To avoid falling into America's favorite urban scapegoats when crimes happen, Korean-Americans should need to improve their English language proficiency, a veteran Korean journalist in the U.S. said.
K. W. Lee, an 80-year-old Korean American journalist who became the first Asian immigrant to work for mainstream daily publications in the United States, said in a piece published in a Korean community newspaper that many Korean-Americans are still "without the common English medium of communication in this nation of competing groups and interests," placing them in a disadvantaged position.
In a piece, titled "No English Final: the unlearned lesson of 4.29: an English voice is the key to urban survival," he took the example of the 1992 L.A. riot in which thousands of Koreans fell victims to the racially motivated violence.
In the riot, "Korean-Americans witnessed their American dream go up in smoke overnight," he said.
"Without our own timely proactive English voice, we are shut out of the 24/7 news cycle with devastating consequences, in cases of fast developing urban unrest or anti-Korean rumor- or race-mongering. Even a high school kid learns fast that English is his or her best weapon in classrooms and school yards and dealing with school bullies."
With the impact of the economic crisis still unfolding, Lee said, "These are harder times with rising tension everywhere. Among the most misperceived and misrepresented minorities, our seemingly thriving tribe of voiceless newcomers is more vulnerable to potential flashpoints of ethnic conflict than ever before."
Lee was born in 1928 at Gaeseong, North Korea, and attended Korea University in Seoul, South Korea. In 1950, he immigrated to the United States and studied journalism. He is also the founding president of the Korean American Journalists Association.