Racial Prejudice Among Korean Merchants In African American Neighborhoods

RACIAL PREJUDICE AMONG KOREAN MERCHANTS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOODS

Ronald Weitzer* George Washington University

Many Korean immigrants in the United States have established small retail businesses in black communities. Relations between these merchants and neighborhood residents and customers have been problematic in a number of cities. Using in-depth interview data on a sample of Korean merchants in Washington, D.C., this article examines merchants' racial attitudes and reported interactions with African Americans. Drawing on middleman minority theory, I show how Koreans' middleman role and immigrant status condition their daily experiences with and attitudes toward African Americans and how constructions of group differences are used to advance middleman interests.

Compared to the abundant literature on relations between majority and minority groups, few empirical studies and little theorizing exist on relations among minority groups. This study examines relations between two such groups--Koreans and African Americans--focusing on racial attitudes and constructions of group differences.

Substantial numbers of Korean immigrants can be found in cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Many are "middleman minorities" or "immigrant entrepreneurs" who own and manage small businesses and occupy intermediate economic positions between dominant and subordinate groups, distributing to the latter merchandise produced by the former (Bonacich 1973; Light and Bonacich 1988). A high proportion of these businesses are found in inner-city areas, where competition from other retail stores and the required start-up capital are lower than in more affluent areas, where large chains dominate the market. In Washington, D.C, two-thirds of all small retail businesses are owned by Korean immigrants, three-quarters of which are located in predominantly African American neighborhoods (Myers 1992).

Relations between Korean merchants and African Americans have been strained in a number of American cities. Black leaders claim that Korean merchants, like other commercial outsiders before them (cf. Chang 1993; Drake and Cayton 1993), are involved in economic exploitation of the black community and hinder the rise of black businesses (Min 1996; Ong, Park, and Tong 1994). Resentment sometimes results in organized boycotts or collective violence, as in the Los Angeles riots of 1992.

According to middleman minority theory, immigrant middlemen typically have poor relations with the host population, because of economic competition, cultural differences, and in-group solidarity (Bonacich 1973; Turner and Bonacich 1980; Zenner 1991). This

*Direct all correspondence to Ronald Weitzer, Department of Sociology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052.

The Sociological Quarterly, Volume 38, Number 4, pages 587-606.

Copyright No 1997 by The Midwest Sociological Society.

Rights and Permissions, University of California Press, Journals Division, 2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94720.

ISSN: 0038-0253.

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article extends middleman minority theory in three ways. First, analysts have highlighted "host hostility" to middlemen (Bonacich 1973; Min 1996; Zenner 1980), with little attention to middleman perceptions of the host population. I focus on one example of the latter, Korean merchants' attitudes toward African Americans.

Second, the theory has been used to explain collective conflicts between African Americans and Koreans, such as boycotts and acrimonious public discourse (Min 1996). I maintain that the theory is equally powerful at the microlevel: Koreans' concentration in urban, middleman business roles puts them in everyday contact with members of the host community, and these routine interactions generate and reproduce a strong sense of group difference from the host community. While Korean-black relations are partly influenced by public struggles among group leaders (Min 1996; cf. Blumer 1958), such collective conflicts are fairly episodic, whereas face-to-face interactions between merchants and customers are continuous. If much of what whites know about blacks is derived from the media, with firsthand experiences secondary, Korean merchants' opinions are heavily shaped, I argue, by their day-to-day encounters with blacks at work. Empirical tests of the "contact hypothesis" suggest that ongoing interactions among members of different racial groups can influence intergroup attitudes in a positive direction if certain conditions exist (Allport 1954; Amir 1969; Ellison and Powers 1994; Sigelman and Welch 1993; Stephan 1987; Works 1961). Yet "we know little about the situational contexts in which contact has negative effects on intergroup relations" (Stephan 1987, p. 29). The frequency of interaction between Korean merchants and African Americans makes for an ideal context in which to examine this question.

Third, I argue that the immigrant middleman role is associated with certain social and economic interests that are largely incompatible with those of the host population and that these interests are reflected in merchants' social constructions of the host population. Standing in stark contrast to the classic and still popular view that prejudice is essentially irrational and based on faulty generalizations (Allport 1954) is the argument that interests shape racial attitudes (Wellman 1977). Distinctions have been made among "self-interest" (the well-being of the individual or his/her family), "self-oriented group interest" (personal interests being met when one's group interests are met), and "pure group interest" (group advantages independent of personal benefits) (Sears and Funk 1991). The literature offers little empirical support for the influence of self-interest on racial attitudes but more support for the effect of the other two types of interest (Bobo 1988; Bobo and Hutchings 1996; Sears and Funk 1991; Tuch and Hughes 1996). This research is confined, however, to studies of whites' attitudes toward African Americans, thus ignoring other kinds of intergroup relations. It may be the case that self-interest plays a larger role in shaping the racial attitudes of individuals who find themselves in a more vulnerable position than most whites, such as immigrant merchants whose commercial role and personal safety in inner-city neighborhoods is less than secure. I argue that Korean immigrant merchants' relations with African Americans are influenced by a combination of individual and group interests. These include:

1. A "proprietary claim" over certain rights or privileges--a central feature of Herbert Blumer's (1958) "group position" model of prejudice. Racial and ethnic groups make proprietary claims in several areas of life, including the "claim to certain kinds of industry or lines of business" (Blumer 1958, p. 4). For Korean merchants, this means the proprietary "right" to run stores in black neighborhoods, a self-oriented

Racial Prejudice among Korean Merchants 589

group interest in that the claim is made for the group as a whole (Korean merchants) and also satisfies individual interests.

-- A preoccupation with socioeconomic advancement and a strong fear of down
ward mobility, leading individuals to develop prejudice toward and to seek social
distance from persons perceived as having lower status (Jo 1992). Korean
merchants' concerns about social mobility are shaped by their personal socio-
economic vulnerability as both immigrants and middleman entrepreneurs. Their
aspirations for advancement are primarily self-interests, having little to do with
group benefits.

-- A stake in neutralizing host criticisms of merchants. Korean merchants often
account for host hostility by explicitly invoking the larger black-white conflict.
Here, merchants' folk wisdom mirrors a central tenet of middleman minority the
ory: that middlemen are situated between and may be scapegoated by both domi
nant and subordinate groups in the host society. In highlighting their location
between two host populations, Korean merchants display a strong triadic "sense of
group position" (Blumer 1958). Such conscious positioning is rooted in a self-
oriented group interest in that it helps merchants redefine conflicts with Afri
can Americans in a way that rejects group responsibility for problems and indi
rectly "justifies" the commercial presence of both the group and the individual in
black neighborhoods.

METHODS

Korean immigrants' racial attitudes have been studied in a few cities, but this research is limited to surveys that give only a rough barometer of opinion (Min 1996; Yoon 1994) and a few in-depth interviews whose findings are presented in a cursory fashion (Abelmann and Lie 1995; Jo 1992; Park 1995). The present study draws more extensively on in-depth interview data, addressing Korean merchants' general and specific attitudes toward African Americans, social distance preferences, and reported interactions with black customers.

Interviews were conducted in 1995 with a systematic random sample of thirty merchants drawn from a list of 784 Korean-owned businesses in Washington, D.C.--a directory published by the Korean-American Grocers Association of Greater Washington-- primarily grocery stores, liquor stores, and carry-out restaurants.¹ The sample was evenly split between males and females, with a mean age of 46 years old, a mean length of time in the United States of 14 years, and a mean household income of $77,000. Stores were located in both middle-class and lower-class black neighborhoods.² (In quotations from the interview data below, respondents are identified by number and as "LC" if they work in a lower-class neighborhood and "MC" for those in middle-class neighborhoods.) As in most American cities, there is no Korean "ethnic enclave" in Washington, D.C. Stores are not concentrated in any one area and most merchants reside in the suburbs outside Washington; all of my respondents live in the largely white or mixed suburbs in neighboring Maryland and Virginia, though they spend long hours each day at their stores.

Interviews were conducted at merchants' stores by a Korean interviewer and were tape-recorded and translated into English. Use of a Korean interviewer was necessary so that interviewing could be conducted in respondents' native language, to facilitate rapport, and to avoid interviewer effects--thus enhancing the validity of the data. As amply evidenced

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below, respondents did not seem to package their responses in a socially acceptable, colorblind manner.

FINDINGS

Racial attitudes were not related to merchants' age, gender, income, type of business, or length of time in the United States.³ Some modest differences were associated with neighborhood context, with merchants in middle-class areas somewhat less likely than those in lower-class areas to voice categorical prejudice against blacks on certain questions, but a larger sample would be required to corroborate these differences. The similarities in racial attitudes between merchants in the two types of neighborhoods were much more pronounced than any differences.

General Attitudes toward African Americans

One measure of Koreans' general views of African Americans is found in recollections of impressions at the time of arrival in the United States. Two-thirds of the merchants reported negative first impressions of blacks, such as presumed dangerousness and criminality and adverse reference to skin color and facial features. (Most of the remainder lacked clear impresssions.) In response to the question of whether their views had changed since arriving in the United States, a majority of the merchants stated that they now had less negative general opinions of blacks:⁴

Now, most people I see all day are black, so I understand them better. Once you get to know them, you realize that they are warm and caring people. As long as we are nice to them, they are good people, too. (14MC)

I am not afraid of them as much as I used to be. In spite of there being some bad troublemakers, there are a lot of naive and decent people. (1 IMC)

If you get to know blacks, you realize that they have very similar characteristics to Koreans. They have chung [warmth, communal ties]. . . . They are simple and nice people. Before I got to know them like this, I thought they were dangerous people. The only things I knew about them came from the media. (3MC)

African Americans differ from Koreans in being "simple" (i.e., straightforward, present-oriented, pleasure seeking) and "naive" (i.e., easy to please), terms used frequently by respondents. These attributions may be regarded as backhanded compliments in that they are viewed with approval but also somewhat disparagingly.

Warmth and group solidarity are traits viewed more positively, because they are shared by Koreans. In stressing these qualities, several merchants contrasted blacks with whites, who were seen as cold, disingenuous, and individualistic:

[Blacks] share with each other and have more friendly conversations. They are warm people. I see that these blacks have lots of interaction with neighbors. They take care of each other and act like some sort of extended family. You wouldn't see that kind of warmth from whites. (12MC)

Whites do not have the chung blacks or Koreans have, and they lead a very self-centered lifestyle. They are very cold and snobbish people. (7MC)

Racial Prejudice among Korean Merchants 591

My neighbors are whites. They are so manipulative and selfish. They discriminate against Asians with a smiling face. They are so pretentious. Blacks are not like that. They may be blunt and sometimes rude, but at least they are honest about their feelings. (9MC)

Respondents were not uniformly negative toward whites; some were quite impressed with their putative attributes, and most wanted to live in white neighborhoods and send their children to white schools. Still, their criticisms of whites were significant, consistent with middleman minority theory's stress on immigrant resentment toward dominant as well as subordinate groups in the host society.

Some merchants avoided generalizations and instead made distinctions between "decent" and "rough" people, "nice blacks" and "troublemakers." Some others distinguished between middle-class and poor neighborhoods, citing with approval the former's tidier appearance, lower crime rate, and residents' higher education and greater employment. By making such distinctions, a person can avoid accusations of racism while lending credence to derogatory remarks (also made by these same merchants), a dynamic not uncommon in racial discourse (van Dijk 1987). Still, such distinctions arguably reflect a deeper sensitivity to variations among African Americans, absent in other merchants' remarks.

A number of merchants therefore held at least somewhat positive or mixed general opinions of African Americans. Most of these same merchants, however, gave unfavorable responses to the more specific questions discussed below. Taken as a whole, the data clearly reflect a net negative impression of African Americans.

Accounting for Black Deprivation

It has been suggested that Korean merchants are indifferent to the social and economic disadvantages faced by African Americans (Light and Bonacich 1988), partly due to the recency (post-1965) of their own immigration to the United States. To determine if merchants were cognizant of these conditions, they were asked whether they thought African Americans had been discriminated against in America. Some merchants flatly denied this, naming successful individuals and pointing to the advantages of affirmative action programs. Three-quarters, however, acknowledged the existence of discrimination, either past or present. But after these "apparent concessions" (van Dijk 1987, pp. 93-95), qualifications often follow, with about half of those who acknowledged discrimination also quickly asserting blacks' inherent character or moral flaws or behavioral problems, such as "laziness" or "stupidity." "There must be some discrimination," says a carry-out owner (14LC). "However, there are a lot of successful blacks, too. Poverty and all those social problems in black neighborhoods exist because they are lazy." Downplaying structural disadvantages makes it easier to exhort blacks to work harder to advance, just as Koreans have:

But they should stop blaming [poverty] on slavery, which was over a century ago, or current racism. Rather than crying about discrimination, they have to help themselves.

(8MC)

And affirmative action benefits may eclipse whatever discrimination exists:

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There is some discrimination in everyday life, but America offers them a lot of things. Blacks have more opportunities than whites if they are smart. Sometimes they get benefits from the fact that their ancestors were discriminated against a hundred years ago. It's their own fault if they're not successful. (1 IMC)

These merchants minimize discrimination and attach to blacks themselves the lion's share of the blame for deprivation, because they lack the cultural capital and the inclination to work hard enough to pull themselves out of poverty (cf. Abelmann and Lie 1995; Min 1996; Yoon 1994). Of course, Koreans are by no means alone in blaming blacks for their own deprivation. Historically, this has been a staple of white opinion, and as recently as 1994 about two-thirds of whites in the General Social Survey rejected the idea that blacks' inferior housing, incomes, and jobs were mainly due to discrimination, while over half attributed these conditions to blacks' lack of motivation to rise out of poverty (Davis and Smith 1994). Such views are consistent with the "dominant ideology" in America, which holds that opportunities for advancement are plentiful and that individuals are personally responsible for their success or failure (Kluegel and Smith 1986).

In a Los Angeles survey, over three-quarters of 198 Korean merchants considered blacks lazy and believed they want to live off welfare (Yoon 1994).⁵ My respondents were not asked questions about these two stereotypes, but most nevertheless volunteered them in response to other questions. The two traits are linked:

The system makes them stupid and lazy. I am really unhappy about the welfare system. The idea itself is good, but there are so many people who take advantage of it. I see customers who come here with Cadillacs and use food stamps. . . . Rather than giving them money, we should teach them how to support themselves. (8MC)

Merchants strongly felt that most black welfare recipients could get along without it if they tried, a view supported by a majority of whites as well (Kluegel and Bobo 1993) and indeed part of the "dominant ideology" in America. As one grocer complained,

Even if there is a job opportunity, they won't take it. They are just lazy. They don't understand the value of getting money from hard work.... I wish there was a military-style reform center for blacks. They have to be reformed. Otherwise, the welfare system drains our money. I don't understand why the government gives money to people who are capable of working. Blacks can speak English, and they are physically strong. If Koreans can make it, blacks should be able to make it too. ... At least they can do some construction work. (10MC)

Not only does the welfare system harm those who depend on it, it also harms those who finance it:

You know, it's our money. I am paying high taxes to feed these lazy blacks. It's money I made from working hard for long hours. (10MC)

Where do they get money for drugs? From their welfare checks. That welfare money comes from my taxes. (2LC)

The implication is that welfare has costs for merchants' personal well-being and that, in this instance, material self-interest is influencing racial attitudes.

Racial Prejudice among Korean Merchants 593

Another, more indirect, measure of Koreans' awareness of conditions facing African Americans is their construction of the 1992 riots in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four police officers in the beating of Rodney King. Respondents were asked why Korean stores were targeted by the rioters.⁶ Some explained the attacks in terms of blacks' envy of Koreans' success, and a few blamed Koreans for mistreating blacks, but most cited a different cause: blacks' discontent toward whites, displaced toward the accessible Korean stores (cf. Min 1996). Koreans were middlemen accidentally caught in the crossfire:

Koreans were the victims of the white-black conflict. . . . Koreans were a shield for whites. (7LC)

It was the anger of blacks toward the racist American system. Koreans were in the wrong place at the wrong time. If whites had stores in that area, they would have been the victims. This is the shrimp's broken back during the [two] whales' fight. (8MC)

Blacks thought that Koreans were easy targets. We were right there and they know we have no power to take any revenge against them. Koreans were victims of conflicts between whites and blacks ... victims of white racism toward blacks. (12MC)

There are two themes in these remarks. First, Koreans have an acute triadic "sense of group position" (Blumer 1958) in relation to blacks and whites, consciously positioning themselves squarely between the other two groups. Second, while generally downplaying discrimination, respondents selectively invoked white racism to explain black discontent and riot behavior, with Koreans as scapegoats. In this way, storeowners were relieved of any collective responsibility for the rioters' attacks on Korean businesses,⁷ despite evidence that rioters singled out Korean stores in part because of diffuse or latent hostility toward these merchants (Min 1996, pp. 90-91). Korean merchants thus take a page out of middleman theory (the larger context of black-white conflict) in order to explain their victimization, downplay their own role in frictions with African Americans, and, since attacks were defined as misdirected, reassert their proprietary claim to run stores in black neighborhoods.

Interactional Friction

Personal contacts in daily life account for a large part of Korean merchants' attitudes toward African American customers. Respondents frequently cited their own interactions with blacks to explain or justify their racial attitudes. While many encounters are routine exchanges, brief and casual, or may even include the exchange of pleasantries, others are more conflictual--infused with unilateral or mutual rudeness, miscommunication, and ignorance of out-group cultural differences. It is true that the merchant-customer relationship per se contains the seeds of conflict (over uncivil or unfair exchanges), but middleman minority theory predicts that conflicts are likely to be more pronounced where merchants and customers differ racially and where the former are immigrant entrepreneurs and the latter native-born. Where both merchants and customers are native-born or where both are members of immigrant groups, relations may be less problematic. The fact that many Hispanics are fairly recent immigrants who "cannot claim the prerogative of nativ-ism" as blacks can (Cheng and Espiritu 1989, p. 528) may help explain why tensions between Korean merchants and Hispanic customers have been relatively infrequent. In

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Los Angeles, Korean merchants were nine times more likely to say that they had clashes with black customers than with Hispanic customers (Yoon 1994).

Merchants in Washington recounted a number of interactional difficulties with African American customers. Some of these problems mirror those faced by whites who preceded Koreans as shopkeepers in urban black neighborhoods (Berk 1968), while other problems are more specific to immigrant middlemen who differ markedly from the host population in language and cultural background.

Communication problems, due to Koreans' poor proficiency in English, were a major source of misunderstandings.⁸ "Since I have a language problem, it is difficult to explain when a customer complains about the food," one carry-out owner stated. "Sometimes they get upset about what I say, and I didn't mean to insult them or anything" (14LC). Communication problems are sometimes amplified by customers' nativistic remarks. Some merchants recounted instances when African American customers had derided them for being immigrants, and almost half volunteered that they had been called "Chinks":

They say, "I am an American, and you are not" [and] they make fun of my English. When I opened the store here, they often called me "Chink, Chink." Sometimes they say, "Go back to your country." (2MC)

Another source of tension involves violations of imported cultural expectations regarding appropriate interactional demeanor and etiquette. Merchants seem especially sensitive to swearing by customers, which is constructed as crude, disrespectful, and provocative:

There are some nice blacks too, but in general they swear a lot and their whole behavior is so rough. Sometimes I think I am lucky not to be able to understand what they say. If I understood every word they said, I would be upset all the time and end up dying from it. (10MC)

Since I understand all their swear words, it makes it even more difficult. Sometimes, I wish I couldn't understand English, like most Korean merchants. (13LC)

They use the F-word all the time and sometimes they use a swear word I don't even know. I get really upset then. I tolerate it because I don't want to get into a bigger problem. What if they have a gun or something? (15MC)

When they use all those swear words, like "motherfucker," I cannot control my temper. Then, I hit them. . . . When I don't sell alcohol without ID, they start swearing. Then, a fight starts. (12LC)

Problems arise from other normative aspects of Korean culture as well, such as restrictions on making eye contact, smiling, and touching strangers (including putting change in someone's hand). Customers may regard these practices as signs of discourtesy or as reminiscent of the "caste etiquette" of the old South (Dollard 1937).

Crime is a univeral concern of merchants, and respondents expressed a very strong, ongoing fear of violent crime while at work. All thirty merchants singled out armed robbery as the crime they feared most; more than half had been robbed, as many as eight times. They also feared or had been victims of burglary or assault⁹ and more commonly faced threats of violence from customers:

Racial Prejudice among Korean Merchants 595

Sometimes a black customer asks for a soda with a quarter. If I ignore that kind of nonsense, they may do something. It happened yesterday. I refused to give a soda, and he pulled a knife. (14LC)

If I give a warning to a shoplifter, they show a gun in their coat. It's the way they threaten merchants. In that case, letting them go is the best way to avoid trouble. (9LC)

Such selective experiences--threats from customers, past personal victimization, and fear of future crime--appear to shape not only views of the perpetrators but also more general attitudes toward African Americans as "dangerous" and criminally inclined (Min 1996, p. 121).

The exchange relationship itself lies at the heart of many disputes. Owners of carry-outs derided customers who complained about the quality or amount of food after consuming most of it, though they tended to replace the food in order to avoid altercations. More common are problems of shoplifting, shortchanging, and conflicts over prices and credit:

Seventy to 80 percent of the people steal something here. I feel like everybody who comes here is a thief. I am suspicious of everyone now. Even if I catch them shoplifting, they have no shame. Instead, they yell at me. (10MC)

They insist that they gave me a $20 bill when they gave me a $10 bill. It happens constantly. . . . There are mothers who come into the store with their son and cover the son's shoplifting. (12MC)

There are some nice customers, but most of them are possible shoplifters. They always want something free or they want to get something on credit. If I don't do that, they call the government and suddenly an inspector comes in and interferes with my business. I really have a bitter feeling toward these people. (1LC)

At least once or twice a day I hear, "Chink, go back to your country." [This happens] when they complain about the price or when I refuse to give a discount. ... I don't rip them off and at the same time I don't give a discount. (15MC)

Shoplifting was cited as a chronic problem by all merchants except those working in carry-outs, which afford little opportunity for theft.¹⁰ The allegedly widespread nature of shoplifting among blacks is illustrated in the extreme by the grocer who declared, "When I see blacks jogging, I feel like they are practicing for shoplifting," i.e., running away with the goods (5MC).

Some merchants are prepared to confront customers who steal or challenge them, even if it may backfire and lead to more serious problems, while others take pains to avoid or defuse confrontations in order to protect themselves and their stores.

Merchants drew no connection between their conflicts with customers (over credit, prices, food, shoplifting) and their own business practices (some confided that they charged inflated prices, shortchanged customers, and sold food beyond the expiration date). Nor did they entertain the idea that such disputes might be related to customers' real economic disadvantages, at least in poor neighborhoods (cf. Yoon n.d.). This is consistent with the previously documented tendency to downplay deprivation by stressing residents' moral and character flaws.

Let me highlight two points about the interactional problems discussed above. First,

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although such problems are to some extent generic to merchant-customer transactions, they are exacerbated when there is an immigrant-native dimension to the relationship and when there are cultural differences between the parties. Second, everyday troubles have a profound, cumulative impact on merchants' attitudes toward African Americans. One consequence is a reinforcement of their desire to maintain social distance from blacks outside of work.

Social Distance

A Los Angeles study asked 240 Korean and African American merchants how "close" they felt toward six other ethnic groups. The Koreans felt the least affinity for African Americans, and African Americans ranked only one group lower than Koreans. Seventy-two percent of Korean merchants said they felt "not very close" to African Americans, and 52 percent of black merchants said the same of Koreans (Koch and Schockman 1994). In the present study, social distance preferences were measured with responses to questions on residential integration, school integration, and interracial marriage. With regard to residential integration, nine out of ten merchants were opposed to living in a neighborhood where half the residents were black--a view shared by a similar number of Korean merchants in Los Angeles (Yoon 1994). Some stressed that their experiences at work made any close contact outside work unthinkable: "I can't even imagine it," said a grocer. "Isn't it enough to spend so much time at this store and struggle with them? I bet no Koreans want to live near blacks" (10MC).

Many respondents assumed that such a neighborhood would be dangerous, dirty, and crime-ridden:

Actually, there is a house available now and it is a real good deal. Since it would be easy to go back and forth between home and work, I considered buying it. My wife was against it to death. She just couldn't imagine herself and the children living in a black neighborhood. And I could understand her points. It's dangerous and dirty. So, I guess that I would never live in a black neighborhood. (9MC)

While a distinction was sometimes made between good and bad neighborhoods elsewhere in the interviews, it was very rarely invoked when it came to the question of living with black neighbors. Even middle-class neighborhoods with black inhabitants contain perils:

Koreans don't want to live in a black neighborhood. It's not a nice area, a lot of drugs

and crime. Who would want to live there?

Q: Would you feel that way even if it is a black middle-class neighborhood?

It doesn't matter. They are loud and have bad manners. I don't want to live in a black

neighborhood. (1 IMC)

Several respondents made apparent concessions to the black residents of middle-class neighborhoods but then backpedaled:

In my neighborhood there are a couple of blacks. They are decent people, but I am concerned that my house value may drop. (2LC)

If the neighbors are middle class, it seems all right. But still, I think there is a big cultural gap between blacks and Koreans. No matter what class they are, blacks seem to be wild and noisy. I wouldn't want them to be the majority of my neighbors. (7LC)

Racial Prejudice among Korean Merchants 597

Even if they are decent middle-class people, when blacks move into a neighborhood they bring their culture along with them. Blacks, regardless of their backgrounds, make a neighborhood dirty, increase the crime rate, and lower the quality of the education system. (4LC)

Special concern was expressed about Korean children living near blacks, whose "lifestyle," "culture," and "rough" behavior--irrespective of class--might be emulated by their kids. Class similarity does not spell equality; intergroup cultural and behavioral differences overshadow or dilute class effects.

Nine out of ten respondents also rejected the idea of sending their children to a school where half the students were black, insisting that black classmates would only be a bad influence. Black children were portrayed as having low educational aspirations, bad manners, warped family values, and other moral flaws. Consider the following claims:

I don't want my children to be assimilated with blacks. They don't have a concept of authority, they don't know how to respect their elders, and they don't even know how to greet parents. What kind of education would be possible in that situation? I am absolutely against it. (IMC)

Children will learn nothing nice from black kids. All they see from their parents must be lack of responsibility, dependence on welfare, drug addiction. ... It will also be an influence on my children. (3LC)

Although the questions expressly asked about schools and neighborhoods that were half African American in composition, respondents tended to construe this to mean "black" schools and neighborhoods.

Resistance to intermarriage is another measure of social distance. Endogamy is common among first-generation immigrants and middleman minorities (Bonacich 1973; Zen-ner 1991), a means of preserving in-group solidarity. The majority of merchants in the present study were against intermarriage with members of any other group, though some would tolerate unions with Hispanics, other Asians, or whites (cf. Yoon 1994). Four-fifths were opposed to the idea of one of their children marrying an African American,¹¹ and many said they would do everything in their power to prevent such a union:

I don't care whether he went to Harvard. Rather than marrying a black, I wish my girls would go into a convent. . . . How can I have black in-laws when my image of them is terrible? My children know that they will no longer be my kids if they marry a black, so they wouldn't do that. (5MC)

Some of the arguments against mixed marriages were pragmatic, such as problems with the in-laws and expected marital friction due to differences of "culture, custom, and color" (14LC):

It is not racism. Marriage is sharing a life together. Living with a person from a different culture until death is an extremely difficult thing. I've heard many stories of Korean women who had a hard time in interracial marriages. (12MC)

Whites or blacks cannot be a real part of my family. I wouldn't be able to interact with my daughter-in-law comfortably. Also, my son wouldn't feel comfortable doing Korean things all the time around his wife. As a result, the family will deteriorate. (13MC)

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Biological reasons were frequently mentioned. Differences in physical appearance--such as "color," "looks," and the imputed essentialist difference of "blood"--were used to mark and naturalize group boundaries. For many, it is an article of faith that "Koreans should marry Koreans" and that the bloodline must remain "pure." It is "only natural" to preserve a group's racial purity, and interracial relationships are an affront to this imperative:

I am emphasizing the purity of the bloodline to my children. If Koreans keep mixing their blood with other ethnic groups, the Korean heritage will disappear. (1LC)

Anybody but a black is acceptable as a member of my family. Even if he is a smart, successful black, there is blood running from the slave culture. I wouldn't let it happen. (15MC)

In discussing interracial marriages, children are inevitably a topic of special concern (Frankenberg 1993). Many merchants expressed acute anxiety about biracial children, who are said to look strange, suffer from identity problems, and inherit low intelligence:

I wouldn't allow it. That means that my grandchildren would not be smart because of the black's blood. Somewhere in their blood, there must be some bad traits affecting the brain and behavior. (3LC)

Actually, I have just gotten an invitation to a wedding like that. ... I feel so sorry for the [Korean] bride's father. He will have black-colored grandchildren. Americans [whites] would hate that. Racially mixed kids are not able to have pride. If you don't have pure blood, it is difficult to have a feeling of belonging or any pride. (IMC)

I would rather send my children back to Korea. I keep telling them any kind of interracial marriage is out of the question.... In the United States the mixed-race kids are not treated well. (12LC)

Positive feelings about Korean-black marriages were quite exceptional and were always qualified:

When I planned to buy this store, my husband asked the same question. I said, "I would faint and die." But now I think, "Why not?" As long as she is from a good family and has a good educational background, I will accept her. (3MC)

It depends on the person. Whether he is white or black, if he is a well-educated, nice person, I wouldn't be against it. I myself married a Japanese . . . and I am very happy about it. ... In fact, I think that encouraging marriage between Koreans and blacks can be one solution to the current problems between the two communities. (15LC)

This latter view was expressed by none of the other merchants.

In sum, Korean merchants clearly desire maximum social distance from African Americans.¹² The premium placed on social distance is couched in biological and moral assumptions as well as ostensibly pragmatic concerns: fears about crime, harm to children, and marital difficulties in interracial unions. These notions do not arise in a vacuum. Koreans' distinctive proximity to blacks at work creates a professed familiarity with black life that strongly shapes their desire for distance outside of work. Social distance preferences are also conditioned by the structural context in which immigrant middlemen find themselves, that is, their vulnerable socioeconomic position in American society, which makes

Racial Prejudice among Korean Merchants 599

them averse to any assimilation with groups perceived as having lower status (Jo 1992, p. 406). Indeed, if merchants can justify maximum social distance from blacks--as they do with biological, cultural, and pragmatic claims--this supports their larger interest in avoiding downward mobility, which they associate with contact with African Americans. Social distance from and status degradation of blacks thus safeguards or enhances Koreans' own status.

Contributing to the Neighborhood

That Korean merchants are commercial outsiders in African American neighborhoods may present a structural limit to major improvement in relations with the host community, but there may be ways of ameliorating problems. Washington's Korean business associations have met with black leaders, awarded scholarships to black students, organized holiday dinners for the needy, and launched other initiatives. Do the merchants themselves make efforts to improve relations or "give back" to the host neighborhoods?

African American leaders in various cities have complained that Korean merchants do not contribute to the neighborhoods in which they work. In Los Angeles, only 14 percent of Korean merchants (compared to 73 percent of black merchants) felt that it was important for Koreans to invest in South Central Los Angeles (Koch and Schockman 1994) and, in another study, only 11 percent thought they should "contribute to and participate in the local community" (Yoon n.d.). My respondents were asked whether they had ever participated in or contributed materially to neighborhood events, such as community meetings or block parties. Most decline to attend these functions, ostensibly because they do not have time or because of their poor English proficiency. A few also take principled objection to the idea of contributing money or goods to community functions: "I make money out of my sweat," says a carry-out owner (14MC). "Why should I give something back to them?" Four-fifths of the respondents, however, report that they make donations. Donations are motivated not by a genuine desire to give something back to the community but for purely pragmatic reasons--because it is good for the store's reputation or because merchants feel pressured to do so:

I send some sodas and paper plates as a donation. I don't want to do that, but I am

forced to. There is pressure. They wouldn't say so, but I get the message that I have to

do those things if I want to avoid future possible trouble.

Q: What kind of trouble are you talking about?

They may boycott or set fire to this place. In a way, it's a bribe asking them not to hurt

my business. (13MC)

I make some donations to their events. Not that I want to, but it's for the sake of the business. To be honest, I'm not interested in whatever activity they have. (15MC)

When there is a neighborhood event, I send some soda and beer. That's important to present us as friendly merchants. Otherwise, who knows? They can make a big issue out of nothing and bother us. Since we are working in their neighborhood, we need to kiss their ass a little. (9MC)

Merchants who attempt to integrate themselves into the neighborhood, rather than simply ingratiate themselves with residents, appear to be quite exceptional (cf. Boustany 1995). Only one person wanted to be involved in the community for other than purely instrumental, business reasons, though this was still one motive:

600 THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Vol. 38/No. 4/1997

I participate in their neighborhood events or activities. Sometimes my husband goes to the neighborhood meetings. I occasionally go to the neighborhood church even though I'm Catholic. They are so happy to see me at the church. It helps the business. If they can have a positive impression about the store, then they will come to mine rather than other stores. ... Having good social relations with neighbors is very important. We are part of their neighborhood. (9LC)

Another measure of merchants' contribution to the neighborhood is whether they employ local people in their stores. As a general rule, middleman minorities have been reluctant to employ members of the surrounding population (Bonacich 1973; Sowell 1994, p. 51), because of cultural differences and because the very success of these small enterprises often depends on the use of low-paid or unpaid family labor.¹³ In Los Angeles, very few Korean merchants hire blacks (Min 1996); if they must hire non-Koreans, they prefer His-panics (Yoon 1994). In cities where African Americans are more numerous, there may be a greater willingness to hire them. This was the case for 31 percent of Korean merchants in New York City (Min 1996, p. 114), 60 percent in Chicago (Kim, Kim, and Choi 1996), and for four-fifths of the Washington respondents. Merchants identified two main reasons for doing so: impression management and the value of African American workers as intermediaries between storeowners and customers. One grocer said she felt "safe" when her black employee was in the store: "It may not make sense, but I may not be attacked by blacks" (8LC). Others stressed both practical and symbolic benefits:

It's important to hire blacks when you have a business in a black neighborhood. It's a matter of impressions to customers. They should get the feeling that the storeowner treats blacks well and offers something to the community. Also, just in case there is a conflict with a customer, the black employee takes your side. Then, it's easy to handle the situation. (IMC)

Since I am working in a black neighborhood, it's better to have blacks at my store. . . . It will give black customers a good image of me. Also, a black employee will be an interpreter and protector when there is any trouble with other black customers. (10MC)

Merchants were quite candid about employing African Americans not because of altruistic considerations or a moral responsibility to hire local people but to further their commercial interests. In Washington, just as in New York and Philadelphia (Lee 1997), black workers were valued as brokers, helping to smbothe out communication problems and other conflicts, and their very presence was designed to cast merchants in a more positive light.

That merchants see certain advantages in hiring African Americans does not mean that they define their work habits positively. Studies of white employers in New York and Chicago found that they evaluated black workers as unreliable, uncooperative, dishonest, and lacking in a work ethic (Kasinitz and Rosenberg 1996; Kirschenman and Neckerman 1991). Middleman minorities in other societies have claimed that indigenous workers were lazy, had poor work habits, and stole from their employers (Sowell 1994). Korean employers in Atlanta and Los Angeles (Min 1988, 1996; Yoon 1994) and almost all of the respondents in the present study who had hired black workers shared these assessments:

I hired a black and I trusted him enough to let him handle the register. He got into drugs and started stealing money. Finally, he ran away with money. (6LC)

Racial Prejudice among Korean Merchants 601

I have a black working for me now.... However, it is difficult to find hardworking blacks to hire especially in a neighborhood like this. They don't appreciate the opportunity I give and do not show up for work without notice if there is any fun thing they can do. (3LC)

Now, I have a black cashier. Somehow, blacks are not so smart. It takes a long time for them to understand how the machine works, and they make too many mistakes. And they are slow. They need twice as much time as a Korean would need for the same work.. .. When I hire them, they really appreciate it, but it doesn't last long. They start complaining and steal things. (13MC)

Some feared that African American workers would give security information to their criminal associates:

If they learn the system of how this store runs, they can conspire with other blacks and make some trouble. . . . Someone I know had a robbery right after he hired a black. (13LC)

My friend hired a black at her store and then a couple of thefts occurred. There is no evidence, but we suspect the employee gave someone information about the alarm and everything. It's hard to trust them. (6MC)

Contrary views were expressed by only three merchants, such as the liquor store owner who remarked, "Some Koreans complain that there are no blacks to hire, but if you look hard there are nice blacks who are trustworthy and hardworking" (5LC).

Judging from merchants' comments, unfavorable stereotypes of black workers were largely based on sour personal experiences with individual employees, subsequently generalized to all African Americans.

When it comes to making donations and hiring local people, the relationship between merchants' attitudes, preferences, and interests is less straightforward than in the other substantive areas examined in this article. Despite the fact that merchants dislike making donations to the host neighborhood and prefer not to hire black workers, they feel compelled do so to preempt possible threats to themselves and their stores. Though forthright in disparaging black workers and expressing resentment over obligatory material contributions to the neighborhood, merchants acted in this instance not on their personal preferences but instead according to more compelling economic imperatives.

For the same reasons that African Americans allegedly make poor employees, they are not suited to ran small businesses. Poor work habits and "laziness or ignorance" (8MC) hampers their commercial success and has opened the door to more industrious people. Again, we see how racial discourse constructs group differences in ways that serve Korean interests. If blacks can be defined as ill-equipped to ran small businesses because of innate or other flaws, middlemen can more easily defend their interest in or proprietary right to ran such enterprises in black neighborhoods. This proprietary claim rests not only on putative deficiencies of the host population but also on Koreans' own entrepreneurial talents. Merchants proclaim their aptitude for turning failed stores into successful ones and insist that by doing so they are helping to revitalize neighborhoods:

They have to appreciate Koreans' contribution to their community. All those stores that failed were bought by Koreans, and we made them clean and prosperous and we serve the community. (IMC)

602 THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Vol. 38/No. 4/1997

To their dismay, they feel they do not get credit from the host population for their contributions to the neighborhood:

They complain to me that Koreans take all their money out of their community. It's not true. We pay our taxes and that money keeps this community going. . . . Blacks can't keep a business going. When there is a store going down in a black neighborhood, Koreans buy it and make it run. It eventually makes the community alive. . . . They don't appreciate what Koreans do for their community. (15LC)

Merchants believed that blacks see them as materialistic, "workaholics," and interlopers who exploit the black community:

In general, they think Koreans are money crazy. We work too hard and never take a break. Also, they are unhappy that their money is going to Orientals. Seems like this neighborhood is their turf or something. (IMC)

These classic antimiddleman views (Bonacich 1973) are consistent with findings from a survey of 97 African Americans in New York City: two-fifths thought Korean merchants exploited black neighborhoods; more than half believed they drained resources out of the community and made it difficult for blacks to open their own businesses; and almost half believed Koreans were overly concerned with making money (Min 1996, pp. Ill, 124). By insisting on their economic "contribution" to the community, however, merchants turn the claim of "exploitation" on its head while also justifying Koreans' entrepreneurial role, for which blacks are allegedly ill-suited.

CONCLUSION

By virtue of their daily interactions with African American customers, Korean merchants have a relationship with blacks that sets them apart from most other groups. While attitudes are also influenced by other factors, like the mass media, such frequent intergroup contacts have a powerful, cumulative effect. Merchants offered numerous examples from their own experiences to underscore their sense of group difference from blacks. Indeed, several drew direct connections between their work experiences and racial views: "I have an image of blacks from my business," said a carry-out owner. "So, even if my daughter brings [home] a decent black man, it would be hard for me to accept him as a part of my family" (6LC). And a liquor store owner reflected, "Since I've had break-ins, a robbery, and constant disputes, I can't help having a negative attitude toward blacks. Of course I know there are many decent blacks who are professionals. It's just my work environment that makes me angry at them" (13LC). Close proximity to African Americans at work generates both prejudice and a desire for maximum social and physical distance outside of work. On only two measures did a majority of respondents express somewhat favorable attitudes toward African Americans: improvement in general impressions since the immigrants' arrival in America and qualified acknowledgment of the existence of discrimination. That eight out of ten merchants say they make donations to community events and have hired a black worker reflect not positive views of the host population but a calculated insurance policy for the business.

Korean merchants' racial attitudes are shaped by a set of social and economic interests

Racial Prejudice among Korean Merchants 603

stemming from their precarious structural position in American society as both immigrants and middleman entrepreneurs--interests to which they are acutely sensitized by virtue of their daily encounters with African Americans. I have argued that these interests include (1) a proprietary right to run businesses in African American neighborhoods--a self-oriented group interest in that the claim is made for the group as a whole and also benefits individual merchants, (2) a high premium on socioeconomic advancement and anxiety about the downward mobility expected from any close association with African Americans--a self-interest framed in terms of personal aspirations and fears, and (3) a self-oriented group interest in defusing host criticisms of merchants, accomplished through the folk use of middleman minority theory to portray Korean merchants as victims caught in the cross fire between blacks and whites; problems with African Americans can then be redefined as a function of black-white conflicts, relieving merchants of individual and collective responsibility.

Conditions for the growth of positive intergroup relations, as specified by the contact hypothesis--such as cooperative or noncompetitive interaction, sustained rather than passing contact, and roughly equal social status between the parties--are typically lacking in contacts between the two groups. Their contacts are fairly superficial, fleeting, lacking in common goals, and possibly competitive, and involve individuals of unequal social status (even when both merchants and customers are middle class, customers tend to be perceived as having lower overall status). Far from satisfying the conditions for the development of positive relations, this state of affairs--coupled with cultural, linguistic, and other differences between Koreans and African Americans--seems to describe one of the "situ-ational contexts in which contact has negative effects" (Stephan 1987, p. 29).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported by a grant from the Center for Washington Area Studies at George Washington University. The author is grateful to Myoungsun Song for interviewing and translation and to Andrea Lohse for assistance with the data analysis. Steven Gold, Kwang Chung Kim, Steven Tuch, and two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on an earlier version of the article.

NOTES

-- The list excludes some businesses that are disproportionately Korean in Washington, such as
dry cleaning and street vendors catering to tourists.

-- Neighborhood class position was based on medium household income of census tracts within
which stores were located. Lists were created of stores located in the top and bottom quartiles of pre
dominantly black census tracts (those that were at least 80 percent African American). Fifteen busi
nesses were randomly drawn from each list.

-- These factors have not been examined in other research on this topic, with the exception of
length of time in the United States, which was found not to be a predictor of racial attitudes in Los
Angeles (Yoon 1994). As for type of business, the three types examined here are fairly similar,
which helps explain the lack of variation in merchant-customer relations.

-- This was not related to length of time in the country, applying to old-timers as well as more
recent arrivals.

604 THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Vol. 38/No. 4/1997

-- In the 1990 General Social Survey, 47 percent of whites believed blacks are lazy and 59 per
cent believed they prefer to live off welfare (Davis and Smith 1994).

-- This question was based on the common notion, shared by my respondents, that the rioters
were mainly blacks, whereas Hispanics were also heavily involved. Although arrest statistics are
by no means a perfect measure of riot participation, it is noteworthy that 51 percent of the arrest-
ees were Hispanic, 36 percent were black, and 11 percent were white (Petersilia and Abrahamse
1994).

-- White merchants working in black ghettoes in the 1960s similarly denied responsibility for
attacks on their stores during the riots of that time, instead blaming the mere location of the store in
a riot area and the fact that it was an easy target (Berk 1968).

-- A survey of 265 Korean businesses in Washington found that 63 percent of merchants
reported language problems with customers--59 percent occasionally and 4 percent frequently
(Myers 1992)--and according to the 1990 census, 85 percent of Koreans in the Washington area
speak Korean at home (Garreau 1992).

-- Merchants who had reported crimes to the police were very dissatisfied with the police action,
citing excessively long response times, cursory investigations, failure to inform victims of case out
comes, and black police officers siding with black suspects. On the latter problem, perceptions of
police bias against minority groups, in other contexts, see Bay ley and Mendelsohn (1969) and
Weitzer(1995).

-- Two-thirds of a survey of 265 Korean merchants in Washington reported being victims of
shoplifting (Myers 1992).

-- The children tend to avoid such marriages. Second-generation Korean Americans in Califor
nia are only slightly more likely than first-generation Korean immigrants to marry African Ameri
cans: only 3.3 percent of the second-generation men and 6.5 percent of the women were married to
African Americans in 1990, compared to 0.4 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively, of the first gener
ation. The second generation is much more likely to marry whites: 34.9 percent of men and 24.6 per
cent of women were married to whites, compared to 2.2 and 12.4 percent, respectively, of first-
generation Koreans. Moreover, more second-generation Korean Americans were married to whites
than to other Koreans (Shinagawa and Pang 1996, p. 134).

-- Social distance preferences of whites are evidenced in the General Social Survey: 48 percent
of whites in 1986 were opposed to living in a neighborhood where half the residents are black; 14
percent in 1994 were opposed to sending their children to schools where half the students are black;
and two-thirds in 1990 were opposed to a relative marrying an African American (Davis and Smith
1994).

-- Where the firms are larger, there is a greater need for the labor of other ethnic groups, hence
the employment of Hispanics in the Korean garment industry in Los Angeles.

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Racial Prejudice Among Korean Merchants In African American Neighborhoods