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Chaos erupts in the streets of L.A. during the Watts Riots of '65

Decades of Social Unrest: A Pattern of Ethnic Disagreement

As a major world city with a 21st century metropolitan area population of over 12 million people and more than 200 distinct foreign languages spoken daily, Los Angeles reflects the great diversity of cultures that exist throughout our world. It is, literally, a microcosm of humanity itself. As such, with an influx of immigrants from every corner of the earth, L.A. has often experienced the huge problems that can occur when groups of divergent cultures cohabitate.

Although, it wouldn't be until the L.A. Riots of '92 that the formation and adoption of the name Unity Corps was first officially used; the atmosphere of disharmony between ethnic groups had long existed in Southern California prior to this tragic event of American history. In the later half of the 20th century alone, Los Angeles had severely felt the woes of no less than three major ethnically charged riots. The first came about on May 31, 1943, in what become nationally known as the "Zoot Suit Riots" where hundreds of American servicemen on leave from the campaigns of World War II fought a series of urban street battles with teenagers from the Mexican-American, African-American, and Filipino-American communities. Despite that the initial primary targets of these military men were allegedly intended to be only members of Mexican-American gangs commonly referred to as "pachucos"; many other innocent teens in the city who had also adopted their zoot suit style of fashion were additionally brutalized. During these two weeks which saw literally thousands of servicemen, ethnic minority youths and common citizens fighting in the streets of America, the press had repeatedly reported that the whole specifically targeted Mexican-American population were merely "hoodlums" who are "prone for criminal activity" versus the actuality of being victims to an ignorance in the servicemen they fought. This type of heavily biased reportage in favor of the servicemen and against many of the innocent Latin teens resulted in a widespread anger within the Latino community which

would last for many years. Subsequent to 1943, the next major civil disturbance would then occur in the predominantly African-American neighborhood of Watts on August 11, 1965. Though, opinions on the main causes of what is referred to as the "Watts Riots" vary from poverty, high unemployment, poor education, inappropriate subcultural social behaviour and alcoholism, in addition to the ethnic prejudice of an overtly oppressive police force; it is generally known that six days of violence and fires erupted when the local residents believed that white police officers were unfairly treating the family members of an arrested black motorist. In all, the Watts Riots resulted in the deaths of 34 people, 1032 wounded, 3,952 arrested, and an estimated 40 million dollars in property damage. Like the Zoot Suit Riots of the 1940's which caused major resentments in the Latino community, the African-American community of  the 1960's was similarly incensed when local news reported that the Chief of Police stated the rioters were behaving as "a bunch of monkeys". In these two examples of civil unrest due primarily to ethnic group discord, a pattern of extreme animosity between the so-called "colored minorities" and "white ruling establishment" was clearly evident. In addition to these major examples of disharmony and riots between the then "minority" populations and ruling class, many incidents of violence between L.A.'s "non-white" ethnic groups also existed amongst themselves. Ultimately, what was to follow in the Spring of '92 would turn out to be that pivotal seminal event forcing the decision to create a formally established group to now be officially called Unity Corps. Through the history of L.A., many lessons were learned for the fulfillment of Unity Corps' mission.