Recent Incidence of Hate Crimes Not Surprising

The racial/religious hate crimes reported recently are unfortunately not surprising. As an ethnic minority who recently moved from Los Angeles to Orange County, I feel more alienated here. Although Orange County probably has an equivalent proportion of prejudiced people as anywhere else, I perceive that the proportion of people who are committed to preventing prejudice is smaller here than in L.A.

It was so much easier for me to find political and social groups with clear anti-prejudice themes in L.A. Logically this difference might make sense for two reasons. First, L.A. has a more diverse population and, second, besides the motivation for affordable housing, white flight from the city occurred when people feared invading minorities.

It seems to me that generations of white flight community people are now beginning to deal with minorities again. Maybe their insecurity about becoming minorities in California’s future also exacerbates hate crimes.

Are they again fleeing to less populated states--Montana, Utah, Washington--hoping for escape from urban/global issues? White flight appears to be a short-term strategy that increases cultural misunderstanding. You know, Caucasians are the minority group in the world.

IM JUNG KWUON, Westminster