Crucial Dialogue in a Tense Time : Positive discussions of race should continue

Los Angeles’ Day of Dialogue provided a safe context to discuss a very touchy subject: race.

The community conversations encouraged honest multiracial exchange in a city that has become further Balkanized in the bitter wake of the O. J. Simpson murder trial. Disparate reactions to the Simpson verdict and the “Million Man March” have worsened racial tensions that have been festering since the 1992 riots.

Though the trial exacerbated black-white tensions specifically, the problem is broader and more complex than that. Not all blacks agreed with the verdict, not all whites thought it was a bad verdict. Latinos and Asian Americans as well had varied responses, and reaction was influenced by class as well as race.

CITY HALL’S ROLE: Nevertheless, the bad feelings demanded a positive action. Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas initiated the dialogue, which the entire City Council appropriately endorsed. Though Mayor Richard Riordan and his staff participated in their own discussion about race, it would have been better if the mayor, as the city’s leader, had spoken out about this sensitive issue and had been seen as leading the attack against racial poisons in Los Angeles. The Day of Dialogue was but one vehicle; the mayor may have good ideas of his own to pursue. Still, it’s too bad that chilly political relationships in City Hall may have discouraged broader participation.

Los Angeles was never the capital of peace, love and harmony, but it has seen far better days. Rodney G. King’s plaintive plea--”Can we all get along?”--bears repeating. To reach the goal of civility and trust, neighbors and strangers must want to get along. They also must be willing to cross invisible boundaries.

Angelenos of all races and many ethnicities found common ground on Tuesday. The meetings were held at colleges, fire stations, churches, synagogues and elsewhere. At each site, specially trained mediators provided by the city attorney’s office guided conversations.

Members of Pasadena’s All Saints Episcopal Church spoke with members of Praises of Zion Church in South-Central Los Angeles. Other hosts included the Anti-Defamation League, the Korean Youth & Community Center, the Ketchum Downtown YMCA, the L.A. Conservation Corps, UCLA, USC and Loyola Marymount University. There were plenty of opportunities to vent in Downtown, South-Central Los Angeles and Hollywood and on the Westside.

TOO FEW SITES: Clearly the San Fernando Valley, with only two sites, got shortchanged; it should have been blanketed with sites. Better coordination between city and county leaders could provide sites throughout the area for a future Day of Dialogue.

In Orange County, people of different backgrounds have been participating in residential “living room dialogues,” sponsored by the Human Relations Commission and Orange County Together, an organization formed after the 1992 riots.

Intolerance, distrust, anger and hatred are the byproducts of rising racial tension. Left unchallenged, these divisions will become permanent. At the least, Los Angeles should have a series of encores to the Day of Dialogue.