Korean-American

With this dramatic increase in population and the racial unrest that resulted in the destruction of Korean businesses during the Los Angeles civil unrest, Korean-Americans have emerged as one of the visible ethnic groups in the country. However, aside from the Los Angeles riots, most Americans continue to define people of Korean ethnicity with a bevy of stereotypes - kimchee, churches and grocery stores.

For many Korean-Americans, however, being "Korean," "Korean-American" or "Asian-American" remains a fluid category, with constantly shifting meanings. Some locate the definitions in the places where they were born or where they grew up. Others define the categories by the way they look.

Still others, like the Park family, define being Korean through language.

This paper uses a series of interviews to evaluate the Park family's perceptions of their ethnicity. It compares and contrasts how Father Park and Mother Park's definitions differ from the experiences of...
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