Platform / Learning From Other Cultures

IN BO

Union organizer and member, Young Koreans United, born in Korea, resident of Crenshaw area of Los Angeles

As an activist I have learned from the other Asian activists here--Japanese, Chinese, Filipino--that it is possible to organize and work here for your own people. The wave of Korean immigration to the United States began in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That group was mostly very conservative, mostly professionals with a lot of capital. They believed strongly in the American dream of becoming successful but forgot the struggle here by minorities for civil rights. The Japanese and Chinese activists here are mostly second and third generation and I have noted the Japanese in particular have broadened their political work to include peace and the environment. I hope the future movement by young second-generation Koreans coming along here will also be very broad.