When you think about Los Angeles it’s astoundingly divided among racial lines. The city can almost be defined along racial boundaries. There is South Los Angeles which is historically black. There is East Los Angeles which is primarily hispanic. There is West Los Angeles which is largely white and Jewish. Within miles the city has a multitude of ethnic enclaves as Koreatown, Little Armenia, Little Tokyo, and Filipinotown. But beyond the diversity lies a history of racial tension and division.
One of the great wake-up calls for racial tension was the race riots in 1992 after the acquittal of the police officers responsible for the assault on Rodney King. Estimates of damages range from 800 million to a billion dollars. Many of the Korean American stores were targeted during the riots. The riots brought national attention to the tangled racial tensions in Los Angeles.
But 17 years later not a lot of dialogue and reconcilliation has happened. There continues to be tension amongst Hispanics and African Americans in the growing turf wars in what was once predominately black areas. Korean-American have largely left South Los Angeles but continue to hire many Hispanic workers for their businesses. Meanwhile people in the upper-middle class have fled to the suburbs which although is in some sense ethnically diverse, are often economically homogenous.
One of the questions that I continually ask myself is, “What is the churches role in bringing racial reconciliation?” When you think about the four main ethnicities that are entangled: (African American, Hispanic, Korean-American and White) they are all parts of communities that are heavily faith-based. Shouldn’t the church model racial reconcilliation both within the church and between churches? What would that look like? What community projects could be done between churches seeking to bring needed peace?
Wouldn’t it be an epic testimony for the church, the Bride of Christ, to show an unbelieving world the peace that faith can bring?
Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9
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I hear ya on this. Amen. There are a few groups trying to make some change. I know there are a few coalitions of different ethnic pastors that meet to bridge the gaps between their predominantly mono ethnic congregations in LA. I forgot what they call themselves. I’ve always had this vision of the Coliseum being filled with Christians of different ethnicities all praying for the city of LA. Something intersting though, though there are towns like Koreatown, Chinatown, etc., they aren’t necessarily really heavily populated by those ethnic groups like people would believe. Here’s an interesting site: http://projects.latimes.com/mapping-la/neighborhoods/ethnicity/asian/neighborhood/list/
Pastor Dennis, I have been asking myself the EXACT SAME QUESTIONS for I don’t know how long. I think it has to be intentional. I used to want racial unity to ‘just happen,’ but it never did. And it probably won’t ever happen perfectly on this side of eternity. But there’s still something in me that really really really wants to keep working for it, because it’s so pretty when you see glimpses of it.
Sooo, do you have an answer? Or an action plan? =) Community project wise, y’all can come on over to my school. Plenty of racial reconciliation needed here. =)
Yeah I agree with both of your sentiments. I think I’m working on an answer and solution that will involve a lot of communities and input. But I wanted to start a conversation first and refine those ideas. More to come on this subject!