Blacks in L.A.

Re the Rev. Madison T. Shockley II’s July 30 commentary, “Chinese Get the Wrong Message About Blacks”:

When I read in the article that Shockley was “sure” that there were few blacks at Boeing, Unocal, Xerox or in Palos Verdes, Beverly Hills or the homes in the Valley, I did not know whether to laugh or cry. If the good reverend would go to those places, he would, I know, find that he couldn’t be more wrong.

As an insurance agent, I see African Americans in all walks of life and living in the places the reverend said there were few.

CHRISTOPHER T. HICKS

Long Beach

* Shockley bemoans what he sees as the image of black people painted when Chinese industrialists were taken on a tour of L.A.’s skid row. I think it’s Shockley who needs the tour, because all homeless people and those in need of public assistance are not black! To the contrary, whenever I bike through the areas of downtown where one can find large groups of homeless, I see a rainbow of colors: white, brown, red and, yes, black.

Shockley also declares that these industrialists would probably find few if any blacks at USC. USC? No blacks at USC and only blacks on skid row? Obviously, it’s Shockley who is guilty of stereotyping blacks in Southern California.

RONALD D. HARDCASTLE

Los Angeles