Racial Tension in Carlsbad

Congratulations for bringing Jonathan Freedman aboard. His treatment of the hate crime in Carlsbad (California Commentary, Feb. 19) is by far the most intelligent piece so far written on the rising tide of racial tension in San Diego’s North County. Freedman treats all the players with dignity and compassion.

The problem of the migrant laborers is a psychological problem as much as it is an economic, racial and city planning issue. North County residents, like all of us in this world of accelerating change, are experiencing rising psychological stresses. You know the list, two incomes are needed to buy even a moderate-sized house, the population is growing so fast neighborhoods can change from rural to urban in the time it takes a kid to go from grade school to junior high, the crime and drugs associated with city life are penetrating the lives of people who saved long and hard to buy their house away from all that, and so on down a long list of social pressures bearing down on all but the super-wealthy. Carrying that amount of psychological overload many people simply cannot cope, they are afraid and feel impotent. Psychological research has shown us that under these conditions fear easily becomes crystallized into hate. Research has also shown us that if we can keep someone at arm’s length, if we see them as “other” and not as “us,” then we are likely to select them as our scapegoat and blame them for our fears. This is the setup the Mixtec and other migrants enter. These men and women are very vulnerable.

The search for solutions to problems of relations between migrant and settled North County folks needs us to add the human faces to discussions of the issues. Freedman’s report humanizes all the parties.

MAUREEN O’HARA

San Diego