Tale of Two Cities: Rich and Poor, Separate and Unequal : Hooliganism wasn’t the only driving force in the recent riots

In 1968, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Rights issued its report on the origins of urban riots in eight American cities. The Kerner Commission, as it was popularly called, found that “our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal.”

In 1992, the Los Angeles riots again point toward a great and worsening divide in a city moving toward two societies, one rich and predominantly white, one poor and predominantly Latino and African-American--still separate and increasingly unequal. Asians, depending on their income and ethnicity, are caught somewhere in the middle.

This growing polarization between wealth and poverty is arguably worse in Los Angeles than in other American cities. Whites and an elite group of Latinos, African-Americans and Asians have benefited from the economic boom of the past decade and Reagan-Bush tax policies. Their increasing affluence contrasts sharply, according to a 1989 UCLA study, with the increasing poverty of American-born and immigrant Latinos and the poverty concentrated in older black communities.

The poorest of the poor can rightly blame their seemingly intractable poverty on jobs that pay very low wages and on growing unemployment, particularly among black men. Job and wage discrimination, poor schools and the escalating expense of housing trap thousands of black and Latino families in enduring poverty.

MANY OBSTACLES: Immigration exacerbates this growing divide. The sheer numbers of newcomers increase the competition for jobs, housing and everything else of value. These pressures increasingly pit poor blacks against poor Latinos or struggling Asians, specifically the Korean shopkeepers who are often the merchants of last resort in South Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is on the cutting edge of economic and demographic changes that may eventually engulf this nation. Latinos, African-Americans and Asians form the majority here and will eventually represent the majority in most American cities.

Nearly 1.4 million Latinos live in Los Angeles, according to the 1990 census, making up 40% of the city’s diverse population. Their numbers reflect dramatic growth caused by a generally high birthrate and immigration.

About 320,000 Asians--Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Indians, Cambodians, Thais and others--live here. In the next census, they are expected to make dramatic population gains again.

LITTLE JUSTICE: Nearly 488,000 African-Americans live in Los Angeles. They represent only 13% of residents, and that percentage is declining. In the historically black neighborhoods where the riots took the greatest toll, the Latino population grew by 119% during the previous decade. In fact, Latinos showed population increases in every City Council district.

Enlightened self-interest requires the narrowing of the economic and social schism between the haves and the have-nots. Closing this economic divide will take commitment by private businesses and the government to provide more jobs that pay enough to allow working men and women to escape poverty. Fuller employment can also narrow the social divide by reducing tensions between competing minority groups. But the social divide will never close sufficiently as long as blacks watch others get superior treatment at work or in the courts.

The acquittal of the white policemen who beat Rodney G. King was read in some neighborhoods as saying that a black life is worth less than other lives. The lenient sentence of the Korean grocer who killed a black girl in a dispute over a bottle of orange juice was read in some areas as a sign that foreigners have a better shot in the criminal justice system than black Americans. The accumulation of these and other injustices served to widen the social divide that was lit up worldwide by the riots.

In 1992 race again is a big issue. Police brutality again fueled the flames. Immigration added a new tension to the combustible mixture of anger, alienation, betrayal, frustration and poverty. Class divisions stoked the embers of the rioting, which eventually spread beyond the boundaries of black and Latino neighborhoods.

In 1968, the Kerner Commission prescribed greater integration, more and better jobs, better housing, better schools and a more humane welfare system that would help people free themselves from poverty. There is no better prescription for what ails us now than this.