Racism Is Alive In Huntington Beach, California…But Maybe So Is Hope

The 1990s Were Tough To Be Diverse in HB, But Maybe It’s a Little Better Today

Did you hear about the “White Live Matters”/KKK rally today, April 11, 2021, in Huntington Beach, California? After approximately 90 minutes, cops had to shut the rally down because of violent clashes with counter-protesters from anti-racist movements and by law enforcement not wanting to repeat its past mistakes of rioting. Not surprisingly, at the racist rally there were Trump flags, mixed with Confederate flags and Nazi flags. So, the racists let their racist-freak-flags fly today (just like the anti-maskers and conspiracy theorists often feel safe doing in Huntington Beach since the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic). BUT, at least there were anti-racists there to counter the racism, which gives me hope because I didn’t have any counters to the rampant racism growing up near and jaunting around Huntington Beach as a kid.

Growing up in Orange County, California in the 1980s-90s as an Arab American sucked. Not only was hummus not ubiquitous yet, there were very few Arab Americans (or even other Middle Easterners or South Asians) around to commiserate with or Arab American heroes to look up to. So, my choices were to over-assimilate (i.e., think the Borg from Star Trek New Generation by just ignoring Arab roots, language, food…