We Have Our Own Tensions

The national news is full of racial strife in New York City: One white teen was acquitted and another found guilty in the murder of a black youth attacked by a mob of whites. Some blacks in Brooklyn are targeting Korean-owned stores for boycott. How easy it would be for Southern Californians to feel smug that we don’t live in the middle of such a mess. And how foolish.

In South-Central Los Angeles, there are tensions between Korean merchants and black community residents. Several commendable organizations have formed to promote better cultural understanding and smash racial myths that are at the root of ethnic tensions. The myths are many, but unfortunately the local statistics on hate crimes are real. Reports of race-related crimes rose dramatically last year.

Statistics don’t reveal the unreported incidents, the everyday resentments that keep people apart. In Los Angeles and Orange counties, the changing makeup of the community is threatening a sort of fragile truce between blacks and Latinos, between whites and Asians.

Southern Californians must not delude themselves into thinking a Bensonhurst-type incident could not possibly happen here. Churches, synagogues, mosques and temples must exert their moral authority to persuade the faithful that when people are seen and known as individuals, facile group stereotyping diminishes. And the media, so crucial in shaping public perception, must remember its role: A local television station properly dropped its routine description of “militant black Muslims” after an alert viewer complained. An engaged and involved citizenry, full of determination rather than denial, can make good the lessons of Bensonhurst.

Hate Crimes Hate crimes-those motivated by race, religion or sexual orientation-reached record highs in L.A. County in 1989. Totals for 1988: 267 crimes Totals for 1989: 378 crimes