Countywide : Lack of Black Unity Cited by Panel at UCI

There’s a lack of community among Orange County’s African Americans and something should be done about it, a small group of students and faculty told a UC Irvine panel convened in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. this week.

Part of the problem, one panelist said, is that blacks in Orange County are few and far between.

“How do you fire up the community to come together?” Mike Allen asked four African American community leaders who participated in a campus forum Thursday night. “We want concrete solutions.”

Allen was one of about 15 students and staff who attended the forum on contemporary issues facing blacks in Orange County. The discussion was part of UCI’s three-day symposium on King, the slain civil rights leader.

The panelists--Randall Jordan, publisher of the Black Orange; Milton Grimes, attorney for Rodney King; Judy Sampson, Santa Ana high school teacher; and James Cones, a UCI psychologist--faced spirited questioning.

“We don’t even care enough about ourselves to come here,” said sophomore Taengye Watson, who was upset about sparse attendance.

“Critical mass is important in one’s environment,” Cones said. “To walk down the street . . . and see people who look like you creates a sense of community. African Americans’ visibility is low” in Orange County.

Grimes stressed the role of government. Referring to his client, Rodney King, and the city of Los Angeles’ reluctance to give King the monetary settlement he’s been seeking, Grimes said African Americans must constantly question the justice system.

Jordan quoted three public defenders who he said recently stated on TV that “the purpose of the system is to incarcerate young black males.”

Jordan agreed.

“That to me is a conspiracy,” said Jordan, one of those seeking an independent probe of the fatal shooting of Sheriff’s Deputy Darryn Leroy Robins by a fellow officer during an impromptu training session behind a Mission Viejo theater complex earlier this month.

The lack of community is related to a “me, me” attitude, Sampson said. “When I was (a UCI student), there might have been only 200 African American students at UCI. But 195 of them would be here” attending the forum.

When confronted with the students’ demands for stronger leadership, like that provided by Martin Luther King Jr., Jordan said the generation of black youths who grew up in the 1960s “lost it” after the deaths of Malcolm X and King.

“Today we are trying to experience leadership,” Jordan said. “We can’t tell you the answers. . . . We don’t know.”

Added Grimes: “You are the warriors. You have the energy. We have the experience.”

“We can’t feel like the problems are too big to surmount, “ freshman Ethan Walters said. “We can’t give up.”

Watson said the first step should be to “go to all our friends tomorrow and ask them, where were they?”