On My Own: Korean Businesses and Race Relations in America

In On My Own, In Jin Yoon combines an intimate fieldwork account of Korean-black relations in Chicago and Los Angeles with extensive quantitative analysis at the national level. Yoon argues that a complete understanding of the contemporary Korean American community requires systematic analyses of pattern of Korean immigration, entrepreneurship, and race relations with other minority groups. He explains how small business has become the major economic activity of Korean immigrants and how Korean businesses in minority neighborhoods have intensified racial tensions between Koreans and minorities like blacks and Latinos.