LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles, referred to by the initialism L.A., is the largest city in California. With a 2020 population of 3,898,747, it is the second-largest city in the United States, following New York City. Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, Hollywood entertainment industry and sprawling metropolitan area.
Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California, adjacent to the Pacific Ocean. The city, which covers about 469 square miles (1,210 km2), is the seat of Los Angeles County.
Home to the Chumash and Tongva indigenous peoples, the area that became Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542. The city was founded on September 4, 1781, under Spanish governor Felipe de Neve, on the village of Yaanga. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and thus became part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood. The discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The city was further expanded with the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, which delivers water from Eastern California.
Los Angeles has a diverse and robust economy, and hosts businesses in a broad range of professional and cultural fields. It also has the busiest container port in the Americas. In 2018, the Los Angeles metropolitan area had a gross metropolitan product of over $1.0 trillion, making it the city with the third-largest GDP in the world, after Tokyo and New York City. Los Angeles hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics and will host the 2028 Summer Olympics.
ASIAN AMERICANS
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous peoples of the continent of Asia, the usage of the term "Asian" by the United States Census Bureau excludes people with ethnic origins in certain parts of Asia, including West Asia who are now categorized as Middle Eastern Americans; and those from Central Asia who are categorized as Central Asian Americans. The "Asian" census category includes people who indicate their race(s) on the census as "Asian" or reported entries such as "Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Korean, Japanese, Pakistani, Malaysian, and Other Asian". In 2018, Asian Americans were 5.4% of the U.S. population; including multiracial Asian Americans, that percentage increases to 6.5%. In 2020, the estimated number of Asian Americans was 24 million.
Chinese, Indian, and Filipino Americans make up the largest share of the Asian American population with 5 million, 4.3 million, and 4 million people respectively. These numbers equal 23%, 20%, and 18% of the total Asian American population, or 1.5% and 1.2% of the total US population.
Although migrants from Asia have been in parts of the contemporary United States since the 17th century, large-scale immigration did not begin until the mid-19th century. Nativist immigration laws during the 1880s–1920s excluded various Asian groups, eventually prohibiting almost all Asian immigration to the continental United States. After immigration laws were reformed during the 1940s–60s, abolishing national origins quotas, Asian immigration increased rapidly. Analyses of the 2010 census have shown that Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial group in the United States.
LOS ANGELES
MORE THAN HOLLYWOOD
Los Angeles is an urban setting usually identified with Hollywood, wealth, fame, and luxury. However, in this article, the focus will be shifted on the multicultural and multiethnic essence of Los Angeles. More specifically, the city of Angels includes an important number of Asian American population, especially Korean American ethnic minorities. Indeed, the neighborhood of Koreatown is an instrumental example of a pluralistic and cosmopolitan urban space, which is further highlighted through its multivalent murals. The mural of the Korean rapper Dumbfoundead and the one of Ava Gardner trigger our thoughts of Asian American empowerment, interracial segregation and intraracial conflict.
ASIAN AMERICANS IN L.A.
The heterogeneity of Los Angeles can be clearly realized through the instance of Asian American immigrant minority. The term “Asian American” refers to the ethnic groups of Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Philipinos, Pacific Islanders and Southeast Asians. The immigration of Chinese and Japanese occurred decades ago, while the immigration of Koreans and Philipinos is very recent and still in progress. The article will mainly discuss Korean American nationality group, which is considered as one of the most easily assimilated, integrated, and acculturated ethnic groups in United States. Nevertheless, they still suffer from discrimination, racism, and marginalization.
A GLIMPSE OF HISTORY
Their experience of immigration was different than the one of other Asians; the 1st wave occurred during 1902-1905, when small numbers of Korean laborers and workers headed to Hawaii’s plantations to cultivate land and support their families economically. In 1910, the imperialist Japan occupied Korea and that was a traumatic event in the history of Korean people and of humanity in general because of the tremendous atrocities and crimes against Koreans (many people were killed by the Japanese army, women were sexually harassed, and Korean history was erased). The liberation of the Korean nation came with 1945 with the defeat of Japan. The 1965 Immigration Act also contributed to the development and increase of the Korean mobility in United States and, especially, towards Los Angeles, which is currently home to more than 150.000 Koreans with advanced education, training, and skills.
THE STEREOTYPICAL CATEGORIZATION OF THE KOREAN AMERICAN MINORITY
Stereotypes and prejudicial beliefs are social constructs. There are positive stereotypes for Korean Americans, which trigger interracial hatred; for instance, the myth that Koreans are the “model minority” for other communities of color, such as blacks, because they are perceived as hardworking, family oriented, virtuous, and peaceful rejecting violence and quarrelling. On the other hand, there are also negative stereotypes uttered by white Americans through making common assumptions for all Asian groups. The perception that all Asians physiologically resemble one another and, thus, behave the same way provokes racism and labelism as well as demonstrates lack of respect towards the diversity, cultural identity, and nationality differences of Asians (e.g., different language, traditions, religion, etc.). It is interesting that discrimination and marginalization continue to survive in our days; anti-Asian hatred was intensively depicted during the beginning of covid-19 pandemic, when Asian exclusion was usual.
KOREATOWN IN L.A.
Koreatown in Los Angeles can be perceived both as a “shelter” (or an ethnic enclave) for Korean immigrants, where they can find familiar smells, tastes, and sounds, but also as a neighborhood offering unique experiences to tourists for cultural exploration. Indeed, the empowerment of this multicultural community lies on its multifaceted public art of murals. This visual culture not only beautifies the neighborhood, but also embraces Asian American identity and promotes cultural diversity.
THE MURAL OF THE RAPPER DUMBFOUNDEAD
The mural of the Korean rapper Dumbfoundead is an ode to ethnic pride and delivers political messages. The depiction of his face by the Korean American artist Joseph Yun Lee in a multicolored way signifies the need for a joyful and peaceful coexistence between the different ethnicities and communities of color living in the neighborhood. The rapper himself represents a liminal character as he is ethnically Korean but raised in a Latino culture. However, his devotion to his origins is obvious in the calligraphic tattoo (“Koreatown”) that he carries on his chest. Furthermore, the mural was painted on the wall of a Korean liquor store as a memorial of the interminority riots of 1992, when lots of Korean liquor businesses were destroyed. The purpose of this mural was the immortalization of the rapper, as art has the power to immortalize, as well as the celebration of Korean cultural identity. Unfortunately, the mural was animalistically vandalized by graffiti writers indicating Anti-Asian hatred and echoes of racial discrimination.
THE CONTROVERSIAL MURAL OF THE ACTRESS AVA GARDNER
A controversial mural, which raised questions of intraracial conflict is the one of Ava Gardner painted by Beau Stanton in Robert F. Kennedy Community School in Koreatown in 2016. The artist’s inspiration was the historic Cocoanut Grove nightclub, a Hollywood hotspot in the former hotel, where the school is now located. His purpose was to colorfully celebrate the neighborhood’s golden past by painting the American actress’s profile against a background of red and teal stripes coming out of her like rays of sunshine. According to the artist, this backdrop was employed to draw the beholder’s attention into the central image of the mural. However, Korean artists interpret it as a hate symbol because of its resemblance to the Japanese imperial (battle) flag during WWII. What Korean activists claimed was that the background’s stripes resembled the red and white stripes of the “rising sun” of Japanese colonialism which led to horrible crimes prompted by racism and fascism. On the contrary, white American artists did not acknowledge the mural as traumatic, which indicates lack of empathy toward this ethnic minority and Asian invisibility.
MODIFICATION OF THE MURAL
In 2019, the mural was reconstructed sustaining part of the debated stripes, but adding imagery (an Asian person, oriental flowers, and colorful patterns) that reflects Koreatown’s rich ethnic history and celebrates the immigrant culture.
CONCLUSION
All in all, these murals contributed to Asian visibility and, more specifically, the empowerment of Korean ethnic minority. Discrimination, prejudice, and segregation are barriers and impediments of interracial meaningful interaction. A pluralistic and democratic society is a society where people will be assessed depending on other variables, apart from their skin color.
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