Racism and L.A. Riots

Having grown up white in a white, middle-class neighborhood, I understand the scope of the distortion under which many of the residents of those communities operate in order to serve their own hypocritical ends. These residents have fled areas besieged by violence in order to insulate themselves from its negative effects, yet deny the reality experienced by persons still living in those areas by insisting that violence perpetrated by whites in power does not occur. We should examine ourselves long and hard for the motivations underlying our racist, selfish perceptions. Willie Williams has an enormous job to do in this city; God bless him.

KATHLEEN A. McDONALD

Van Nuys