Call Racism By Its Real Name : The refusal of the Orange County authorities to treat a clear hate crime for what it is encourages more of the same.

The image of angry white men swinging baseball bats and shouting racial slurs at a racially mixed group of adolescents is reminiscent of the Jim Crow South that scarred the soul of America. Hardly anyone could imagine such a revolting scene taking place in this, the idyllic sunshine state. Yet that is what happened last month in Orange County to Amber Jefferson. The 15-year-old, her head battered, her face ripped apart, her life almost extinguished, survived that beastly act of violence, and with her very being dispelled the myth of racial tolerance that Californians like to claim.

Perhaps this is some of what the state attorney general’s Commission on Racial, Ethnic, Religious and Minority Violence was politely but directly saying in its final report released in April. The first point in the commission’s summary of findings says: “Recent legislation and new community programs to respond to the challenge of hate violence are encouraging, but testimony indicates that hate crimes (harassment, intimidation or threats of violence motivated by racial prejudice) are increasing in every region of California.”

Barely two weeks after, and not quite 100 miles from where Amber was assaulted, the Agoura home of Szebelski and Matilda Freeman, an elderly African-American couple, was defaced by racist vandals. Last weekend in Anaheim, another African American youth, Ralph Jones, was stabbed in the back by a group of white youths after being called racist names and ridiculed for the style of his haircut.

And last weekend in Westchester, a drive-by shooting incident took a different twist. Two African American youths and a Japanese American youth, all students at Loyola Marymount University, were fired upon with what they said appeared to be a shotgun by three white males and one white female, all of whom immediately fled the scene.

To assume that these acts are isolated is to miss the point and to allow, if not cause, matters to get much worse.

The alarm was sounded anew last week by the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission in issuing an unprecedented special mid-year report on the rise in hate crimes--a 32% increase in in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year. While African Americans constitute less than 15% of the population of Los Angeles County, according to the report, they are victims in more than 50% of all racially motivated hate crimes.

Unfortunately, Orange County does not have a system of documenting race crimes comparable to that of Los Angeles County. As a consequence, the extent of racial .......

violence is not really known, which is ominous enough. What is even worse is that this state and most communities do not know how many hate crimes occur each year; what type of hate crimes occur each year; which groups are victimized by hate crimes most often; whether trends in hate crimes exist; where organized hate groups are most active and how extensive their activities are.

The pursuit of justice in such matters is difficult enough without adequate documentation. But add to this the lethargy of law-enforcement agencies, such as that displayed by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

Its version of events is consistent with the pattern that has characterized the manner in which this entire matter has been handled. From the very outset, the sheriff’s public position dismissively negated the seriousness of the race hatred that is part and parcel of malicious acts of violence perpetrated largely by Anglo adults against adolescents of color. Further, the sheriff’s version adopted the views of the perpetrators and ignored the reports of the victims. How is it that such a serious crime could be committed, yet there are no arrests? How should a victim or potential victims, similarly situated, feel about their safety and their rights, in light of the sheriff’s handling of this case? What message has the Sheriff’s Department sent to those who harbor racial hostility?

To add insult to injury, the sheriff, under the pretext of being “evenhanded,” later recommended that all parties be charged--attackers and attacked alike. The sheriff’s handling of this case is tantamount to tolerating racial violence, which could lead to even worse incidents. Southern California does not need, nor should it invite, a situation that would be a “Bensonhurst West.”

The Orange County district attorney’s office compounds the problem by ruling out race as a factor in this case. This demonstrates a profound degree of ignorance as to the pernicious manner in which racism is manifest. Denial of racial violence does not make it any less the case. The D.A.’s office should not further victimize any of the young people who were physically and verbally assaulted with baseball bats and racial slurs. Being African American or Latino and associating with any other ethnic group is not a crime; this is not South Africa.

Hate crimes must be taken seriously in Orange County as well as elsewhere in the state. The entire community has a stake in fighting hate crimes: law enforcement, schools, media, religious institutions and elected officials. The FBI would do well to take heed, rather than feigning concern but attempting to derail further scrutiny of racial violence in the Jefferson case. Fortunately, the state attorney general’s office remains unaffected by the FBI’s uninformed remarks and has begun a review of its own. The concern and resolve of an ever-increasing number of people will not allow this case to die, nor will it be allowed to proceed without due attention given to the real matter at hand: racial violence.