Roof Koreans
About
Roof Koreans, also known as Rooftop Koreans, is a slang term referring to Korean-American business owners who defended their storefronts during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.[7] Images of the shopkeepers standing on rooftops wielding firearms were widely publicized in news media, earning them a reputation for being bold and courageous.
Origin
During the Los Angeles riots in 1992, photographs and video of Korean store owners defending their businesses by camping on rooftops with rifles circulated through news media. On January 18th, 2011, the Los Angeles Times[5] published an article about the riots, which highlighted a photograph of several Koreans armed with rifles on a rooftop (shown below).
On August 11th, the ArmBritain YouTube channel uploaded a news segment about the Korean business owners , which gained over 510,000 views and 1,900 comments over the next five years.
Spread
On April 28th, 2012, YouTuber MadMaxTrac uploaded footage of a similar news segment about the store owners (shown below).
On August 11th, 2014, a Craiglist ad titled "Roof Koreans for hire (Ferguson)" was created, featuring a photograph of Korean store owners camping on their roof wielding rifles (shown below).[4] On August 13th, a screenshot of the post was submitted to the /r/funny[1] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 3,700 votes (90% upvoted) and 330 comments prior to being archived.
On April 29th, 2015, Urban Dictionary[3] user FauxTales submitted an entry for "Roof Koreans," defining it as "Angry Korean store workers who prowl their store roof tops wielding Nagasaki rifles."
On July 8th, Redditor monkeymasher submitted a photograph of himself aiming a large firearm titled "Roof Korean for hire. Please call if assistance is needed" (shown below). Within three months, the post gathered upwards of 7,400 votes (80% upvoted) and 1,500 comments on /r/guns.[6] That day, Redditor peecatchwho submitted a post titled "I don't understand the "Roof Korean" thing in /r/guns" to the /r/OutOfTheLoop [2] subreddit.
2020 George Floyd Protests
On May 31st, 2020, amid ongoing protests and riots following the death of George Floyd, a photograph of a man smoking on a roof while holding an M1 carbine rifle was submitted to the /r/MURICA[8] subreddit (shown below).
Search Interest
External References
[1] Reddit – Roof koreans for hire
[2] Reddit – /r/OutOfTheLoop
[3] Urban Dictionary – Roof Koreans
[4] Wayback Machine – Roof Koreans for Hire
[5] LA Times – Not your 1992 LAPD
[6] Reddit – Roof Korean for hire
[7] Wikipedia – 1992 Los Angeles riots
