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Immigration See other Immigration Articles Title: Racially Charged Incidents Cause Unease in Booming Los Angeles Suburbs Racially Charged Incidents Cause Unease in Booming Los Angeles Suburbs By Ben Fox Associated Press Writer MURRIETA, Calif. (AP) - Like thousands of other Californians, Crystal Farr moved her family to the inland suburbs of Los Angeles to live in more affordable housing than she could find along the coast. She has come to question the wisdom of the move following the arrest of dozens of alleged white supremacists and a series of racially charged incidents, including an attack on her teenage son. Farr, who is black, said the arrests added to her feeling that not everyone is welcome in a rapidly diversifying region where whites are no longer a majority. "I like the community ... but all this has made me have second thoughts," she said. "It's taken its toll on our family." While Farr's experience may be extreme, other families also feel uneasy and would move if they could afford housing elsewhere, said Loraine Watts, president of the NAACP chapter in nearby Lake Elsinore. Law enforcement authorities say it's unfair to characterize the region of more than 3 million people in Riverside and San Bernardino counties as a racist bastion. But as hate crimes dropped 10 percent statewide from 2002 to 2003, the two counties saw a combined increase of 19 percent, according to the California attorney general's office. In January, authorities in the two counties announced that, working with the FBI in separate investigations, they had arrested more than 40 people tied to white supremacist groups with names such as Angry Nazi Soldiers. The arrests, mostly on drug and weapons charges, spanned more than a year. Authorities have said that southern Riverside County, which includes Murrieta, appears to have the most significant problem. Deputy District Attorney John Ruiz said there are occasional flare-ups of racial tension in schools and pockets of white supremacists. "You find that some people have moved out to these rural areas because they don't like rubbing elbows with ethnic minorities," said Ruiz. "It's a small, but very vocal, minority." Some white supremacists could have been drawn to the area for the same reason the Farr family was - cheaper housing, said Brian Levin, a criminal justice professor at California State University, San Bernardino. Cheaper housing not only draws ex-city dwellers, he said, but also ex-convicts who may have adopted racist ideology in prison. Ethnic minorities are increasing in number in the counties, as well. While the two-county population increased more than 25 percent from 1990 to 2000, the number of white residents declined from about 63 percent to less than half, according to census figures. That trend is reflected in the Murrieta Valley Unified School District, where the nonwhite student population grew from 28 percent in 1999 to 42 percent in 2004. The district created a human relations council last year to address racial issues in the wake of attacks on two black students at Murrieta Valley High School - one of whom was Farr's son. The two teens who attacked Sam Farr pleaded guilty to assault and making racial threats, were sentenced to juvenile hall and have since been released. But Sam Farr, now 17, said problems persist. Last month, as he walked home from school in his ROTC uniform, he claims one of his two assailants yelled a racial slur at him before speeding off. Crystal Farr, who moved to Murrieta five years ago, said she's afraid to let her son and 15-year-old daughter go to the movies alone. "People should know that this is going on out here," said Crystal Farr, whose family has filed a lawsuit against the district, joining the parents of two other black teens who allege they were victims of racial harassment on campus. However, district spokeswoman Karen Parris said assertions of racial tension are exaggerated. "Statistics show that whenever a community grows ... you get an increase in social problems," she said.
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#1. To: Mr Nuke Buzzcut (#0)
I think this is closer to the truth. Riverside and San Bernardino counties are building whole new housing communities. And as the article pointed out, whites are now less than half the population.
Several years ago I lived in a neighborhood where, for whatever reason, about half of the homes were racially mixed marriages of one combination or another. I liked the neighborhood - not because of the racial profile - but because it was pretty homogenous in its embrace of middle class traditional American values. Education was valued. Well behaved kids were valued. Well maintained homes were valued. Friendly chat on evening walks were valued. Participation in volunteer sports leagues was valued. And so on...
#3. To: All (#2)
Oh... I forgot to mention that none of the homes were occupied by single moms with out of control little gang bangers.
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