Hate crimes grow here and countrywide as Asian businesses gain economic prosperity.

Hate crimes grow here and countrywide as Asian businesses gain economic prosperity

The current recession, a growing Asian population and increased publicity about Japanese takeovers of American businesses are ingredients for a continued increase of hate crimes against Asians in Los Angeles County.

In fact, there has already been an increase in racially-motivated crimes against Asians both nationwide and in Los Angeles County.

In the first six months of 1990, hate crimes against Asians increased by a higher percentage than crimes against any other ethnic group for the same time period a year before, said Eugene Mornell, executive director of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission.

There were 23 hate crimes against Asians during the first six months of 1990, as compared to seven incidents in the first six months of 1989, Mornell said.

Although blacks were the victims of more total hate crimes, 80 in the first half of 1990, Asians saw the largest percentage increase, Mornell said.

The numbers are "disturbing," said Kathryn Imahara, civil rights attorney with the Asian-Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles. She said she fears that violence against Asians may continue to rise.

The Los Angeles center is currently working with Asian rights centers in New York and San Francisco to set up a conference on rising hate crimes, Imahara said. Increased Anti-Asian sentiment about recent buyouts of American movie studios by Japan-based corporations and Japanese real estate investment worries Asian leaders, Imahara said.

"We realized that, yes, the economic slowdown, combined with the publicity about the Japanese busy all this land, all these businesses . . . we know that this does increase the violence against Asians," Imahara said.

A Los Angeles Times poll conducted last May found that unfavorable opinions of Japan had jumped from 27 percent to 39 percent between 1987 and 1990. Favorable opinions of the country dropped from 70 percent to 56 percent, according to the poll which had a 2 percent margin of error.

Anti-Asian sentiment among the general population can contribute to the incidence of hate crimes against Asians, said Professor Jack McDevitt, associate director of the Center for Applied Social Research at Northeastern University, who has conducted several studies on hate crimes in Boston.

"The people who go out with the baseball bats, they're a small part of the people who hate (a particular ethnic group). But they need other people to say, `yes,'" McDevitt said. "If there is a feeling in the community that the Asians are taking over . . . they will be giving a reason to the haters out there. It gives them a feeling that maybe the police won't act," McDevitt said.

McDevitt noted that the vast majority of hate crime perpetrators are whites, particularly blue-collar whites who feel they have the most to lose to minorities. Hate crimes are fueled by resentment, fear and economic disadvantage, he said.

And even if the hate is directed at Japanese only, all Asians can suffer, McDevitt noted.

In probably the most infamous Anti-Asian assault in recent history, Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American was clubbed to death in 1982 in Detroit by a former auto-worker who mistook Chin for Japanese. The autoworker blamed Chin for the recession in the U.S. auto industry.

Currently in New York City, blacks have staged a massive boycott of Asian-owned Green Apple grocery stores.

In Los Angeles, a group of black and Korean community leaders have been working to reduce tensions between Korean business owners and the black community in South Central Los Angeles.

The Black-Korean Alliance was formed in 1986, after four Korean business owners were murdered in South Central Los Angeles, said Jai Lee Wong, alliance administrator.

Many Korean immigrants have opened stores in economically depressed parts of Los Angeles because it was the only place they could afford, Wong said. Tensions rise because of cultural differences, such as the fact that Koreans rarely smile and blacks therefore perceive them as unfriendly, Wong said.

Los Angeles Police Department Detective George Min said that the problem is two-sided.

"I'm sure the black people feel the (Koreans) are invading the neighborhood. They're driving more expensive cars and they're putting nothing back into the community," Min said.

The turnover of ownership of stores in depressed areas is high, Min said, and Korean merchants don't get a chance to become part of the community. "In every community, there are good guys and bad guys. The store owner doesn't have time to learn the good people and the bad people," Min said.

Min said that tensions could be reduced if store owners made an effort to help the community, such as hiring neighborhood teens as part-time help in the store. "If they see an effort being made, they won't torch his store or they won't rob it as often," he said.

A Korean merchant who is a member of the black-Korean alliance had worked hard and successfully at reducing tensions between himself and the black neighborhood where his store is located, Min said.

"He's giving away food during Thanksgiving and Christmas. He's meeting with the local religious leaders," Min said. "But something went wrong all of a sudden."

A few months ago the merchant's store was burned in an arson fire, Min said.

Racial incidents do not only occur in depressed neighborhoods.

Last year, attorney Imahara was getting into her car in the parking lot of a department store when a stranger yelled at her to "go home!"

Imahara recalled, "I said, `Excuse me, but I am home.'"