One of the things I love about Los Angeles is its incredibly diversified (and densely packed) population. There aren't many places where can you find African, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Hispanic, Portuguese, Indonesian, all together! The intrinsically complex and varied nature of Los Angeles is what makes it so interesting! Most people, however, do not have the opportunity to think of Los Angeles in terms of its social geography, and simply go through these areas in one-dimensional, entertainment driven terms. I myself made such a trip into one distinct cultural agglomeration, Koreatown, with the original intentions of entertainment, but with newly added socially geographic knowledge.
For most college students, when we think of Koreatown, we simultaneously think of Korean BBQ, the most delicious and overly satisfying of dining experiences. For large quantities of delicious food, I assure you we will travel through most any circumstances. From UCLA, one must leave the white residence of Bel Air, pass along the 405S to the 10E, and then go into the heart of downtown. While many may think of downtown Los Angeles as the "center" of Los Angeles, we know now after studying the Chicago School and the Burgess Concentric Ring Model that this is not necessarily true. Regardless of whether downtown LA is the center point of LA or not, I would certainly like to claim that it is one of many major centers of cultural agglomeration, leading to large sections of the area being divided into multiracial enclaves. Thus, traveling to Koreatown asks that you pass through a dense hispanic population, where the streets are lined with Taquerias, vendors, and other hispanic cultural points. Just when you wonder whether you're heading in the correct direction after all, there is an abrupt change in the makeup of the population as the streets soon are lined in signs with Korean writing on them, kbbq's pop up on every street corner, and the population changes in its global origin. It is this kind of abrupt and distinct transition from cultural enclave to cultural enclave that not only plays into the cosmopolitan nature of Los Angeles as a whole, but to the severe social differences present within adjacent areas of the same city.
Visiting Koreatown is not just a great opportunity to eat asian food, but a great way to better understand the social differences that come about from the integration (and sometimes disintegration) of cultures. Giddens writes that it is important to break with our past traditions in order to allow for the transition and change into modernity. And while the consistently Korean population of Koreatown has had to break with tradition in order to come to the United States, to build lives here, and to accept American culture, they also have been able to maintain a large part of their traditions. Thus, as there is integration of the Korean population into overall Angeleno society, the social difference between people indigenous to this area and not is apparent in the distinct differences in language, custom, and even physical appearance. Through examination of areas such as Koreatown, and subsequently Chinatown, LIttle Italy, etc., we get a feel for how social difference becomes cultural, as the city of Los Angeles turns into one giant city made of small agglomeration and enclaves of individuals.
Hello Robyn!
ReplyDeleteI’m going to comment on your Week 3 post about Koreatown. As of now I have written about both racial enclaves and gentrification for independent blog posts. Now with this comment I am able to combine both in my discussion of KTown and its increasing population of non-Korean residents. This discussion would add an element to the structure of the enclave that you discussed in your blog post.
As you discussed in your post, Ktown is right in the heart of downtown. This is an interesting characteristic for an enclave. This location is in a diverse densely populated area and this is the reason for the change in the racial proportion of the population of the enclave. When Koreatown developed as a enclave, it was densely Korean, but as the city grew around it, the need for people to live in an area near downtown forced many students and commuters to find living arrangements in this area. Many of the residents are students from the University of Southern California who need cheaper living arrangements. Along with people who serve the many businesses in the commerce prevalent area of downtown.
While most of the notable areas and sights of Koreatown are Korean establishments, like you mentioned, it is a popular cultural hang out spot for people all over LA. This has also slightly changed the focus of commerce in the enclave to appease the needs of outside (non Korean) tourism, to allow for maximum utilization of their business.
While the societal infrastructure of this enclave has changed, it is still a predominantly Korean hub. This change in racial proportion elucidated the resilience of the Korean community, and the openness of the city of LA to mix racial identities while still maintaining the integrities of these enclaves.
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ReplyDeleteYou write about your trip to Korea town and highlights how many different cultural enclaves can be found around Los Angeles and looks at where the line between culture and social difference is. I felt as if you but a positive spin on the idea of these enclaves of cultural difference, portraying them as an example of the cultural diversity within Los Angeles. However in light of the this weeks reading on segregation and our recent discussion of ghettos in class I can't help but think of theses enclaves as examples of segregation within the Los Angeles metropolitan region.
ReplyDeleteIn an article by Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton entitles “ The Continuing Cause of Segregation” they discuss the problem of segregation in cosmopolitan areas in the United States. they argue that despite the laws against segregation it still occurs due to deep set racial discrimination. although their argument is mainly made for african americans and latinos, it can be argued that these enclaves of cultural difference are in reality just segregation within the city.
if we look at a map of los angeles that was on lecture series 2 that depicted the race distribution throughout the city we can see a very clear trend in racial groups collecting together in different regions. there is a belt of whites by the coast and in the mountain followed by a belt of african americans, the a belt of latinos further inland. there racial groups tend to conglomerate. Normally I would argue it was also a class divide but as Massey and Denton proved class is a factor but race is an equally large one. Now these racial divides are obviously different from the Ktown, Chinatown , little Italy, ect. but the origins of these small neighborhoods has to do with ghettos of people of a certain ethnicity gathering together for cultural solidarity as well from being rejected from the “white” neighborhoods.
Map from lecture series 2. depicts racial distribution in LA
I understand that neighborhoods like Chinatown, Ktown, and little Italy may not me manifestations of ongoing segregation and may simple be agglomerations and celebrations of certain cultures. However it is still interesting to examine these phenomenon a little deeper and think of the negative and positive causes of them.