No Place for Hate Violence

Two incidents of apparently racist vandalism in Ventura last week, foul echoes of the death-by-dragging of a black man in Texas, are sad reminders of the hatred and cowardice that continue to plague our society even in 1998.

* A cross was burned into the front lawn of a house where two African Americans live on Jordan Street in midtown Ventura.

* Three days later and three blocks away on San Clemente Avenue, a racial epithet and other paint damage was splashed onto the parked car of a woman whose father is black and mother is white.

The FBI is investigating whether the incidents constitute federal civil rights violations.

This sort of thing was pitiful enough in the Deep South of the 1950s but in today’s California it is just plain stupid. Nonetheless, every few months comes some new episode of race-motivated violence, anti-Semitic vandalism or white-supremacist skinhead yahooism.

Enough, already.

Neighbors of the people targeted in these incidents rightly demand prompt action in identifying the culprits and teaching them a few basic facts about modern life.

For starters:

Respect these days isn’t won by being born the “right” color or religion or gender, or even by having the good luck to be born into a family where the language spoken at home is the one you’ll need to succeed at school or at work. For people who start out with these advantages to look down on those who don’t is truly un-American.

Respect isn’t bought with money. It doesn’t come as standard equipment with a shiny new car and it certainly can’t be extorted with a gun.

Respect is earned by what you make of yourself, regardless of how you start out. In the history of the world, no one has ever made themselves bigger by making someone else feel smaller.

Respect is earned by making yourself stronger, smarter and better every day. You do that through education, whatever your age; through strengthening your connections with family and community; and through doing good work that benefits others at the same time it benefits yourself.

In Ventura County, whatever our personal background, we are surrounded by people who are different from us. People who do and see things in ways that may seem strange. People who have things we wish we had. People who make handy targets for our anger and disappointment.

Guess what: Your problems are not their fault. Deal with it.

Racist vandalism aimed at any member of our community is an insult to us all. There is no place in Ventura County for sneaky, cowardly bigots--not in 1998, or in any other year.