Some See Pattern of Racism in Ojai Valley : Discrimination: The suspected arson is not the first incident raising concern among black leaders. Others deny racial harassment exists.

While more than 22,000 people live in the four communities that make up the Ojai Valley, only a small number of blacks call the area home.

Some say that minority families simply have not discovered the quality of life available to them in the mostly white communities of Ojai, Meiners Oaks, Mira Monte and Oak View.

But others say they suspect a more sinister explanation--that blacks and Latinos are not welcome in the quiet, meandering neighborhoods.

The suspected arson at the Stanford family home in Oak View early Tuesday morning is not the first such incident in the Ojai Valley to raise the level of concern among the county’s black leaders.

Even before Tuesday’s fire, John R. Hatcher III, president of the Ventura County branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, condemned what he views as the “constant harassment” of blacks in the Ojai Valley.

Since December, 1992, a series of race-related assaults have struck the rural area, where nearly 85% of the population is white and fewer than 100 residents are black, according to the 1990 U. S. Census.

At least three times in the past 18 months, sheriff’s deputies in the Ojai Valley have responded to acts of assault and vandalism which victims ascribed to white supremacists.

Some young people in the community do not deny that racism extends through much of the valley.

“It’s because we’re an all-white community and it’s wealthy,” said Rayven McClosky, 16, a student at Happy Valley School who knows the Stanford family. “It’s not racism (solely) against different colors. It’s classes as well.”

Thirteen-year-old Shuwana Stanford, one of a handful of black students at Matilija Junior High School in Ojai and a victim in Tuesday’s fire, left the campus in January in favor of a home-schooling program, following a series of racial insults.

Councilwoman Nina V. Shelley, who is white and a former U. S. Marine, condemned the incident Tuesday, even though fire investigators could not yet determine whether the blaze was racially motivated.

“A 13-year-old kid doesn’t need to pay this kind of price for being a different color,” said Shelley, who as a member of the Ojai Valley chapter of the American Red Cross helped set up the Stanford family in a local motel.

But one former Ojai resident, an El Monte firefighter who now lives in Camarillo, said the slurs against the girl earlier this year are not uncommon.

“A lot of people don’t want to believe things like (racial threats) happen,” said Jayd Swendseid, a black man and a product of the Ojai Valley Unified School District.

“But a girl doesn’t leave school for nothing,” the 22-year-old firefighter said Tuesday. “This is just another example of what racism can do to a society.

“Although a lot of people aren’t racists, they turn their heads,” Swendseid said. “These things have always happened.”

Last December, a group of white youths threw a beer bottle through the window of a black woman’s house while a racially mixed Christmas party was in full swing, police said.

Diane Colby, host of the holiday party, said later she had never been so close to racism in her life than on that December night. The next night, according to a police report, someone slashed all four tires on her car.

In another instance, a black woman, jogging alone one afternoon near downtown Ojai, told police she was run off the road by a group of white men in a pickup truck.

“They said they only wanted to scare me,” Adriane Malone said later.

For civic leaders in the Ojai Valley, most of which is unincorporated, the low numbers of blacks and other minorities can be explained by a host of other factors.

Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce President Jeff McComas, who is white, said Tuesday that he does not view the Ojai Valley as a racist community.

“We feel it’s a nice place to live,” he said.

Times correspondents Tracy Wilson and Phyllis W. Jordan contributed to this report.