Racial Relations

After living in Orange County 16 years, enjoying the lifestyle but feeling a strong sense of racial isolation, Xerox executive Betty Arnold, an African American, has found a sense of community. As the new president of the Orange County chapter of the National Conference--formerly called the National Conference of Christians and Jews--Arnold has found people who share her commitment to diversity, if not her culture and color.

The black man considers the white. The white man considers the black. Both gazes questioning. Both gazes direct: Their steady stare a looking glass. But who is white and who is black if trajectories of blood deem you family? And how might one account for the space between? For Edward Ball, the politics of race seeped into his Southern consciousness like sun through a day-porch screen.

Imagine a hospital ward full of lunatics whose fantasies and delusions are strictly biblical: In one corner, "John the Baptist" is chattering excitedly to the wall, while "Moses" and "Samson," both heavily sedated, are nodding off in straitjackets. "Jesus" begins yet another sermon, until he's whisked away for blood tests. It might sound like a bad comedy skit, but such a ward exists in Jerusalem, where millions of people, some of them deranged, make pilgrimages every year.

The election of an all-minority student government has set off a brouhaha at Cal State Northridge in which the winners are accused of election tampering, the losers of racism and faculty and staff members are being investigated for allegedly coercing students to back the winning slate. The accusations against the winning slate--We the People, headed by student body President-elect Joaquin Macias--could cost it the election.

One night in Augusta 11 years ago, I finished writing a story about the Masters and turned on the television in time to see "Nightline." I saw Al Campanis twisting in a noose created entirely by his own words. I quickly jotted down as many of them as I could and called the sports editor, who tracked the show as it moved west by asking friends in the Central and Mountain time zones to watch and provide him with a complete transcript.

About 700 to 800 Latino inmates from rival gangs brawled at the Pitchess jail on Wednesday, prompting deputies to douse the men with pepper spray to quell the disturbance. No one was seriously hurt, authorities said. It marked the latest in a long series of battles among Pitchess inmates, though the number involved was far larger than usual for such fights, which generally draw in several dozen to about 100. It was also unusual in that it involved only Latinos.

White residents of Orange County will not only become a minority during the first half of the new century, but their actual numbers will decline as well, new state figures predict. At the same time, according to projections released Thursday by the state Finance Department, the number of Hispanic residents will increase dramatically to make up nearly half the county population, and those of Asian descent will make significant gains.

Cypress, with a population of less than 50,000, rarely makes big headlines. But an apparent hate crime this week--the latest in a string of incidents this year--has some residents concerned that the quiet city could mistakenly become known as a bastion of white supremacists. "I can say very strongly that I don't think a bunch of skinheads have moved into town," said Tim Keenan, a member of the City Council and mayor pro tem. "I would hate for Cypress to get a label as a place where this happens."

Now the crowning indignity: the race card. Just when you thought things between the NBA and its players couldn't get worse, here's the latest demonstration of that '90s phenomenon, wherein issues involving people of different races turn racial, after which it's hard to remember what they were about in the first place. In keeping with these negotiations, both sides say they weren't the ones who introduced it. "I don't think race is [the problem]," union head Billy Hunter said Wednesday.

A fight between black and Latino inmates at the Pitchess jail left seven prisoners injured Thursday, the Sheriff's Department said. The most seriously injured inmate was treated at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center for a broken ankle, Deputy Joan Rayber said. Rayber said the brawl, which involved between 55 and 60 inmates, was quickly broken up by deputies who "were forced to use pepper spray on five Hispanic inmates who were beating a black inmate and refused to stop."