Roof Koreans

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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. In June 2025, Donald Trump Jr. posted a roof Koreans meme on social media, reportedly as a response to discourse about the ICE Protests in Los Angeles, California.

Origin

During the Los Angeles riots^[1] 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^[2] 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 (now deleted, alternate video shown below).

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).^[3] On August 13th, a screenshot of the post was submitted to the /r/funny^[4] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 3,700 votes (90% upvoted) and 330 comments prior to being archived.

On April 29th, 2015, Urban Dictionary^[5] 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 ^[7] 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).

Donald Trump Jr.'s Roof Koreans Post

On June 8th, 2025, the son of U.S. President Donald Trump, Trump Jr., posted an image macro meme to Instagram^[9] and X^[10] consisting of a photo of the roof Koreans under the caption, "Everyobody rioting until the roof starts speaking Korean," garnering over 151,000 likes on the former and 73,000 likes and 9,000 reposts on the latter in two days. Trump Jr. wrote in the post description, "Make Rooftop Koreans Great Again!"

Reportedly, the meme was posted about the protests against ICE happening in LA.^[11]