The survey was conducted after an incident in upscale Yorba Linda, in which an African American family said they had been forced to flee the county after enduring months of racial attacks and acts of vandalism that seemed racially charged.While I'm sympathetic to the families and certainly think that those who think that dressing up like Klan members is "fun", I have to seriously ask why families who apparently have the means to live in an upscale neighborhood don't simply band together and create an upscale black neighborhood? What is with this need to be a tiny minority of black folks in a neighborhood where your neighbors don't want you? I really do not understand the whole "they gonna like me. They gonna accept me" mentality.
In response, the Orange County Human Relations commission held a series of public "listening sessions" at churches across Orange County, urging African American families to share their stories of life in a county that — at one time — had a reputation as a place of intolerance.
The stories — collected in a document released Friday and that will be discussed at a public forum next week — include those of a woman who said a company CEO seemed "shocked" when she complained about the Confederate flag outside his offices and the high school student whose classmates said they planned to dress up in KKK garb for Halloween and "lynch" black people.
And although African Americans make up only about 2% of Orange County's population, officials with the human relations group — which has been tracking hate crime and discrimination in the county for more than 20 years — say black residents have been the most targeted in hate crimes.
(17 years of informed commentary)