Race Relations

A workshop on race relations Thursday will focus on tensions between Latinos and African Americans, especially those who live in public housing developments. The session, to be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the historic Dunbar Hotel at 4225 S. Central Ave. in South-Central Los Angeles, is part of the fourth citywide "Days of Dialogue" program, started in the wake of the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial verdict. The citywide program runs through Monday.

Your Jan. 28 headline, "Ladera Heights Grapples With Its Racial Harmony," is contradictory, implying that we've got a good thing but we're in conflict over it. Although we're grateful for your writer's acknowledgment of our model community, we're dismayed that other key portions of the article were distorted, slanted and generalized to perpetuate dissension among the races. Regarding whites who leave, it's because they've lived here for 30-40 years. They're doing what many seniors do everywhere: move to smaller homes after the families they've raised leave.

Following a summer marred by cries of race-baiting in a state Senate primary that strained relations between Jews and Latinos, two Assembly members with ties to both communities will meet Thursday to discuss relations between the groups. The event, featuring Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) and Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), is sponsored by the Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance.

The Orange County Human Relations Commission is organizing a group for high school and middle school students who want to improve relations between teen-agers of different ethnicities. The commission is looking for enthusiastic students who want to participate in multicultural programs, said Carolyn Herrera, the commission's education specialist.

To improve relations among people of different races, cultures and religions, the Los Angeles city attorney's office will host its fourth annual National Days of Dialogue on Race Relations from Jan. 14 to 19 at numerous sites across the country. In the San Fernando Valley, people of varying backgrounds are expected to gather at 7 p.m. Sunday at First Presbyterian Church of Granada Hills to discuss ways to increase understanding among diverse groups.

While civil rights leaders report that race relations in Los Angeles have remained stagnant in recent years, they point to several community-based programs and dialogues as positive signs. Joe Hicks, executive director of the city's Human Relations Commission, and Angela E. Oh, a representative of a national commission on race, told a city panel Wednesday that small improvements in local communities are a good beginning toward better understanding among the races and a more unified society.

Los Angeles will join 10 cities across the country in days of dialogue on race relations in the coming week, as a program launched locally in the wake of the verdicts in the O.J. Simpson criminal trial makes its national debut. In Los Angeles, there will be about 60 discussion groups from Sylmar to San Pedro today through Monday in the fourth such citywide event. For the first time, there will be simultaneous dialogues in Amherst, Mass.; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Durham, N.C.

President Clinton opened a yearlong initiative on race relations Thursday by appointing a board to advise him on the divisive issue. The diverse panel of three whites, two blacks, one Latino and one Korean American will be chaired by prominent black historian John Hope Franklin, 82. A staff of 15 to 20 federal employees will run the operation. The board's first chore will be helping Clinton polish a Saturday commencement address that aides hope will serve as a hallmark of his presidency.

Recently, a young, black high school student from the Bay Area was visiting my friend's family in Dana Point. While taking a stroll, he was stopped by police and questioned. He was told that because he was black, he stood out in predominantly white South Orange County. He was also questioned about his activities, told that he looked suspicious, and warned to "stay out of trouble." Had the youth not been carrying my friend's business card, he might very well have ended up at the police station.

Re "City Settles Lawsuit Alleging Racism," Dec. 23 I was very disappointed to read about possible racism against blacks from the Hermosa Beach Police Department. I grew up during the '80s in Hermosa Beach, and my family was the only black family on our block. My sisters and I were the only blacks in our schools for a long time. As a child I never once thought about my skin color as being different from my white childhood friends. It wasn't until I became a teenager and moved out of Hermosa Beach that I realized that difference between blacks and whites.