Law Alone Is Not Enough to Fight Hate in the High Desert

The stench of racism continues to blow in the high desert winds of the Antelope Valley. After a rash of race-related violence in Palmdale and Lancaster--including beatings, shootings and cross burnings--federal authorities have stepped up efforts to crack down on hate crimes. Local authorities report no increase in racial violence, but the FBI and federal prosecutors disagree, concerned that white supremacist groups with names like the Palmdale Peckerwoods and the Nazi Lowriders want to scare away the area’s burgeoning minority population.

Indeed, the Antelope Valley is a picture of change. The percentage of African Americans living in Lancaster more than doubled from 3.3% in 1980 to 7.2% in 1990. During the same decade, the Latino population jumped from 7.2% to 15.2%. Similar numbers reflect changes in Palmdale, where the number of African Americans rose from 3.3% in 1980 to 6.1% in 1990. The percentage of Latinos nearly tripled from 9.3% to 15.2%. Overall population increased 47.2% in Palmdale between 1990 and 1994 and 22.5% in Lancaster as families of all races chased the alluring promises of affordable housing, clean schools and safe streets.

Coping with that kind of change is a challenge even in the best of times. But over the past five years, the dreams that lured so many thousands into the desert soured with a persistent recession that stole once-secure jobs and knocked home values into a downward spiral. Against that backdrop of uncertainty, it’s easy to understand how racial suspicion crept slowly toward violence. Stemming that ugly creep requires cooperation between local leaders and federal authorities: One to educate and prevent, the other to prosecute and punish.

Over the past 18 months, the FBI has assigned at least four agents to the Antelope Valley. In addition, federal prosecutors are working closely with their counterparts in the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to share information and plot courtroom strategy in hate crime cases. The federal prosecutors provide expertise in civil rights cases while county prosecutors can exercise greater freedom under California’s more flexible hate-crime laws, including the ability to try juveniles as adults. The crackdown sends the right message: that a decent, free society will not tolerate the ugliest acts of hatred.

Make no mistake how ugly these attacks are. In 1995, three members of a skinhead gang fired six shots into a car carrying four African Americans--including a 1-year-old baby. Later that year, an African American high school student was beaten and stabbed on her way to class. And last year, an African American teenager was beaten and stabbed as he walked down the street. Crimes like these deserve tough criminal prosecution.

But that’s only part of the answer. Prosecution deals with the wrong end of the problem. Curbing racial violence requires an effort by the entire community, from city leaders and church pastors to schoolteachers and Little League coaches. After slow starts, both Palmdale and Lancaster have begun to take seriously the recommendations of a county Human Relations Committee report urging the two cities to adopt reforms to help ease racial tensions. But governments can do only so much to shape public attitudes--particularly those as basic as the sense of ethnic identity.

It falls to ordinary people to celebrate that identity as part of a spectrum of skin colors and religious beliefs--not as distinctly better or worse. It falls to ordinary people to reject the racist ravings of a neighbor--not just to let it slide. It falls to ordinary people to recognize that all of us share responsibility for the ills--and achievements--of society. Granted, it’s a tough challenge, one that requires the will of a community tired of division. Regardless of their color, the people of Palmdale and Lancaster chased a shared dream into the desert. Together, they can find it.