Sparked off by the acquittal of four officers in the Rodney King police brutality case, the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest took place over several days and led to rioting and destruction of the city. The unrest represented a boiling point of underlying issues including systemic racism, police brutality, failure of the criminal justice system, economic disparities between communities of color, and racial tensions. The perceived racial tensions between Korean and Black Americans, further complicated by the shooting of Latasha Harlins by a Korean storeowner, led to some targeting of Korean American neighborhoods/businesses for violence and looting. Students will explore the history, conditions, and tensions that led to the 1992 civil unrest in L.A.

2021 Social Science Standards Integrated with Ethnic Studies:
Civics and Government: 5.1, 6.4, 7.5, 8.6, 8.8, 8.9, HS.2, HS.9, HS.11
Economics: 7.8
Geography: 5.13, HS.42, HS.51
Historical Knowledge: 5.22, 6.20, 6.21, 8.22, 8.25, HS.52, HS.53, HS.61, HS.64, HS.65
Historical Thinking: 5.25, 6.23, 7.25, 8.30, 8.31, 8.32, HS.68
Social Science Analysis: 5.26, 5.27, 5.28, 6.24, 6.26, 6.27, 7.27, 7.29, 8.33, 8.34, 8.36, HS.72, HS.73, HS.74, HS.75, HS.76, HS.78

This lesson plan helps students understand the context of the 1992 L.A. civil unrest (L.A. riots). Korean Americans in solidarity with Black Americans and others, formed coalitions to call for racial justice, community healing and rebuilding. Various police reforms, community programs and rebuilding efforts came about after. It covers the importance of building community consciousness and coalitions to fight systemic racism. By using the transcripts from the segment this lesson plan will ask the students to analyze the movement by using guiding questions to identify the issue, research the problem, respond to the problem and reflect on why learning about this topic is important to their lives and current social movements.

2021 Social Science Standards Integrated with Ethnic Studies:
Civics and Government: 7.5, HS.2
Economics: 7.8
Geography: HS.42, HS.51
Historical Knowledge: 8.22, 8.25, HS.60, HS.61, HS.64, HS.65
Historical Thinking: 7.25, 7.30, 8.31, HS.67, HS.69
Social Science Analysis: 8.36, HS.72, HS.73, HS.74, HS.77, HS.78

Looking for engaging content for your economics courses? The Institute for Humane Studies has curated this collection of educational resources to help economics professors enrich their curriculum. Find videos, interactive games, reading lists, and more on everything from opportunity costs to trade policy. This collection is updated frequently with new content, so watch this space!

Since the CoVID19 pandemic, essential workers have been impacted beyond that of others in the labor force.  Statistics on nonmedical essential workers and how CoVid19 affects their health and livelihood are lacking. No centralized reporting exists and corporations do not either collect or provide this data. This OER attempts to bring together various sources information from March-July 2020 for future research. This material is a compilation of original sources of varying restrictions to be used for educational purposes, so I have chosen the CC BY NC ND license.

Asian Americans have contributed greatly to the Silicon Valley high tech boom beginning in the 1980s to present day. The technological innovations that came out of Silicon Valley enabled the United States to become a global IT leader as the region in San Francisco Bay Area became the birthplace for many high tech companies, such as the search company Yahoo! While some high-profile Asian American entrepreneurs were able to build highly lucrative companies, the contributions of Asian immigrants who performed the piecework labor that made these new innovative machines function was also an important factor to Silicon Valley’s growth and success.

2021 Social Science Standards Integrated with Ethnic Studies:
Economics: 7.8, 8.14, HS.17, HS.24
Geography: HS.42
Historical Knowledge: 8.27, HS.64
Social Science Analysis: 7.29, 7.30, 8.34, 8.36, HS.71, HS.72, HS.73, HS.74