Anglo Attitudes, Latino Segregation in the OC

This story in the Orange County Weekly highlights the result of a new UCLA study showing that, even with rising diversity, Orange County, California isn’t becoming as integrated as one would hope when it comes to Latina/os.

Celia Lacayo, a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA’s Institute of American Cultures, surveyed 40 white Orange County residents.  Chosen at random, the whites surveyed ranged from 25 to 61, with most being middle- to upper-class professionals. They split almost evenly along political lines. All but two already lived in mostly white neighborhoods.

Some of the survey responsess were revealing.  The Respondents frequently expressed that they felt most comfortable in homogenous white areas. Lola, a 25-year-old director of marketing, stated:

Obviously, I wouldn’t feel comfortable living in a neighborhood that was mostly Hispanic. I would feel completely out of place. I would much rather live in a neighborhood that was predominantly white. I think . . . being around people that kind of look like each other . . . I mean, it goes back to having the same type of background.

Mark, a 42-year-old owner of a repo company, stated:

Hispanics, they just don’t fit in. The Mexicans go to the beach, and I don’t know why they always swim in their clothes. That’s always pondered me; but they’ll walk on the sand,  they’ll stay on the boardwalk, and they’ll stop right in the middle of the boardwalk and they’ll drag their boogie board or their cooler. They have a wet dirty blanket and they’ll drag it; and they’ll stop on the boardwalk. They’ll just stop there. And it’s like get out of the way. How stupid are you? It’s like you’re a nuisance. Get out of here.

KJ