Racism the enigma of our county

Authored by: Stewart Shandon

Enigma: A puzzling or inexplicable condition or experience.

Recently while sitting at an outdoor venue in Lakeport, I had occasion to overhear a rather boisterous individual comment on the crows that were perched on the ledge of a building across the street. “Would you look at them crows” he said. “Their just like niggers waiting to get into trouble ain't they?”

Realizing I have just broken one of the unspoken rules of racism PR. Which is you cannot use the “N” word. I do so to illustrate the enigma of racism. In a CNN live report from the recent Tulsa shootings incident, a CNN reporter quoted the exact words one of the shooters wrote on their Facebook account. Those words included the “N” word. CNN was attacked from all sides. Apparently we are being educated to sugar coat racism and all of its pugnaciousness. Can you ban a word from existence and cure racism? Unfortunately the enigmatic roots of racism reach much deeper into the ground of our societies.

For part of the answer to the LC's prominence as being racist we must first look at the demographics of our county. Lake County has been and continues to be an “aged” county, currently the county still has a high population of the “greatest generation” (a point which will be debated in another article). This is the WWII/Korean war generation, now in the age group of those 69 years old and older. Lake County as we know, cannot hold on to its youth there is simply nothing here to offer them. Racism in Lake County started out due in part to a condition we will call “passive racism”. Not unlike many cities in California that experienced the genesis of people from the east after the wars ended. In my own family as a young child I experienced passive racism and at the time never knew it. Many of you may recall your parents (The WWII generation) using the term “Nigger toe” to describe a Brazil nut. If you didn't have the unfortunate experience of hearing this, a Brazil nut is a wonderfully flavored nut which is roughly 2 1/2 inches long and dark bronze/brown in color thus likened to a dark skinned persons toe. Passive racism for many turned slowly into outward and yet disguised racism. Lake County and its population have been no exception to this, and at times have been at the head of the line.

Those deep roots of racism grow all the way back to the Civil war, and still materialize openly in the deep south. But this is California, this is the progressive and ahead of the curve state. This is where the hippies and environmentalist first honed their skills.  Shouldn't we be different?  At one time back in the mid 40's through the early 60's Lake County had a thriving and wonderful population of African Americans who owned or rented small cabins and houses in the Oaks, Glen Haven, and Clear Lake. (during the 60's was the time the Hells Angels and other motorcycle gangs sunk their teeth into the county). Crappie and Catfish were caught in abundance, fish fries the norm every weekend in the summer. A thriving and robust community lived and dreamed, played and raised children on the shores of Clear Lake and many of those were of African American heritage.

But something has always seethed under the surface of Lake County. Racism, and in time it manifested in every corner of the county. Some deputies were racist, many of you know the names and the incidents to which I will not elaborate on in this delivery. There was a breeding of racism, against Hispanics, Blacks, Asians and Native Americans or for that matter anyone who was not as close to a WASP as one could get. This ignorant propensity for racism reared its ugly head during the last sheriffs election, and still on local Internet sites words like “Cisco”, “Spic”, “Cuban drug runner”, and a host of other names are used. Many of you are cognizant of our current racist who also plies his trade on the Internet outlets in our county. Clint Fritzgerald known to some as KKK Klint. Many of you also know that the simple mentioning of his name will bring his wrath of racist ramblings to the comment section of this article.

As Lake County began it's decline in the mid 70's and economic conditions deteriorated, a great number of houses were lost, closer water venues became available at reservoirs south of here and Clear Lake lost its appeal. It was during those times that more who were racist stayed in the county and the demographics of diversity shifted to majority white. Lake County tried to hide it, but the passive racism as mentioned lived on, resurfaced and in fact thrived and grew for many years.

In the latest housing boom gone bust new “blood” came into the county, a younger more progressive population came to roost and issues of racism began to surface and be exposed. Not only within our local LE departments but in local government as well. It will be critical if Lake County is to continue its growth out of our racist biased and past not to PR the racism in our county, but to expose it, only the powerful light of the truth shone directly on the words, and acts of racism in our county can carry us to a greater and wiser community, devoid of the ignorant darkness of judgment by color.

Stewart Shandon