LAist & NPR present 'Inheriting' Episode 1 - Carol & the Los Angeles Uprising: Part 1

California Love

LAist Studios

Music

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Carol Kwang Park was 12 years old, working as a cashier at her family’s gas station in Compton, California, when the 1992 LA Uprising forever changed her life. Her mom was at the gas station that day and Carol was unsure if she’d even make it home. At the time, she didn’t understand why tensions came to a head in Los Angeles, following the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King. She also never understood why her mother insisted on keeping the business going, especially after the Uprising. As an adult, a personal crisis prompts Carol to finally start processing that event and her place in history.

Content Warning: This episode contains racial slurs and discusses police brutality.

How can I support? Inheriting is entirely funded by supporters like you. If you want to hear future seasons of the show, go to LAist.com/Inheriting and click on the orange box to donate.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Emily Kwong, host of the new podcast inheriting from L.A. studios.
0:04.1	Join me for an immersive evening about Asian American and Pacific Islander families and their histories.
0:09.7	June 27th at the Crawford in Pasadena. Tickets at LAS.com slash events.
0:15.0	On inheriting, during World War II, Leah Bash's family was among nearly 125,000 Japanese
0:21.4	Americans incarcerated and isolated camps.
0:24.4	I wasn't in camp, but they ruined my life too.
0:27.0	Listen to inheriting from LAS studios and the NPR Network.
0:31.8	The year was 1990, and 10-year-old Carol Kwong Park was fast asleep
0:36.0	when her mom's voice woke her up at way too early o'clock.
0:40.0	Mom was like, I'm going to go to number one,
0:44.1	she was called to the station, come with.
0:47.4	I'm like, okay.
0:49.6	In the doorway she could see her mom's silhouette,
0:52.3	the halo of her 90s perm.
0:54.7	The family ran a gas station in Compton, California.
0:57.7	Carol spent her sixth birthday at the grand opening with hot dogs and a Mariachi band.
1:02.1	And now her mom was summoning her at the crack of gone to come with.
1:06.5	You know, I get in the car with her and I'm like, yay! Because what I remembered at that point was I go to the station
1:11.8	with mom and dad, now it's just mom. I get candy. I get soda.
1:17.2	We're going to Blockbuster. Exactly, right? It's like a little field trip. So I thought, you know, she just had to go do something.
1:24.3	When she got to the station, Carol could see the 12 gas pumps rising in the darkness,
1:35.3	casting sharp shadows under the fluorescent lights.
	...

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