MANAGING ETHNIC-CONFLICT WITHIN A COMMUNITY CONTEXT - BLACK KOREAN RELATIONS IN AN AMERICAN CITY

Relations between African Americans and Korean Americans have been def ined mainly by negative interactions between Korean merchants and Blac k consumers in urban communities. The nature of this conflict has resu lted in anti-Asian sentiments and angry attitudes that have escalated the conflict to boycotts of Korean business interests, beatings due to mistaken identities. deaths of merchants and consumers and, as we not ed in the 1992 urban uprisings in Los Angeles, looting and burning of targeted-Korean businesses. Although the conflict in part stems from e conomic and cultural differences, it is not possible to understand its roots without examining and understanding the framework created by a Eurocentric racism and the impact of news media in its portrayal of th e two principals to the public and to each other. This paper suggests using a strategy of dialogue between members of the two communities in mixed groups at all levels, in order to increase the level of underst anding and reduce or resolve the existing conflicts even though the fa ctors which might contribute to the conflicts have not been or can not be eliminated.