Tarzana : Racial Hatred on the Internet Is Talk Topic

What kind of person would bomb the federal building in Oklahoma City?

A person not too different from you or I, Dr. Louis West, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA, told about 150 middle and high school students and another 100 members of Temple Judea in Tarzana on Tuesday.

The temple’s Sisterhood held its 18th annual interfaith program on “Intolerance in America,” focusing on hate groups that have begun to spread their messages via the Internet.

West told the crowd that intolerance comes with human hardware. “Everybody needs to belong to something or some group,” but problems arise, he said, when one group develops hatred for others.

West was joined on the panel by Rick Eaton, a researcher at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, and Barbara Bergen, an attorney with the Anti-Defamation League.

The speakers gave as examples of intolerance in American and world history: the lynching of black men in the 19th century, the Holocaust in World War II, and gay-bashing and cross burnings in modern America.

But, in an increasingly diverse America, they said, tolerance is needed for the survival of the country.

Eaton, who testified before Congress about hate crimes following the Oklahoma City bombing, cautioned the audience to beware of hate groups such as militias and skinheads that have learned to use modern technology as recruiting tools.

He said his organization monitors about 300 such groups in America, including about 40 that have set up World Wide Web pages to disseminate their views.

He urged the students to be aware of the source of information, and explained the difference between legitimate sources and hate groups. The students from six schools found the program informative.

Danny Rubenstein, a seventh-grader at Sierra Canyon Middle School in Chatsworth, said, “I never understood [racial intolerance] until today.”

Matt Akana, a fellow seventh-grader, added: “I learned to do my part by tolerating others.”