Santa Clarita: Not Your Average Suburb
Unlike many of my friends, I wasn’t born and raised in Santa Clarita. I grew up an ocean away in Jakarta, Indonesia, and I’ve only been here for the past five years. I think one of the first things I noticed when I moved was how…quiet everything was. I mean, the culture shock was inevitable, I was born in the capital city of the world’s fourth most populated country after all. Any other place I will live in after will pale in comparison. Nonetheless, as time passed, I began to notice that Santa Clarita wasn’t the quaint suburb it comes across as on the surface.
When I first started attending College of the Canyons, the local community college, I remember thinking about how setting foot on campus felt like stepping on a whole other planet. It was just so much more diverse than the actual city. College of the Canyons is 28% white, according to a data report the school published in 2020. In comparison, as of 2019, Santa Clarita is 71% white according to the US Census Bureau. The difference is striking, and perhaps can be explained by a large number of commuters. Nonetheless, I would like to learn how this vast rift came to be, especially since the same data report mentioned how the college was 92% white in 1970.
Santa Clarita’s lack of diversity is reflected in its leadership. Bob Kellar, a council member who recently retired in late 2020, declared himself a “proud racist” during an anti-immigration rally in 2010. He never apologized.
The local government isn’t the only place where this sort of troubling behavior can be found. The Santa Clarita Valley Signal was exposed in 2018 for having owners that peddled right-wing conspiracy theories on social media. Many of my peers turn to social media for our news but I know many still rely on other formats such as television and newspapers so it is rather concerning to discover the town’s sole newspaper having such biased ownership.
The pandemic has definitely stirred up the ideological differences that have been simmering. A Black Lives Matter protest in May 2020 was deemed an unlawful protest by local authorities, however, a New Year’s Eve rally at a church that broke COVID-19 protocols did not receive similar treatment.
Those weren’t the only issues I’ve seen rise in the past year. I worked at a tutoring lab at College of the Canyons and during the lockdown, we went online. Mind you, our tutoring lab was always packed, and it was strange to see that we were barely visited on Zoom. This could be attributed to burnout but also speaks to a digital divide. Granted, the school did provide computers to borrow but still, that’s different than just being able to go on campus and utilize all its resources. While working from home was a blessing for many, it wasn’t for everyone.
Like I said before, Santa Clarita is far from quaint.
