At the annual meeting for the American Political Science Association (APSA in September 2018), IGGI’s Dr. Le presented a newly completed manuscript on
“A Further Test of the Immigrant Cohort Hypothesis: The Case of Korean Americans.”
Abstract: In this paper, I continue a test of the immigrant cohort hypothesis (ICH) by examining the case of Korean Americans. Sparked by the acquittal of four LAPD officers who were accused of beating Rodney King, long-simmering racial tensions erupted in the Los Angeles Riots with Korean Angelenos as scapegoated targets of violence and looting. Using a rich battery of race and ethnicity measures from the National Asian American Survey (2008) and regression analysis, I find that the Los Angeles Riots introduced a discontinuity in contexts of socialization and racialization, creating distinct Korean American immigrant cohorts with demonstrable differences in attitudes toward race, ethnicity, political candidates and political parties. Findings indicate that even within ethnic group, cognitive biases due to different periods of socialization affect whether and how one interprets hate crimes, as well as party and candidate preferences.
The completed manuscript is ready for submission. Stay tuned for updates about the publication process and hopefully a link to free copies of the research article.
Image Source: “LA Riots Aftermath – 1991,” by Mick Taylor (https://www.flickr.com/people/56353907@N00) from Portland, USA. Retrieved from here