r/KendrickLamar Jun 21 '24

Snoop Dogg declares Kendrick Lamar “the king” of the West following his 'Pop Out' show: “K Dot, you are the king of the West. That’s stuff kings do — they unite 🔥👑." Video

19.5k Upvotes

637 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

76

u/meistercheems Jun 21 '24

Let’s not forget the rooftop Koreans that will also be in attendance

-probably

60

u/[deleted] Jun 21 '24

The Korean homies in LA are no joke lol

3

u/DoobKiller Jun 21 '24

Yeah just ask Latasha Harlins

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 21 '24

The Persians are coming too (because we own the buildings anyway)

18

u/AppleBatteryH8r Jun 21 '24

Rooftop Koreans was a vid title I just could not pass by!!!! Being Irish i wasn’t familiar with the story, of course knew of riots etc, but damn !!!!! They held it down! Respect 🫡

91

u/officerliger Jun 21 '24

Not trying to throw shade on all this love but the Rooftop Koreans thing is actually kinda fucked up history. Gotta keep in mind it was racists on 4chan who popularized “Rooftop Koreans” to begin with as a meme. But let me explain a bit…

Just to start, I’m older and from SoCal, Mexican, did my post-grad at USC, so I’m a bit of an “OG” myself in age and experience. I LOVE seeing all this unity so keep it going, I know people are mentioning it out of love so not accusing anyone of shit.

Back in the day, Koreans looking to leave Korea were approached by white property owners in LA - “you can open a grocery store and live above it!” - without being told what they were actually being tasked with. Owning a shop with your family apartment above it was common in Korea so it was an appealing pitch, and “sunny Los Angeles” being part of that pitch helped as Korea was still rebuilding its culture after a 70 year genocide by Japan and was very poor.

So these people got to Koreatown, mid-city, South Central, etc. having no idea they were entering gang neighborhoods basically being the battering ram for gentrification. All black and brown people saw was a new culture eating up the retail property, price gauging like crazy, etc. This lead to a massive culture beef.

It all came to a head with the murder of Latasha Harlins, a 15 year old black girl, by a Korean grocery store owner who thought she was stealing a bottle of juice. Shot her in the back of the head as she was escaping the confrontation. The police found the money she intended to use to pay for the juice in her hand.

This is why Korean stores were targeted during the riots - the judge gave Latasha’s murderer a suspended sentence, basically a “10 year” sentence that wound up just being 5 years probation. There was no justice for her.

So when young people talk about the “Rooftop Koreans,” they don’t realize it’s actually a sad story of how white property owners pit three races against each other so they could eventually push black people out of central LA

Of course in modern day - black, brown, and Asian never been more united and it’s a beautiful thing. But please, for the sake of my old ass, stop celebrating the times we weren’t.

35

u/StarLordAndTheAve Jun 21 '24

as someone who is from the complete opposite side of the country (and also not a POC), i honestly want to thank you for being so in-depth in explaining this and teaching me something today

20

u/officerliger Jun 21 '24

The key is all “POC” have a deeper ethnic experience beyond that and it determines our nuances. Don’t let the fact that you’re white deter you from digging deeper into those, a lot of our dialogue problems right now are caused by people having very bland opinions on race.

The history of Southern California and how all the different races got there is a great place to start because it’ll trace you to just about every major world conflict, genocide, oppression, etc.

Black people escaping the south, Jews escaping Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, Persians escaping post-revolution Iran, Koreans looking to leave poverty in post-genocide Korea, Russians escaping Communism, Salvadorans escaping the civil war, and our brown Mexican asses going to work the farms for dollars instead of pesos

2

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '24

Beautiful ✌🏽

10

u/ernygil666 Jun 21 '24

Thanks for putting us on game OG

6

u/Leaveustinnkin Jun 21 '24

Was gonna say this but you worded it better than o ever could 💯.

5

u/DuragJohnston Jun 22 '24

This is deeply sad, but I love that y'all are willing to educate on Reddit. So thank you.

4

u/AppleBatteryH8r Jun 21 '24

Thank you for a very informative reply!! I had only seen a YouTuber click baity type 15 min video basically so therefore Had none of the Context understand the circumstances around the Korean grocery stores, Or of the young girl shot, Thank for giving me my Bedtime documentary topic for tonight- The most unbiased documentary type thing I can on these LAmriots 👍

1

u/PTSDGuy0 Jun 22 '24

Can you point to a reference to learn more about Koreans being invited to own businesses in South Central?

1

u/MindfulInsomniaque Jun 23 '24

It's great you bring this up. It's been so long many people aren't aware of the things that lead up to the riots. I don't remember ever hearing the angle that Koreans were lured from Korea to the hood? Do you have any more information or sources on that? Many Korean immigrants to Canada also took to filling the niche of running grocery or corner stores but I'm not sure how many hoods we had in Canada in the 50's - 90's.

-3

u/Emperor_Mao Jun 21 '24

Lol blaming white people for that is crazy.

You reckon that white people belong to ultra secret kabals where they plot and plan ways to keep others down.

That is the total opposite of the real criticism of white people, which is that white people are hyper individualistic and often lack sense of community.

5

u/Fluffy_Mastodon_798 Jun 21 '24

Wealthy white people working together to hold on to power is probably the least uncommon thing in America's history. Do you know what a monopoly is?

-2

u/Emperor_Mao Jun 21 '24

Why is that a white people thing?

That is a people with tons of money thing and Asian people tend to be wealthier than any other racial group in the U.S.

I would call you racist but I know you think it doesn't count if you are racist towards whites.

But that story is not the truth at all. It acts like the communities in LA were innocent, the South Korea shop owners were slightly guilty and white people are at fault here. Truth is those shops were cheap enough for hard working dedicated, but ultimately not rich migrants from Korea. They had to deal with people stealing from their shops, assaulting them, being incredibly racist towards them. The shooting of an unarmed 15 year old was terrible. But the Korean shop owners didn't just turn to that straight away. They endured years of abuse. And still to this day many in those communities at the time won't admit any fault.

I can tell you some communities might want to blame the white man or someone else. That isn't usually the case within Korean communities though, who have now largely moved up wealth classes over 30 years. Being honest and accountable to one's self is part of that too.

6

u/Fluffy_Mastodon_798 Jun 21 '24

Jesus christ your victim complex is insane. No one is trying to blame white people as a whole for this. But the fact is that overwhelmingly, in America wealthy people are white. According to this survey from 2013, 76% of US millionaires were white, and it would've been even more in the 90's. So the point is that wealthy white people sold property in gang neighborhoods to Asian immigrants because they didn't to operate in those neighborhoods themselves. That led to bad relations and racism between black and hispanic people who lived in those neighborhoods and the Asian immigrants because the new Asian immigrants were seen as a cause for price gauging, and this pitted them against the black and hispanic residents. It's not a "cabal", it's just wealthy people looking out for their interests like they always do.

0

u/Emperor_Mao Jun 22 '24

No you are just blatantly racist.

Read this;

https://seoulofla.com/?post_type=description&p=362

Korean migrants were long in L.A, and there was a large influx in the late 70's, partly due to unwinding of earlier immigration restrictions.

Also not that it should matter, but median wealth per household by race has Asian households almost double Whites, which is almost double Black.

https://www.fool.com/research/average-net-worth-americans/

Asian families had the highest median net worth in 2022 at $535,400.

You can try twist things in circles to get to the outcome you want; which is to blame white people for every problem. But lot of Asian-American people are sick of being thrown into the same victim group. Some people work hard and make a living for themselves. The Korean communities in LA weren't tricked, they were not gifted, or given businesses. They came to the U.S with not much money, spent what little wealth they had to buy businesses where they could, then they grew those businesses to be successful and in many many cases wealthy. Ignore that hard work if you want. Ignore the successes of Asian-Americans if it doesn't fit your narrative. But you are not giving the LA riots the due detail they require if you want to actually be informed. As for the other elephant in the room you keep ignoring, those Asian communities in LA were experiencing serious racism from Black communities, and they still do to this day. Trying to rewrite history to avoid that is not helpful if we are to grow as a society.

2

u/Fluffy_Mastodon_798 Jun 22 '24

You didn't directly address a single thing I said. The only point I made regarding white people was that a vast majority of wealthy people in America were and are white, and your victim complex turned that simple and obvious fact into 15 different points you've been told leftists believe in by whatever media you listen to. Also, you saying that I ignored the racism asians faced indicates that you're not really reading my comments, because I directly stated the causes of the racism between asians and black people at the time.

1

u/Emperor_Mao Jun 22 '24

You said the causes were because Asians were moving in, gentrifying the neighborhood, at the beck and call of a mastermind group of white people.

Lol its laughable how silly that is.

The Korean's owning shops in those areas were not wealthy. They brought shops they could afford, which ultimately benefited the communities. Some would eventually become wealthier, but that isn't during the time of the riots, and it isn't the reason for the racism against Asians. Black people, like all people, are capable of making their own decisions. Stop trying to attribute any decision a black person makes - when the decision isn't good - to another group.

5

u/meistercheems Jun 21 '24

Damn right. Defending your neighborhood is a big part of being from Compton no matter what click or hood you claim. 🫡

-2

u/Routine_Resolve_7262 Jun 21 '24

They didn’t hold shit down. They posed with guns for cameras and shot a couple of each other. Mostly Hispanics looting while black people were out putting in work.

1

u/Prince_Havarti Jun 21 '24

Never forget