THE TIMES POLL : Fixing Blame for Plight of the Underclass : Ethnicity: Almost equal numbers in O.C. fault either individual minorities for failures or racism and economic injustice.

The ponytailed little girl with dark brown eyes was quietly fascinated with the paper clip she had twisted beyond recognition. A few desks away, another student rested her chin on her hands, her eyes slightly glazed.

In the back of the classroom, a 10-year-old boy fidgeted restlessly in his chair while noisily folding and unfolding several sheets of paper.

All the while, their teacher was explaining--in English--the intricacies of subtracting decimals to the class of Latino and Asian fifth- and sixth-graders, almost half of whom had arrived in the United States within the previous few weeks.

“I know they get frustrated sometimes, but I hope that if I give them more time to take in the newness, to get used to what they hear, that they’ll start to understand and respond,” said Ann Adler, their teacher at Russell Elementary School in Santa Ana. “Sometimes, even I get frustrated, because I feel I’m not doing enough to get through to them.”

It is here, in the classroom, that many children must first adapt to the norms of their new society--to learn to fit in and advance--or else remain culturally isolated, perhaps for many years to come, in some cases for the rest of their lives.

In recent years, the public education system has drawn increasingly close scrutiny for its struggling efforts to adapt to Orange County’s changing demographics. Cultural differences in general, and language barriers in particular, have presented the system with challenges unforeseen in the county as recently as 20 years ago.

But the schools are only one of several government institutions the public looks to for remedies to the problems of poverty, crime and racial misunderstanding that are facts of life for many of the county’s minorities today.

A Times Poll shows that Orange County residents, like Americans generally, are sharply divided over who or what is to blame for the plight of the nation’s largely minority underclass. In almost equal numbers, they say the responsibility rests with the affected individuals themselves, while others say that racism and economic injustice keep minorities down.

Schools, social programs and civil rights laws are also being questioned for their adequacy in solving racial and economic problems, the survey showed.

“I don’t think there is a consensus in this country, and specifically in Orange County, as to what’s causing the problems facing ethnic groups today,” said John Brennan, who directed the poll, which surveyed 943 Orange County adults in telephone interviews Aug. 12-15. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

Of the people surveyed, 41% said minority group members are primarily responsible for many of the difficulties they face. But almost as many, 38%, said the same problems are caused by economic or racial injustice within society.

Even within minority groups, there is no clear consensus. By a narrow margin, more Asians blame racism and economic injustice for the problems that afflict minorities. But almost two in five Asians say minorities have only themselves to blame for their condition. Most Latinos, in contrast, take the opposite view, yet 26% say personal responsibility is the biggest factor contributing to their woes.

Kenneth Zanca, a third-generation Italian-American, said his grandparents successfully “grasped the American dream and have placed in their children and grandchildren the belief that if you worked hard, you’ll achieve.”

Zanca said he believes individuals are responsible for themselves and should not blame other factors for economic problems, crime or the racial misconceptions in their neighborhoods.

“Everyone makes decisions based on his values and his needs,” said Zanca, 48, of Orange. Immigrants, and specifically illegal immigrants, “know of the consequences that they’re willing to absorb,” he added.

“That means that if they willingly are putting themselves in a social setting and they’re not getting what they expected, I don’t think that’s necessarily the fault of the host society,” he said.

Eleanor Fernandez, 34, of Buena Park agrees with Zanca that “individuals should help themselves first.” However, she added, “I’d be naive if I thought that a lot of problems in the inner cities today are not a direct result of prejudice and racism.”

She added: “No one wants to be poor and looked down upon. In many cases, I think prejudice is responsible for a lot of the problems.”

In looking at what might have caused some of the racial misunderstanding, most Latinos complain that the news media in Orange County is “too negative” in its coverage of minority groups. That view, however, is not shared by the majority of Asians or whites, who say that the news media treat minorities fairly.

About the only point on which a majority of each group agrees, according to the survey, is that the condition of minorities should be improved by means other than increased spending for government social programs.

Only 22% of those polled said government should pump more money into existing social programs, while 71% said conditions should be improved through other means.

The reason could be that the public believes past and current programs have not succeeded and have bred abuses, said pollster Brennan.

“I think we should let the private sector take care of those problems,” said respondent Paul Vranes, 36, of Mission Viejo. “I don’t want to pay any more taxes. . . . The government can’t solve all problems and I don’t want to continue to pay more while they try.”

Almost half of the people polled--47%--said they believe anti-discrimination laws have gone too far, resulting now in unfair quotas that amount to reverse discrimination. That was the view expressed by 52% of whites, 35% of Latinos and 30% of Asians. Those who took the opposite view--that civil rights laws need to be made even tougher--were in the minority, with 28% of the Asians and Latinos espousing that position, and 10% of whites.

Gail Hernandez of Santa Ana said she can appreciate the view that anti-discrimination laws unfairly spawn quotas. But, she said, “we all know prejudice exists and some people merely curb their prejudice because, thank goodness, they are law-abiding.

“If the laws weren’t around, I don’t think there would be fairness in hiring,” Hernandez added. “In an extreme case, I think we could go back to the way things were before, if there were no regulations. People of certain races and sexes will be favored over other people.”

Those who were critical of the news media’s coverage of their communities said that more often than not the stories about them tend to focus on crimes and their victims, rather than the attributes of their cultures and communities.

“There are minorities who are involved in bad things, but the majority of us do good for the community,” said Jennifer Fernandez, 20, of Anaheim. “With the media, all we hear is bad things, bad things, bad things. No wonder some of us even come to believe that everyone else is good but us.”

Federico Subervi, an associate professor at the University of Texas who has done research on the mass media and ethnic communities, said journalists do a disservice to minority groups because they tend to follow “the same pattern in their coverage of stories.”

“Without considering the ethnic communities as general sources for a different perspective on general stories, (reporters) are told to call the mayor, the police chief, the elected official for their opinions,” Subervi said. “In doing so, (they) leave out the alternative sources, other community leaders of different backgrounds which the readers don’t know about.”

Reporters and editors must review the kinds of decisions that go into deciding what is news, Subervi said.

In recent years, the media have taken a closer look at their roles in ethnic relations and how their news coverage can alter the perception that they magnify the worst events in minority communities, said Steve Geimann, a board member of the Society of Professional Journalists and executive director of United Press International.

“But statistics have shown that stories being reported often reflect the events in that community,” he added. “We are aware of the fact that other people view and judge what we do. . . . And if they don’t feel that they’re getting an accurate reflection or balanced coverage, they’ll find their information somewhere else.”

Geimann noted that some newspapers, TV and radio stations have made recognized efforts to recruit ethnically diverse employees to better cover those communities and increase the range of viewpoints in newsrooms.

The poll also examined the role of public education and some of the cultural problems faced by members of minority groups. Because the classroom is often the first social institution to which children are exposed, it has become the front line in the search for new ways to perform traditional functions in a multicultural society.

On any given day in Orange County, newly arrived immigrant students may be experiencing their first encounter with the strange culture, language and mores of their new world in the public schools.

“It’s always going to be difficult to cross the cultural barrier,” said Adler, the Russell Elementary School teacher. “This district has so many different ethnicities that I don’t think we can cross all the barriers.”

But educators say they do the best they can with the resources they have. Over the years, more bilingual teachers and aides have been trained or recruited, and programs have been added to school curricula to educate students whose primary language is not English.

Even so, 40% of those polled said there is too little emphasis placed on teaching the history and cultures of minority groups such as blacks, Latinos and Asians in elementary and secondary schools.

Fifty-nine percent of Latinos and 54% of Asians say there is not enough cultural emphasis in the schools, and the 32% of whites who feel that way clearly outweigh the 20% who think too much emphasis is given to the history and cultures of minorities.

Jia Hamud, a teacher at Monroe Elementary School in Fountain Valley who is a mother of two school-age boys, said that “society is changing and education needs to change with the demographics. I believe in celebrating different cultures and I think the classroom should be one of the settings for this.”

Educators say their first priorities are to help students acculturate and instill self-esteem in them. Only then, they said, can youngsters begin to feel comfortable in their new settings and learn.

“For them to be sure of themselves in what they see as a strange place, I make sure they know that it’s OK and that it’s right for them to be proud of their own culture,” Hamud said.

Educators said they also constantly meet with parents on an individual basis to discuss their children’s progress and to encourage the parents to take some responsibility for their children’s education.

Despite these efforts and programs implemented across the county, one of the more volatile debates in public education today highlights the diversity question more starkly: Should schools provide bilingual education for students who cannot speak English?

Half the people polled by The Times said yes, and almost as many, 47%, disagreed. And it is here that the racial divide becomes glaringly apparent: 55% of whites oppose bilingual education, while 76% of Latinos and 57% of Asians approve of it.

Dan McCulloch, a father of three from Huntington Beach, is one of those adamantly against it.

“I feel that if you live in America, you should learn to speak English,” he said. “Bilingual (education) can be detrimental in detracting from the time the students could use to spend on English classes or lessons.”

Arthur Bernal, a father of five, disagreed. “You can only improve your life and your job and your education by learning at least two languages,” said the Santa Ana man. “I mean, what is so bad about knowing more?”

In the city of Los Angeles, supporters of bilingual education outnumber opponents two to one, according to The Times’ poll. Brennan speculates the reason is because Latinos represent more than 40% of Los Angeles’ total population, compared to 23% of Orange County’s.

Moreover, Brennan said, the white population in Los Angeles tends to be more liberal ideologically than whites in Orange County.

“By no means does that mean the Anglo population in Los Angeles overwhelmingly favors bilingual (education),” Brennan added. Fifty percent of whites in Los Angeles favor bilingual education, compared to 42% of whites in Orange County, the Times Poll found.

Teachers are also part of the debate.

Marcella Croopnick, who teaches fifth- and sixth-graders at Monroe Elementary, opposes bilingual education, she said, because some students wrongly cling to it as a security blanket.

“A child becomes dependent on what’s comfortable and becomes lazy with learning what’s new,” Croopnick said. Bilingual classes provide “sort of an escape, where a student says, ‘If I can get by in school without learning English, why learn it at all?’ ”

But Teri Rocco, who teaches a bilingual class of kindergartners and first-graders at Russell Elementary, disagreed.

“If you have a child who comes in and doesn’t know in his own language what things mean, it will be confusing for him to learn those concepts in English,” she said. “If a student is not interested or does not understand what’s going on, he’s going to tune out everything. Then, what have you taught him?”

Who Is Responsible?

County residents, like Americans nationwide, are divided over what’s to blame for problems facing inner city minority groups. But nearly half believe that civil rights laws have gone too far, and result in quotas.

* Do you think the problems facing minority groups in America’s inner cities are more problems of personal responsibility or are they more problems of racism and economic injustice?

Orange County

Views of Total White Latino Asian Nation Total Personal responsibility 41% 46% 26% 39% 36% Racism, economic injustice 38% 33% 52% 45% 44% Both equally 12% 13% 13% 7% 12%

*

Thinking about civil rights laws designed to protect minorities from discrimination, which of the following statements comes closest to your point of view?:

1. Current laws need to be toughened because they do not protect minorities well enough.

2. Current laws are right and protect minorities well enough.

3. Current laws have gone too far and have resulted in unfair quotas that cause reverse discrimination against people who do not qualify as minorities.

Views of Total White Latino Asian Laws need to be toughened 16% 10% 28% 28% Laws are right and protect minorities 28% 30% 25% 31% Laws result in unfair quotas 47% 52% 35% 30% Don’t know 9% 8% 12% 11%

*

Do you think the news media in Orange County generally treat minority groups such as blacks, Latinos and Asians fairly, or are they too positive or too negative in their coverage?

Views of Total White Latino Asian Fairly 46% 50% 31% 48% Too positive 9% 9% 10% 4% Too negative 34% 29% 48% 38% Don’t know 11% 12% 11% 10%

*

In elementary and secondary schools today, do you think there is too much or too little emphasis placed on teaching the history and cultures of minority groups such as blacks, Latinos and Asians?

Views of Total White Latino Asian Too much 16% 20% 8% 6% Too little 40% 32% 59% 54% Right amount 24% 26% 19% 24% Don’t know 20% 22% 14% 16%

*

Do you favor or oppose the policy of providing bilingual education in your community’s public schools for students who cannot speak English? (In Los Angeles, question was asked: “ ... students who have trouble with English?”)

O.C. Views of L.A. city total White Latino Asian total Favor 50% 42% 76% 57% 66% Oppose 47% 55% 20% 38% 30%

Note: Some totals do not add to 100% because some responses, such as “don’t know,” are not shown.

Source: Los Angeles Times Poll

What’s Your Opinion?

A Times Poll shows public concern over the state of ethnic relations in Orange County. Recent incidents highlight the potential for tensions between the races. As the county’s population becomes more diverse, what can be done to improve relations between people of different ethnic backgrounds? We’d like your opinion for use in a possible story. If you would like to respond to this question, you can contact us in the following ways:

BY FAX: (714) 966-7711

Attention: Metro Section Reader Survey / Ethnic Relations

BY MAIL:

Metro Section Reader Survey / Ethnic Relations

1375 Sunflower Ave.

Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626

BY PHONE:

TimesLink: (714) 808-8463. Then press *8310. This number is toll-free in most of Orange County.

How the Poll Was Conducted

The Times Poll interviewed 943 adult residents of Orange County, by telephone, Aug. 12 through 15. Telephone numbers were chosen from a list of all exchanges in the county. Random-digit dialing techniques were used to ensure that both listed and unlisted numbers had an opportunity to be contacted. Results were weighted slightly to conform with census figures for sex, race, age, education and labor force participation. Asians and Latinos were over-sampled to ensure large enough samples for analysis; these groups are weighted to their proper proportions in the overall, countywide results. While the opinions of black residents were included as part of the total countywide results for the poll, the black sample in Orange County was too small to include as a separate analysis. The margin of sampling error for percentages based on the entire sample is plus or minus 4 percentage points; for sub-groups the error margin may be somewhat higher. Interviewing was conducted in English and Spanish; only those conversant in those languages were interviewed. Selected comparative results are cited from other Times polls conducted nationwide, in Southern California, Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles.

A Look at This Series

Sunday: A rapidly changing populace grapples with ethnic diversification.

Monday: For residents of all races, fear of escalating crime is a unifying factor.

Tuesday: Some neighborhoods see new demographics as change for the worse.

Today: Whose fault is the alienation? Institutions, individuals share the blame.