all. Our practice of convenience does not bestow one sub-group owner-ship over another. Racism comes in many forms. But how the broadcasters continued to put Koreatown into focus and made an issue out of it, both puzzled and enraged us. A flier in the neighborhood erroneously suggests that she is Soon Ja Du, the Korean American liquor store owner who in 1991 fatally shot 15-year-old Latasha Harlins -- … We are not afforded any subplots that may cut against the larger narrative on race. Really. Latasha died with $2 in her hand. The imperative for Asian Americans to find safety is understandable, especially against the bursts of hate crimes reignited by the pandemic. In the beginning, we brought our son to work. I am also the type to get enraged by that kind of thing. Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt in Truthout characterized it as “bystander syndrome.”. In many ways, the shooting death of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins on March 16, 1991 by convenience store clerk Soon Ja Du, a Korean immigrant, laid the foundation of anger and resentment that would eventually explode after the King verdict. We may wax solidarity now, but no one admits that it is easier to do so when our businesses are not the ones being looted, when our parents are not perched on roofs of our small businesses armed with handguns, when there are no picket lines in front of our groceries and liquor stores, when we’re not cast as the enemy. My husband’s income alone was not enough for us to get by… I think he was paid $2 an hour. Her death had a profound impact in South Central Los Angeles. Those who purport to speak for us all should attune to the silence among us. Despite Soon Ja Du being Korean, the lack of any real punishment upheld White supremacy by allowing the Golden Child to prevail, while perpetuating the racist idea that Black life was less valuable. I thought for sure he would die. But in the end, we wound up getting married and came to the United States. Among ourselves, we have often wondered where we stand. All Korean small business owners are stand-ins for Soon Ja Du, a Los Angeles convenience store owner who in 1991 killed Black customer Latasha Harlins, after a struggle in the store over a suspected shoplifting. Du was the Korean-born shop owner responsible for Latasha's death. We do not know. For those on the outside, the designation has a secondary function as an accommodation; the generalizing saves others the bother of having to tell us apart. In memory of the losses suffered in 1992, Korean-Americans call the unrest "Sa-I-Gu," or 4-2-9 in native pronunciation. Soon Ja Du was born on Saturday, December 27, 1941 (age 79 years; as of 2020), in North Chungcheong Province, South Korea. The case of Soon Ja Du, convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Latasha Harlins, was the first Karlin took on after becoming a Superior Court judge in 1991. What does the Black-white divide in America mean for a people whose history includes persecution by the Chinese, mistreatment by the French, scorn by fellow Southeast Asians, betrayal by the U.S. government, and rejection by West Philadelphia? He cries. The route that the black rioters took was wide roads like Western and Vermont, and it kept getting closer to our home… my son went out despite my dissuading him from getting involved. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? If some of us are silent, perhaps it is because there are painful truths in our corner. AP. Harlens was a student at Westchester High School in Los Angeles, California. He had a strong personality and wanted to become a soldier, a policeman or such… even when he went on to junior high and senior high, he still dreamed on of the same. When the passport was issued, he told me about it: that we would go live in the United States. Taking those young kids to work, looking back now, it's like we dragged them to work. Then Radio Korea without verifying, well there was no such verification process then, they just had to believe incoming reports. However, it is a misguided hope that just an alliance with one or another dominant group in the U.S. will save us. However, on the morning of the shooting, Du was working behind the counter, and her husband was outside resting in the family van.

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