UPDATE: December 10, 2012: Read news reports of the December 8 “Listening Session”
UPDATE: November 28, 2012 The OC Human Relations Commission has scheduled One in a series of “Listening Sessions” on African American life in Orange County for 9am, Saturday, December 8, 2012 at Irvine’s Christ Our Redeemer (COR) Church… Read More
UPDATE: November 26, 2012
November 20, 2012
Dear Friends of the Commission,
It is with heavy heart I share a story related to me by an LA County Deputy Sheriff about her family’s experience in Yorba Linda over the last year and a half. NOT your happy Thanksgiving story.
This African American family headed by an Inglewood Police Officer married to an LA County Deputy Sheriff and their children moved to Yorba Linda in search of the good life. What they found was quite different. Shortly after arriving in May 2011 they were awakened in the middle of the night as rocks shattered the windows of their house. Then they found that the 8 tires on their two cars had all been slashed. Their 6 year old son related a story of classmates at Travis Ranch school who said he couldn’t play with them because he was Black, and one kid told the others that they could not talk to him because he was Black. Their young adult son shared that as he rode on his bicycle to work at the Home Depot he had repeatedly been yelled at by passing cars that called him N—-r. And finally on Oct 6, 2012 they were targets of acid pellets shot into their garage door that dripped down on their car ruining the paint and window.
They had reached the tipping point. They decided that they just could not live in a community where they were treated like this. They needed a more welcoming community where there were more diverse residents, where a Black family would not be such a rarity. On 10/19/12 this family of public servants, moved to Corona in search of a safe and welcoming community. Just before they left, they called OC Human Relations Commission. Having read that the Commission documented hate crimes, this mom, decided that she must “share our story with someone before we moved”.
The OC Human Relations Commission adopted the attached Commission Letter to Yorba Linda Family 11.2012 (this copy omits the family name to preserve their privacy) to send to this family, and pledges to reach out to the African American community of Orange County this year to hear their stories and share their experience with the whole county.
Rusty Kennedy, Executive Director OC Human Relations
Appalling 2012