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66 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1581 (1992-1993)
Traces of the Master Narrative in the Story of African American/Korean American Conflict: How We Constructed Los Angeles

handle is hein.journals/scal66 and id is 1597 raw text is: TRACES OF THE MASTER NARRATIVE IN THE STORY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN/KOREAN AMERICAN CONFLICT: HOW WE CONSTRUCTED LOS ANGELES LISA C. IKEMOTO* I. INTRODUCTION Many who have written about Los Angeles see the dynamics of race in the terrible events that took place on April 29 to May 1, 1992. Some blamed Black racism for what happened; others found fault with the behavior of Korean merchants. Others, more perceptively, blamed our society's system of white-over-colored supremacy for pitting the two out- sider groups against one another, setting the stage for the conflict that exploded on those fateful days. I agree with this latter position, but my aim in this Essay is slightly different. It is to explore how we analyzed, explained, came to understand, and gave meaning to Los Angeles. How and why did we construct the story of that conflict as we did? II. CONSTRUCTED CONFLICT During the early aftermath of the civil disorder in Los Angeles, the notion of Korean American/African American conflict emerged as a focal point in explanations for Los Angeles. Examination of this con- struct reveals that Korean Americans, African Americans, and those apparently outside the conflict used concepts of race, identity, and entitlement in ways that described conflict as inevitable. Further interro- gation suggests that despite the absence of obvious whiteness in a conflict * Associate Professor, Indiana University School of Law (Indianapolis). B.A. 1984, Univer- sity of California (Los Angeles); J.D. 1987, University of California (Davis); L.L.M. 1989, Columbia University. I am very thankful to Richard Delgado and Neil Gotanda for their comments. Addi- tional thanks to Karen Kiyo Alman, Luke Cole, Jayne Lee, and Dean Toji. 1581