608 Lee And Han Chapter 24 Lee and Han Engaging Korean Americans in Civic Activism EunSook Lee and Hahrie Han If we examine patterns of participation in public life among Korean Americans, an interesting puzzle emerges. On the one hand, national surveys of Korean Americans show that rates of naturalization, and demographic and other factors known to be predictors of this kind of participation are relatively low in the Korean American community. In addition, proportionately fewer Korean Americans have held elected office relative to other Asian immigrant populations.1 Yet, despite these demographic disparities, Korean American participation in certain political events in the 1990s and early 2000s, such as the 2006 immigration marches, has been relatively high.2 Why were Korean Americans so active in events like the 2006 marches despite being more quiescent in previous eras? To put the question more broadly, what explains the relatively high rates of participation among particular subsets of the Korean American community? This chapter addresses this question by providing a descriptive account of the role that three interrelated community-based organizations—the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC), the Korean American Resource and Cultural Center (KRCC),3 and the Korean Resource Center (KRC)—have played in enabling the participation of particular subsets of the Korean American community in the United States. Understanding trajectories of civic engagement among Korean Americans is intimately tied to an understanding of the civic and political organizations that exist to mobilize them. Unlike most research that examines participation by looking at the individual traits and characteristics that make it more likely someone will participate, we focus on what organizations do to shape the way people from all kinds of backgrounds engage with public life. We are not alone in taking this approach. Across history, racial and ethnic groupings, and other divides, these organizations have long played an important role in creating the conditions that make it not only possible, but also probable that ordinary people will take civic or political action. Previous research has attributed higher rates 1 For more detailed statistics on these topics see Janelle S. Wong et al., Asian American Political Participation (New York City: Russell Sage Foundation, 2011), 51–52. 2 Ibid., 19. 3 KRCC recently merged with Korean American Community Services to form HANA Center. c Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/Rac9h7ae8l9 M0i0yu4n3g3 5J3oo3 2a_n0d 2S5helley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim Engaging Korean Americans in Civic Activism 609 of activism in events like the 2006 immigration marches to the role of mobilizing organizations within the Korean American community.4 By helping people develop their own sense of agency as democratic participants, cultivating the skills people need to get involved, and creating opportunities for involvement, these organizations play an important role in cultivating movement capabilities among their constituencies.5 We provide a close examination of the way three particular organizations in the Korean American community have done so. We focus on these three organizations for several reasons. First, the interrelationships between these organizations allow them to combine local organizing in areas that have dense Korean American populations with national scale that many similar organizations lack. NAKASEC was originally based in New York, and is now in Annandale, Virginia. KRCC operates in Chicago, and KRC in Los Angeles, and, recently, Orange County. Although formally distinct, these organizations work in close partnership with each other and have sought to cultivate activism in the Korean American community since the 1990s. Second, these organizations are ideologically progressive organizations that seek to engage people in direct political action—such as influencing legislators, working in electoral campaigns, or advocating for particular policy outcomes. Engaging people in this kind of political activity is generally more difficult than engaging people in apolitical civic activity (such as volunteering for social service organizations, participating in community clean-ups, or engaging with charities). The 2008–2009 Current Population Survey, for instance, finds that while 63.4 million people report participating in some kind of civic activity, only a small percent of that is explicitly political. Understanding what NAKASEC, KRCC, and KRC did to cultivate political activity, thus, allows us to learn from a tough case; not only have they been able to get people involved, they have been able to get people involved in the kind of action that is harder to cultivate. What did they do? Third (and relatedly), these organizations work in the tradition of community organizing, which is distinct from other community based organizations in that it focuses on developing the leadership 4 Wong et al., Asian American Political Participation. 5 For example, see Alexis de Tocqueville [1835–40], Democracy in America (New York City: Harper Perennial, 1969); Theda Skocpol, Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003); Ziad Munson, The Making of Pro-life Activists: How Social Movement Mobilization Works (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009); Hahrie Han, How Organizations Develop Activists: Civic Associations and Leadership in the 21st Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014); S. Karthick Ramakrishnan and Irene Bloemraad, eds., Civic Hopes and Political Realities (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2008). Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim 610 Lee And Han capacity of the constituencies it seeks to organize.6 Studying organizations that focus so explicitly on leadership development allow us to more clearly examine what organizations like NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC do to cultivate participation among their members. In focusing on these three organizations, we are drawing on the intimate insights that one of the authors of this chapter, EunSook Lee, has as a cofounder and former executive director of one of these organizations. Each of these choices—to focus on a case study with national scale and certain outlier characteristics, and to draw on first-hand knowledge of that case—presents both methodological opportunities and limits, which we discuss later in the chapter. For now, we begin by contextualizing this work in broader research on civic and political participation and Korean American participation in particular. We then discuss the specific characteristics of the organizations in our case study, and discuss the data and methodological choices we made. Finally, the chapter presents what we have learned from the case study itself. Contextualizing Korean American Civic Engagement Estimates of the precise size of the Korean American population vary. According to the 2010 Census, there are approximately 1.7 million people of Korean descent living in the United States. The US Department of Homeland Security estimates that in 2012, approximately 230,000 Koreans living in the United States were undocumented, making Koreans the seventh largest nationality of undocumented immigrants (following Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, the Philippines, and India).7 The Center for American Progress’s AAPI Data team reports that “The Korean American population grew significantly faster than the US average between 2000 and 2013, and Korean Americans are much more likely to be first-generation immigrants than the US average.” Their data shows that fully 74 percent of people of Korean descent in the United States are foreign born. Although Korean Americans are commonly perceived to have succeeded economically in the United States, AAPI Data tells us that one in five children of Korean descent are living in poverty. Almost half 6 Marshall Ganz, “Leading Change: Leadership, Organization, and Social Movements,” in Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, ed. Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2010): 509–550; Mark Warren, Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy, Princeton Studies in American Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001); Han, How Organizations Develop Activists. 7 Nancy Rytina and Bryan C. Baker, “Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2012” (PDF). DHS Office of Immigration Statistics. United States Department of Homeland Security (accessed April 16, 2016). Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim Engaging Korean Americans in Civic Activism 611 of Korean Americans have limited English proficiency and one in four lack health insurance.8 Previous scholarship has argued that many within the Korean American community have maintained a sense that they are like permanent immigrants, thus becoming less involved in public life than other immigrant communities. 9 In part, this is because of the history of Korean migration to the United States. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act opened the doors for waves of immigrants from Asia. Korean immigration itself grew from 11,200 in the 1960s to over 500,000 in 1990.10 The United States had become a refuge from the repressive military dictatorships and police states under Syngman Rhee, Park Chung-hee and later Chun Doo-hwan. Like other immigrants before and since, Koreans who migrated to the United States toiled long hours, often seven days a week, focusing on providing a better life for their children. These first-generation parents often pushed their children to assimilate by taking on Western names, learning English, and essentially embracing American culture. The parents, conversely, clung to their heritage like sojourners in a foreign land. They formed ethnic enclaves, shopped at Korean supermarkets, attended Korean churches, and kept their social contacts within the Korean American community. By extension, then, many of these Korean immigrants were civically inactive; they did not enroll in English classes, attend parent-teacher association (PTA) meetings, naturalize, or register to vote. Indeed, survey data on patterns of civic engagement among Korean Americans bears out these expectations. There has been limited research tracking civic and political engagement specifically in the Korean American community. Much of what we know about recent trends comes from the 2008 National Asian American Survey.11 The NAAS estimates that 49 percent of Korean Americans are registered to vote, and that 37 percent voted in the 2004 presidential election. These rates of registration and voting are slightly below the average for other Asian American groups. The rates of Korean Americans who 8 Center for American Progress, “AAPI Korean Factsheet”, April 2015. <https://cdn.americanprogress. org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/AAPI-Korean-factsheet.pdf>. 9 For a further discussion of this history, see EunSook Lee, “The Political Awakening of Korean Americans,” in Koreans in the Windy City, ed. Hyock Chun, Kwang Chung Kim and Shin Kim (New Haven, CT: East Rock Institute, 2005), 338–339. 10 While Korean immigrants may have been born in either the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) or the Republic of Korea (ROK), the overwhelming majority arrived in the United States as ROK citizens. For this reason, this chapter will focus on the impact of ROK’s political, economic, and social situation on the Korean American community. 11 See Wong et al., Asian American Political Participation for a summary of the survey, and details about the data that follows. Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim 612 Lee And Han participate in community work (18 percent) are also slightly below the average of other Asian Americans, but the rates at which they talk with family or friends about politics (73 percent) or participate online (17 percent) are higher than the average. Korean Americans are also relatively high in terms of the rates at which they participate in civic activity: 17 percent report engaging in some kind of secular civic activity, while 45 percent report engaging in activity through religious organizations (49 percent report doing any kind of activity). How do we understand these patterns in relationship to broader research examining civic and political engagement not only among Asian American communities, but also the general population? As we dive into the literature on civic and political participation, it may be useful to articulate a few definitions. First, what is civic and political participation? In their canonical study, Verba, Schlozman, and Brady define political participation as activity that has the intent or effect (whether directly or indirectly) of influencing government action. Several elements of this definition are noteworthy.12 First, participation refers to actual actions that people take, as opposed to merely holding opinions about politics or public life. Second, it is political in that it impacts government action. In this chapter, we broaden this definition to look not only at political activity, but also civic activity. The word “civic” is derived from its Latin root civis which refers to a person who was a citizen of ancient Rome. Nowadays, “civic” is generally thought to refer to things that are part of the public sphere. Some of those things may be explicitly political, and thus related to government action, but others are not. Participating in a garden club, for instance, is civic in that it is related to beautifying the community, but it is private action taken by private citizens. Civic activity thus refers to a broader set of activities than political activity in that it encompasses not only activity that influences government action, but any activity that is publicly oriented. Civic associations (or civic organizations), by extension, are the organizations, networks, and coalitions that work in the civic sector to bring ordinary people together. These include everything from community-based organizations like NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC, as well as garden clubs, PTAs, and explicitly political organizations such as the Sierra Club. What, then, do we know about the role that these kinds of civic associations play in shaping people’s civic and political activity? Much research shows that most people are not born with the skills and motivations necessary to be active participants in civic and political life. For instance, the kinds of skills and motivations people might need include having a sense of shared purpose that 12 Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry Brady, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995). Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim Engaging Korean Americans in Civic Activism 613 connects my own interests to those of others in my community, feeling comfortable working with others to solve problems, having knowledge about what those problems and potential solutions are, and so on.13 These skills and motivations are cultivated—or not—through the experiences people have in their homes, schools, churches, communities, and other arenas where they may develop the proclivities to be actively engaged in public life.14 If I have a teacher who emphasizes civic education, grow up in a household where community issues and current events are discussed at the dinner table, or if I attend a church that actively encourages congregants to participate in the community, I am more likely do so. For all these reasons, when Alexis de Tocqueville came to observe American democracy in the 1830s, he pointed to the importance of civic associations in making democracy work because they were, as he called them, “great free schools of democracy.”15 Subsequent research has borne out Tocqueville’s expectations. In their analysis of participation among Asian Americans, Wong and colleagues find that even though many Asian Americans do not have the individual traits and characteristics (such as higher levels of income and education) that make participation more likely, their participation in civic organizations such as NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC can cultivate people’s agency and capacity for engagement, despite these demographic barriers.16 These civic organizations thus play an important role in cultivating the proclivities people need to participate in their communities. Beyond developing civic skills, these civic organizations also play an important role in shaping and sustaining people’s identities as Korean Americans, linking those identities to a broader community and the politics of that community, and giving people the opportunities they need to act collectively. Arguably, this work around developing individual and collective civic identities is particularly important among constituencies of color that need to organize collectively to exercise voice in the political system.17 As EunSook Lee, a co-author of this chapter and co-founder of KRCC writes: 13 Ibid. 14 Wong et al., Asian American Political Participation; Frederick C. Harris, Something Within: Religion in African-American Political Activism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001); Janelle S. Wong, Democracy’s Promise: Immigrants and American Civic Institutions (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006); Munson, The Making of Pro-life Activists; Doug McAdam, “The Biographical Consequences of Activism,” American Sociological Review 54, no. 5 (1989): 744–760. 15 Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 16 Wong et al., Asian American Political Participation. 17 Taeku Lee, “Race, Immigration, and the Identity-to-Politics Link,” Annual Review of Political Science 11 (2008): 457–478. Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim 614 Lee And Han To the “average” American citizen (us born, fluent in English and White), civic participation is tame, accessible and a given right. This term and form of action becomes more politically charged and injects new meaning in reference to those who are dis-empowered; those with less/no access to resources & opportunities and minimal/no representation in social, economic and political life. Korean Americans are one of many communities that fit this profile. Vis a vis the average American citizen, civic participation is a fundamentally differently exercised, accessed, and understood right for Korean Americans.18 The work of these civic organizations thus builds on a long tradition in American democracy, from the earliest days of our nation’s history, when people of color were not even given space to participate. The political apparatus could have seemed more remote to many Korean immigrant communities, because it has historically been dominated by other demographic groups. As a result, in developing the skills and motivations for participation in public life, civic associations like NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC are also cultivating civic identities in their members that run counter to expectations that many Korean Americans may have encountered in other arenas in their life. Within the Korean American community, it appears that many people develop these civic proclivities through involvement with their churches, but other civic associations also play an important role.19 Thus, we look particularly at the ways these three civic associations have done so. Introducing Our Case Study: NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC We seek to elucidate the way that civic associations cultivate capacities for participation by providing a descriptive account of the way that three inter-related civic associations in the Korean American community did their work. Why did we choose these organizations? Within the universe of civic associations seeking to engage Korean Americans in public life, NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC are unusual on several dimensions. First, as noted in the introduction, unlike most community-based organizations in the Korean American community, they integrated social services, cultural consciousness, alliance building, community organizing, and political advocacy into one organization. A number of organizations in the Korean American community provide social services 18 Lee, “The Political Awakening of Korean Americans,” 338. 19 Wong et al., Asian American Political Participation. Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim Engaging Korean Americans in Civic Activism 615 or cultural support to the Korean American community, but fewer organizations extend this work to focus explicitly on political action as well. In focusing on political action, NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC follow a tradition of other community organizing groups outside the Korean American community.20 Many of these organizations regard services as the frontline of meeting community members where they are. But they do not focus on services alone. They see service provision as a way to expose constituents to information, resources, and ideas to help them think critically and informatively about the world they inhabit. Further, cultural activities and events enhance the community’s self-awareness and sense of itself as immigrants of color. In doing this work, the organizations also use the tools of community organizing to equip constituents with tools to become active, and harness the leadership they have built to enact real changes in the lives and communities of their constituency. NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC are, thus, following in a larger democratic tradition of community organizing, but are unusual within the Korean American community. Because political action is generally thought to be a more intensive form of activity than solely civic action, the integrated nature of civic and political activity in NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC make them a particularly interesting case for study. Second, as discussed below, these were organizations led by people, including young people and women, who were not traditional leaders within the Korean American community. Despite this fact, they have been able to successfully develop and grow these organizations over the past three decades. In addition, these leaders have waged numerous political campaigns at a national scale, engaging a wide swath of Korean Americans in activity. Learning from what they did and how they did it, thus enables us to learn more about what the relationship is between these kinds of civic associations and civic participation. In choosing to focus on organizations that are not emblematic or representative of other civic associations in the Korean American community, we are following in a tradition of case study research that examines outlier cases. Why study outlier cases? Philosopher William James once noted that “moments of extremity” are useful to understand because they help elucidate the “essence” 20 P.W. Speer et al., “Participation in Congregation-based Community Organizing: Mixedmethod Study of Civic Engagement,” in Using Evidence to Inform Practice for Community and Organizational Change, ed. M. Roberts-Degennaro and S.J. Fogel (Chicago, IL: Lyceum, 2010), 200–217; Warren, Dry Bones Rattling; Kristina Smock, Democracy in Action: Community Organizing and Urban Change (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004); Han, How Organizations Develop Activists; Ganz, “Leading Change.” Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim 616 Lee And Han of a given phenomenon. Case study scholars have built on this idea, noting that while outlier cases sacrifice representativeness as a goal, in-depth analyses of outliers or extreme cases allow us to unpack complicated phenomena.21 In this case, we are trying to understand the role that civic associations have played in cultivating skills, motivations, and identities that Korean Americans draw upon to be active in public life. NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC are unusual in their ability to engage Korean Americans around an ideologically progressive, political agenda. Understanding how they did so helps us better understand how civic associations in general can play this role. The goal of this case study of the three organizations is, thus, not to paint a picture of a paradigmatic case that can be generalized to understanding how other civic organizations in the Korean American community worked. Instead, it enables us to learn more about the role that these kinds of organization can play in cultivating civic engagement among Korean Americans. Finally, it is worth noting that our data is unusual because they come primarily from the reflections of leaders within these organizations, one of whom is an author of this chapter. In including one of subjects of our study as an author, we are following in a tradition that is not exclusive to, but includes participatory- action research. One of the bases of participatory-action research is the idea that knowledge and processes of knowledge creation themselves can represent the interests of those who already have power in society. To democratize our understanding of how the world works, we have to include the perspectives of those who are not elites in the process of knowledge creation itself. As such, much participatory action research also legitimates experiential learning and reflections as a form of knowledge.22 Although our study is not a canonical participatory action research project, it does follow in that tradition by including one of the co-founders and leaders of the organizations under study as a co-author. We draw on this author’s reflections, as well as the reflections of other leaders within the organizations to give voice to the work and strategic choices they made in building the organizations, and to legitimate the voices of Korean Americans who are not always privileged in academic study. 21 John Gerring, Case Study Research: Principles and Practices (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007); Robert Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, Fifth Edition (New York: Sage Publications, 2013). 22 Rajesh Tandon, “The Historical Roots and Cntemporary Tendencies in Participatory Research: Implications for Practice, in Participatory Research in Health: Issues and Experiences, ed. Korrie de Koning and Marion Martin (London: Zed Books, 1996): 19–26; David A. Kolb, Experiential Learning (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1984); Julio Cammarota and Michelle Fine, eds., Revolutionizing Education: Youth Participatory Action Research in Motion (New York: Routledge Publishers, 2008). Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim Engaging Korean Americans in Civic Activism 617 As with all methodological choices, we are aware that in making this choice, we are making trade-offs, such as sacrificing some impartiality for in-depth knowledge. To mitigate the impact of such biases, we treat all our analyses here as purely descriptive, instead of making any causal claims. A Portrait of NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC’s Work Developing Civic Leadership and Power The easiest way to understand the role and significance of the three organizations in Korean Americans’ civic engagement is to examine their campaigns to effect social and political change on behalf of their constituencies. Here, we provide historical overviews of some of their major campaigns, beginning with a look at the period during which the organizations were founded. The Founding Period The organizations in our case study, NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC, were all part of the civic infrastructure that emerged in the Korean American community in response to the Los Angeles Civil Unrest of 1992 and the anti-immigrant wave that swept through American politics in the early 1990s. The early leaders of NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC recall this moment as being pivotal for Korean Americans. Inbo Sim, former president of Young Koreans United (YKU) and a founding board member of NAKASEC reflected: “In 1992, our organizations [KRC and YKU] were part of the protests against the beating of Rodney King by four Los Angeles police officers. Yet on the night of the verdict, we found ourselves caught between the crossfire of the looters and shop owners. The next morning, the mainstream media ignored the real problem of institutional racism in the city and distorted these events as a racial conflict between two differently marginalized minority communities.” At this same time, Korean Americans were caught up in a larger attack on immigrants in America, exemplified by the passage of Prop 187 in 1994. This attack only grew as Republicans took control of Congress the same year, and introduced a set of harsh antiimmigrant bills. Together, these events forced Korean Americans, and these leaders in particular, to assess their role and responsibility in American society. In Los Angeles, especially, these leaders sensed that Korean Americans felt like an insular subgroup living on the margins of society, with minimal access to political power. As a result, they had no influence to resist a disconnected political leadership that ignored a multitude of issues, ranging from police brutality, to unemployment, to a lack of investment in low-income communities. Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim 618 Lee And Han Korean American activists met to discuss the changing political climate and ways to rebuild the Korean American community and counter the anti-immigrant wave sweeping the nation. Most of the activists who came together were predominantly volunteer staff and board members of KRC, as well as members of Young Koreans United of USA (YKU) and the Korean Alliance for Peace and Justice of USA (KAPJ). KRC had originally been founded to work in partnership with YKU and KAPJ. The founders of KRC, which included the late Han Bong Yoon,23 initially formed the center to serve as a training ground for globallyminded Korean American activists. They worked together with YKU, a national political membership organization of young people between the ages of seventeen to thirty-five years who pursued the mission of promoting human rights, democracy and justice in both the United States and Korea. KAPJ was similarly oriented, yet its members were older and key in developing strategies, analyses, and visioning. KRC provided education, service, and cultural programs designed to raise the consciousness of Korean Americans while YKU identified and trained members to participate in political campaigns and other activities. YKU grew quickly across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia, involving Korean diaspora around the world in highly visible international campaigns supporting the pro-democracy movement in Korea. The majority of Korean American leaders at the time did not welcome the activities and voice of YKU, which was perceived to be quite radical. Most members were active in the face of disapproval and censure from family and friends. YKU’s success and visible impacts also made it a target for close monitoring and intrusion from various political factions, including those affiliated with the South Korean and North Korean governments.24 By 1994, however, when leaders from these organizations met to discuss rebuilding the Korean American community, the organizational landscape had shifted. In 1992, YKU witnessed the achievement of one of its primary goals to end military dictatorship in Korea. This significant political change, coupled with the changing political climate in the United States led YKU leaders to expand their strategy to address Korean American issues, not just Korea issues. 23 Known as the “Last Fugitive” for his role in the May 18th Gwangju People’s Uprising of 1980, Han Bong Yoon fled South Korea on a cargo ship and after more than 40 days, arrived in the United States where he received political asylum. He joined other Korean and Korean American activists to form Young Koreans United and the Korean Alliance for Peace and Justice. 24 In 1989, YKU Chicago member TaeHoon Park was the first South Korean national arrested for violating the National Security Law for overseas activities. In the South Korean higher court ruling of Park on October 12, 1990, it stated: “It is a known fact that YKU is an “organization benefiting the enemy.” Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim Engaging Korean Americans in Civic Activism 619 As the goals shifted, so too did the organization’s membership. More 1.5 and second-generation Korean American activists became involved. As activism around Korean American issues proliferated, YKU, KAPJ and affiliated centers such as KRC determined the need for a national organization that would bring together a set of community organizations focused on grassroots organizing, political power, and the creation of meaningful alliances. Thus, these leaders founded NAKASEC in 1994 and KRCC in Chicago in 1995.25 At their founding conference in September 1994, NAKASEC and its local affiliates introduced a bold new vision focused on advancing a national, progressive, Korean American voice on civil rights issues. There was no other organization at that time that was committed to changing policy and building power through base building and grassroots mobilizations and actions in the Korean American community. These organizations were, in that sense, pioneers. In Chicago, KRCC filled a void both with its mission to advance a social justice agenda and its organizational makeup. The founders of KRCC were largely high school and college students, and a few young adults in their twenties. They were predominantly recent immigrants (1.5 generation), low income, and Limited English Proficient. Some were undocumented, some were adoptees, and few had any college degrees or worked in the professional sector. Women were in central leadership and decision-making roles. Lacking political connections, wealthy patrons, or any institutional or government funding, the young people initially reached out to existing Korean American leaders who were mostly male, first generation and older. With a few exceptions, Korean American leaders in Chicago declined requests to work together, questioned the need for such an organization, or made accusations that the young activists were inspired or collaborating with North Korea. As a result, the young people hustled to make KRCC possible. Whether it was through selling shoes, repairing copiers, delivering flowers, or working in restaurants and cafes, they pledged and donated a week’s worth of their wages so KRCC was able to place a deposit on a two-bedroom apartment at the corner of California and Peterson Avenue in Chicago. To purchase KRCC’s first laser printer for example, volunteers stood at major intersections in the city’s North Side to sell flowers to passing motorists. To cover other basic operating costs, youth collected empty cans and bottles from nightclubs or moved furniture for extra cash. In short, the leaders that founded KRCC were young people of color who had first-hand experience growing up as immigrants in America. 25 For more history on the founding of these organizations, see Lee, “The Political Awakening of Korean Americans.” Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim 620 Lee And Han Instead of leading efforts to empower Korean Americans by itself, YKU contributed significant resources (from membership dues originated from fundraising efforts conducted by members) to support the formation of NAKASEC and KRCC, as well as the evolution of KRC.26 YKU, thus, supported the leaders of KRCC, for example, in forming a distinctive organization. KRCC sought to link social services, education, and culture with organizing and advocacy, focusing on a holistic approach to improving the life of the individual and the community, so that it could provide the kind of political leadership the community needed but lacked in 1992. YKU offered a number of training and leadership development resources to KRCC. Built on the notion that action (activism) and thought are integrated parts of everyday life, it promulgated these ideas to KRCC leaders by comprehensive training and study sessions for KRCC volunteers on organizing models and methods, sociopolitical ideas and philosophy, and a critical re-evaluation of Korean and international history. This partnership helped KRCC leaders focus on the importance of developing a personal, political and cultural identity as Korean immigrants living in the United States. In time, while both organizations sustained a strong alliance of mutual respect, they decided that YKU would focus on Korea-related issues, while KRCC focused on domestic issues.27 Welfare Reform and Immigrant Rights Organizing After winning control of Congress during the 1994 elections, the Republicanled House introduced a series of anti-immigrant proposals. In response, NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC co-initiated a campaign called Justice for Immigrants in the summer of 1995. This campaign aimed to counter the emerging public narrative that immigrants were the cause of all social ills, from unemployment, to crime, to the devolution of American cultural values. Justice for Immigrants succeeded in placing two full-page advertisements in the Washington Post, seeking to prominently challenge anti-immigrant 26 There are nuanced differences by former YKU leaders on how this strategy was implemented and how intentional the outcomes were. Deeper exploration and analysis of YKU and its relationship with the sister organizations it had spawned however is beyond the scope of this chapter. 27 YKU leaders argue that the relationship between YKU and the Korean American organizations it spawned has become symbiotic over time. As much as YKU was integral to NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC, so too were these groups to the transformation of YKU after 1992. YKU and KAPJ officially dissolved in 2008. The two organizations made an inimitable contribution to modern Korean American activism, which deserves separate study and analysis at another time. Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim Engaging Korean Americans in Civic Activism 621 arguments and calling on Congress and the president to oppose anti-immigrant proposals. The success of their organizing drive during the campaign led organizers to double their original fundraising goal, raising over $55,000 from over 300 organizations and thousands of individuals from Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Madison, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Washington, DC, among other cities to pay for the advertisement. This campaign also provided a mechanism through which NAKASEC and its affiliates could educate the Korean American community about the impact of welfare and immigration reform policies. The Korean American community mobilized and sent thousands of letters to elected officials and participated in grassroots action campaigns. In this way, the Korean Americans who participated learned, firsthand, about the policy-making process and the difference that grassroots activism could make in the process. For many, it was their first time participating in politics in this way.28 More importantly, NAKASEC and its affiliates felt that Justice for Immigrants helped build the profile and capacity of the organization.29 This campaign was also the first time a (newly formed) Korean American organization led a national immigrant rights campaign that was able to engage tens of thousands of individuals from diverse communities and sectors throughout the country. While mainstream immigrant rights advocates were initially skeptical of an unknown and new organization leading a campaign such as this, NAKASEC leaders found local community-based immigrant organizations to be both curious about the novel approach and excited about a strategy designed to enable immigrants to gain agency and tell their own stories. Organizers in local communities used all available resources to raise the money they needed. In Chicago alone, thousands of Korean Americans gave a dollar or more in donation boxes at churches and supermarkets. English as a second language students at the Erie Neighborhood House, a social service center serving the Latino community, took up collections during their night classes. The Polish Daily News urged its readers to mail in checks, and KRCC received a flood of checks averaging $5 and $10 in small white envelopes from Polish Americans. To recognize the diverse base of support, press events were in English, Korean, Spanish, Chinese and Polish, and included representatives from women, labor, and African American communities. NAKASEC and its affiliates were thus able to build on this newfound capacity in the fight for welfare reform. These groups continued to work together over a 28 For more detail on the campaign, see Lee, “The Political Awakening of Korean Americans.” 29 During the early years, NAKASEC maintained affiliates in New York and Philadelphia. Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim 622 Lee And Han two-year period as several versions of welfare reform were passed in Congress. Each time, NAKASEC and its affiliates responded with actions that included petitions, fax writing drives, rallies, marches, and, at one point, a five-day hunger strike in Los Angeles. In July 1996, President Clinton announced that he would sign the third version of a welfare reform bill that Congress had passed. After successfully pushing for two vetoes of previous bills, Korean American activists around the country were devastated by the news. Through meetings and conversations with impacted and active community members as well as leaders of ally organizations in multiple cities, Korean American organizers decided that immigrant communities could not back down without a final fight. Within days, NAKASEC and its affiliates mounted a mass national letter writing drive, building on the organizational and leadership capacity they had built in the previous two years.30 In just two weeks, 17,000 letters from Korean Americans as far away as Alaska were shipped to Washington, DC and hand delivered to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) leadership. KRC also participated in protests against the Republican National Committee (RNC) in San Diego while KRCC hand delivered an organizational sign on letter to the RNC offices in Chicago.31 All this work helped build the constituency and organizational profile of these organizations.32 Integrating Electoral and Civic Organizing to Build Governing Power While organizing around welfare reform, NAKASEC and its affiliates also sought to carry out an ambitious voter education campaign in 1996. Dubbed “Project Participate,” this campaign focused on transitioning Korean Americans who had been newly activated through immigrant rights fights to become electorally engaged for the first time during the 1996 presidential elections. Project 30 In the early years NAKASEC and its affiliates emphasized activities that allowed Korean immigrants to communicate through letters and postcards because the majority of the population were Limited English Proficient. As time progressed, the community’s “organizing and movement vocabulary” developed. As well, political norms had changed. These days, immigrants are less deterred from speaking out or making phone calls because of the level of their English-speaking skills. 31 Recognizing that the 1996 Presidential Elections was months away, NAKASEC focused its attention to reaching the major political parties. 32 In late August, days before President Clinton was scheduled to sign the welfare reform bill, NAKASEC received a surprise phone call from Donna Shalala, then US Secretary of Health and Human Services. She acknowledged the concerns of the Korean American community and said the administration would take steps in the future to improve certain provisions after the welfare reform law was enacted. Having not had the type of influence or contact with the Clinton administration as other national advocacy and organizing groups, this direct outreach to the Korean American community through NAKASEC signaled the impact of the organization’s activities. Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim Engaging Korean Americans in Civic Activism 623 Participate included a broad range of activities, such as voter registration drives, election hotlines, “How to Vote” seminars, interpretation at key polling sites, and the Asian Pacific American exit poll. NAKASEC also published the Guide to 1996 Elections a non-partisan Korean language guide explaining the federal electoral process, highlighting key election issues, and emphasizing the importance of Korean American political participation within the context of the voting rights achieved through the Civil Rights Movement. NAKASEC and its affiliates worked with the Korea Times of USA, the largest Korean daily newspaper, to nationally distribute 50,000 copies. NAKASEC and its affiliates have since further developed their capacity and expanded their scope and scale in the areas of voter education and electoral engagement, reaching out to young English speakers and older, first generation, Limited English Proficient seniors. Recognizing that the constituency they seek to engage are generally first-time voters, the organizations typically manage comprehensive, culturally sensitive, bilingual voter registration, contact, and outreach activities. Their leaders perceive that this work has made a noticeable impact. For example, the registration rate for Korean Americans in Southern California, one of their main areas of organizing, more than doubled from 35 percent in 2000 to 73 percent in 2011.33 Through this integration of nonpartisan electoral work with robust, year-round civic engagement, these organizations seek to build a stronger, informed Korean American voice that can impact policy decisions in a meaningful way. Consistent with other civic associations focused on community organizing, NAKASEC, KRCC, and KRC worked throughout these campaigns to develop leaders from the Korean American community who could organize their own campaigns. As previous research has shown, community organizing works by identifying and developing leaders, building community around those leaders, then leveraging that community to advocate for the interests of that community in the public sphere.34 NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC did just that. In engaging Korean Americans in activism around welfare reform, immigrant rights, or the elections, they sought to engage people in ways that would continually build their long-term motivations, identities, and skills. As such, these organizations were beginning to develop a cadre of leaders who had political experience, and could leverage that experience to think strategically about different forms of political advocacy. Those strategic capacities became evident in subsequent campaigns, detailed below. 33 Other areas for increased civic engagement and organizing currently are Illinois and Virginia. 34 Ganz, “Leading Change.” Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim 624 Lee And Han The Restoration of SSI NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC continued their fight for just social policies after Bill Clinton won a second term as president in November 1996. He had made a campaign pledge to rescind the discriminatory and unfair immigrant provisions of the welfare reform bill he had signed into law in 1996. These provisions had a particular impact on seniors within the Korean American community. The 1996 Current Population Survey found that one out of five Korean Americans over the age of 65 were living in poverty and close to half relied on public assistance, particularly Supplemental Security Income (SSI).35 The 1996 welfare reform law included a provision denying this assistance to many legal permanent residents. In protest, NAKASEC and its affiliates launched the National Telegram Campaign to Restore Immigrant Benefits in December of 1996. Working with local and national allies, they collected pledges and funds to coordinate the sending of 2,600 individual telegrams to President Clinton on Inauguration Day, January 19, 1997 with the clear message: “Keep your promise to immigrants.” A few months later in May, President Clinton negotiated a budget bill with Congress that restored SSI benefits to certain groups of immigrants. Post-Welfare Reform Immigrant Rights Organizing Buoyed up by their success, newly engaged senior activists wanted to continue their efforts and address other parts of welfare reform. In 1998, NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC joined immigrant rights organizations across the country in working to restore food stamps to low income legal immigrants. These organizations collected more than 5,000 paper plates with mostly hand-written messages under the theme “Our Plates Are Empty.” Each day, seniors arrived at KRC and KRCC doors with signed paper plates that they had gathered at the adult day care center, medical centers, or bus stops, among other sites. Six months later, on June 24, when President Bill Clinton signed the Agricultural Research Bill restoring food stamps to low income legal immigrants, the White House invited NAKASEC to attend the signing ceremony. The restoration of food stamps represented a significant victory for immigrant communities and an indicator of the political maturation of the Korean American community. Unlike SSI, the Korean American community is less dependent on food stamps. Nonetheless, immigrant Korean Americans, particularly seniors, had become more cognizant of their potential to influence policy and the alignment between their issue priorities and those of other immigrant and low-income communities. When asked why she participated, senior leader Hwang Jin Sean said, “We are all minorities and we have to support each other.” 35 SSI is a cash benefit program for low-income disabled or elderly Americans. Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim Engaging Korean Americans in Civic Activism 625 The victories over SSI and food stamp restoration furthered what leaders of NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC identified as the political awakening and education of Korean Americans. The impact of this awakening became evident in subsequent years. In this time period, the tide was changing for immigrants. For the next two years, leading up to the 2000 Presidential Elections, NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC shifted its posture from continually defending and protecting the rights of immigrants to promoting a bolder immigrant rights agenda. For example, the Fix ’96 lobby day and rally brought close to 130 Korean American seniors from across the country to testify and meet with lawmakers on the need to “right the wrongs” of the 1996 immigration and welfare reform laws. In 2000, the Full Participation of Immigrants campaign coordinated a series of activities with policy goals that included the legalization of undocumented immigrants, restoration of 245(i),36 and repeal of employer sanctions. The campaign sent over 30,000 letters demanding that these policies become adopted into major political party platforms to the DNC and RNC that summer. Democratic Presidential candidate Al Gore subsequently endorsed legalization policies during his campaign that fall. Heading into the twenty-first century, NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC continued to explore new tactics, building on the strategic capacities it had developed, and identifying strategies that focused on broader consciousness-raising and expanded the issues to tackle. In a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment in 2005, a conservative Congress passed HR4437, a bill that, among other provisions, criminalized undocumented immigrants and many who came into contact with them. Protests, marches, and rallies erupted in major US cities including Washington, DC, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York throughout the first half of 2006. NAKASEC and its affiliates, along with many of their allies, mobilized community members to march. In Los Angeles, NAKASEC and KRC were part of the organizing core for local events, including a May Day march, and the inclusion of a Korean percussion troupe in these marches, creating a loud and visible Korean presence. In addition, NAKASEC and its affiliates organized impacted Korean Americans as spokespeople in cities where they were based, including Chicago and New York. These historic marches precipitated various policy responses, such as the introduction of a bill in the Senate (S.2611) to provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. Perhaps more importantly for organizations like NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC, however, the marches politicized a new generation of immigrants, including undocumented immigrants. Undocumented immigrants became more willing to come out of the shadows and assert their rights and contributions to American society. 36 A provision allowing eligible immigrant to become Legal Permanent Residents without leaving the country and thus avoid the three and ten-year bar for re-entry. Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim 626 Lee And Han As the historic immigration marches of 2006 put the issue of immigration reform at the forefront of the national agenda, a need to humanize the immigration debate became clear. In early June of 2007, NAKASEC, along with Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, Courage Campaign, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, launched Dreams Across America. Over a hundred “Dreamers”— new immigrants, children of immigrants, Native Americans, working mothers, white entrepreneurs, Asian Americans, Latinos, and African Americans—traveled by train from various cities across the country to Washington DC. Asian American Dreamers included Andrew Jung, a young Korean American from Toledo left to be raised by his neighbors after his parents were deported, Cambodian American Many Uch, fighting against possible deportation and separation from his family, and Hee Pok Kim, otherwise known as Grandma Kim, who drew her determination to “fight for those who go unnoticed” from the imprisonment her parents endured as freedom fighters during the Independence Movement in Korea. This media-focused campaign shared personal stories to communicate the idea that whether they had migrated across states or across continents, they were all Dreamers in search of a better life. The tour sought to break new ground in reshaping the public narrative on immigrants and the Dreamer stories conveyed the urgency for change to US immigration laws. In addition, the Dreamers held key legislative meetings and spoke at rallies and press events, generating over 500 media hits. In the summer of 2008, NAKASEC, the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations (now Alliance for a Just Society), and the Center for Community Change launched an ambitious initiative to re-authorize and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to include immigrant children. The America’s Future Starts with Healthy Children Campaign executed a number of press events and mobilizations, including the delivery of petitions to all major Presidential candidates in the fall. These actions culminated in a well-publicized national children’s art exhibit in Washington, D.C., timed to coincide with both the 2009 Inauguration Day events, and the Senate’s consideration of the bill. In total, public school classrooms, after school programs, and community groups in twenty-three states submitted 400 art pieces. The exhibit displayed sixty-two of the drawings received at Union Station and the Rayburn House Office Building, two high-traffic areas and represented another unique method for communicating the importance of health care for all children to the general public. The artwork was also available to view online and to the media, with a special press conference organized by then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. On February 4, 2009, President Obama signed a bill authorizing the expansion and re-authorization of SCHIP, and NAKASEC was one of several community organizations in attendance. Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim Engaging Korean Americans in Civic Activism 627 In Southern California, KRC also undertook a campaign to provide bilingual information to Limited English Proficient Medi-Cal recipients in Los Angeles County. Like other campaigns, this campaign enabled the organization to build up their senior organizing and empowerment goals. Until then, too many seniors were seeking translation for all types of basic correspondence. Some even lost their benefits for being unable to respond to requests for basic information by set deadlines. The Community Health Promoters (CHP), a senior organizing group formed by KRC led the mobilization and advocacy campaign. After three years of activities that included a town hall with 250 monolingual seniors, thousands of petitions, and countless legislative visits, LA County Department of Public Services agreed to send monolingual Medi-Cal recipients information in Korean and English. As with all its other work, NAKASEC, KRC, and the KRCC defined success not only based on whether they were able to win policy changes or specific benefits for their constituencies. They also defined success based on the extent to which they were able to fight for and enact those changes in ways that built the individual and collective capacity of Korean Americans. This strategy of organizing in ways that not only won visible change in the world but also built capacity is central throughout the ongoing work of these organizations. Affordable Housing for Seniors The lack of affordable housing in California continues to contribute to poverty, negative health outcomes, and rising homelessness among immigrant communities. Many low-income seniors in the Korean American community recount stories of waiting seven to ten years to move into affordable senior apartments. In Koreatown, Los Angeles, for instance, more than 60 percent of residents are renters and over half of all elderly renters pay 65 percent of their income for housing. Further, there are now “closed” waiting lists in many units with overwhelming backlogs. To address the affordable housing needs for low-income seniors, KRC reached out to the Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation (LTSC) in 2006 to construct an affordable senior housing apartment on its premises. As soon as a partnership was developed, the Wilshire Park Association (WPA), the neighborhood homeowners group organized in opposition to the project. In response, KRC led a deep canvassing effort, wherein organizers and senior volunteers conducted in-home visits to the majority of residents in the surrounding area, and led presentations and meetings with WPA members. Sustained direct contacts with residents in the WPA seemed to make the difference from the perspective of KRC leaders. When KRC stood in front of the LA Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim 628 Lee And Han City Planning Commission seeking approval for the senior apartments, the WPA president was one of many who came to testify her unequivocal support. The project was thus unanimously endorsed. In 2015, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the construction of two new affordable senior housing complexes in Koreatown, opened its doors in September 2016. In addition to providing quality housing for low-income seniors, these buildings enable KRC to offer expanded services and educational programs, as well as opportunities for residents to become civically active. During the two-month open application period in early 2016, KRC received 4,000 applications for the sixty-seven units. This figure underscores the serious and continued need for affordable housing in the city. This fact is not lost on the senior activists who are now leading the charge for increased funding to affordable housing. Low-income seniors have thus transitioned from being passive applicants on a waiting list to individuals that are informed about housing policies and processes, and actively educating and organizing their peers. Most recently, senior members gathered 5,000 individual petitions to introduce a permanent source of public funds for affordable senior housing. As such, these organizations are enabling those who are directly impacted to lead these campaigns, and in doing so, communities are being transformed. The Campaign to Support Immigrant Rights Today When the 2008 elections ushered in new leadership in the White House and Congress, reformers thought this was the moment for comprehensive immigration reform. As immigrant rights groups increased the intensity of their activities, Congress also became more polarized, particularly after the turnover of Congress to Republican control in 2010. By 2014, the pressure within the immigrant rights community mounted as it became apparent that any possibility for policy change before the 2016 presidential election was near to none. At that time, NAKASEC joined a coalition of organizations to put the immigration issue back into the national spotlight through the Fast for Families campaign. NAKASEC’s executive director DJ Yoon was one of the core fasters, along with SEIU’s Eliseo Medina, Mi Familia Vota’s Christian Avila and Sojourners’ Lisa Sharon Harper. Fasting for twenty-two days in a tent on the National Mall in Washington DC, the four fasters sought to uplift the suffering of the millions of families being separated by inhumane immigration policies. Over 500 organizations across the country also took part in 24-hour solidarity fasts and hosted conversations about immigration reform. During Fast for Families, more than fifty members of Congress, Senators, President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, and five Cabinet Secretaries visited the tent. During these meetings, Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim Engaging Korean Americans in Civic Activism 629 leaders educated the elected officials about deportations, family separations, and other negative impacts of the current broken immigration system. Through these actions, NAKASEC worked with others to take an ancient practice of protest and make it relevant and impactful in the modern era. While immigration reform is still in the works, Fast For Families tried to jettison the issue back onto the national stage. Throughout the immigration reform debate, NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC were able to build on the leadership they had developed through the years. Some of these leaders include Ju Hong, a young leader recognized for standing up to President Obama for not making progress on immigration reform, Sang Hyug Jung, an undocumented father who travelled to Washington DC to participate in the Fast for Families, and CHP, the group of low-income, limited English proficient senior citizens who have fought on issues such as language rights, health care and affordable senior housing through the years. NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC believe that it is this consistent organizing model of building the leadership and trust of directly impacted and often marginalized community members that contributed to the implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Since DACA’s introduction in 2012 to the end of 2014, the three organizations received more than 13,000 calls and office visits, carried out over 4,300 one-on-one consultations, and processed more than 1,500 DACA applications. KRC specifically has become a hub for processing the largest number of Asian American DACA applications of any group in the nation. By June 2014, South Korea ranked in the top fifth of countries of origin for DACA applicants. Conclusion The 1990s and early 2000s saw a rise in the active participation of Korean Americans in the grassroots social justice movement due to several factors. A seminal moment in modern Korean American history was the 1992 LA Civil Unrest. For some Korean Americans, it pulled them out of their reverie to the realization that they must become informed and responsible to the community around them. Myung Shim Lee is one such person. She owned a clothing store on Slauson Avenue, less than a mile from the corner of Florence and Normandie where crowds first gathered on April 29. One of many who lost their businesses and eventually foreclosed on their homes, she recalls the tremendous assistance she received from her neighbors and those around her. She participated in community dialogues following the unrest and realized how little she knew about the African American community. This experience Rachael Miyung Joo and Shelley Sang-Hee Lee - 9789004335332 Downloaded from Brill.com08/24/2018 11:28:43AM by inbosim1@gmail.com via Inbo Sim 630 Lee And Han is why she and other Korean Americans store owners made a contribution to the local community for the first time, why her daughter became a public school teacher in Watts, and why she is now a senior activist today. Compounding the impact of the civil unrest in Los Angeles was the antiimmigrant legislative wave that vilified immigrants and challenged their access to rights and benefits in America in 1994. Moreover, Korea’s election of its first civilian president in the early 1990s led many Korean American activists at that time to begin directing their attention to pressing domestic issues. All these factors created a sense of urgency and need within the Korean American community, as it became clear that they needed to develop their own political voice. This urgency led to the development of a civic infrastructure that could help cultivate the capacities of the Korean American constituency. Existing groups like YKU and community organizations such as KRC in Los Angeles provided crucial leadership, resources, and incubation of these early groups. Yet the political climate of the early 1990s demanded that the Korean American community expand its existing civic infrastructure to transform itself into civically engaged and active participants of American society. It was in this moment that organizations like NAKASEC and KRCC emerged and organizations such as KRC redirected their purpose. In this way, the Korean American community came together to establish a progressive Korean American voice at the national level. The civic participation of Korean American has taken on new dimensions today with the visible organizing and leadership of seniors, undocumented high school and college students, and most recently, adoptees. This multigenerational activism challenges the outdated stereotype of Asian Americans as self-absorbed, passive, and conservative. The three organizations of NAKASEC, KRC, and KRCC have evolved in the past two decades from expanding their work beyond immigrant rights to address broad civil rights issues and by increasing the depth and scale of their electoral campaigns beyond short term voter registration drives or the mailing of voter guides. The imperative before them, like all organizations that are no longer volunteer-run and operating with donated office supplies, is how to remain rooted in community as they expand their operations and capacity. 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