
When the Riots happened, I was only 3 years old and on the other side of the country. Only until I was a freshman at UCLA did I understand what had happened on April 29, 1992, and its effects on the Korean American community.
Here in Los Angeles, I was surrounded by students who were the children of the Riots. I heard stories about their parents and relatives leaving with guns to help their neighbors protect their stores. They told me how they hid in their dark homes, afraid that they were going to die.
These accounts were eye-opening, especially since I was someone whose knowledge of the Riots was limited to brief excerpts from history books.