Bruins’ perception of L.A. inaccurate

As a former resident of the Crenshaw District (now Inglewood), I
find the statements by students more interesting than the piece
itself (“Recent incidents make students more cautious,”
News, Jan. 18).

I think it is really important to avoid falling into the pitfall
of generalizations about the city’s neighborhoods, as is
often done both by the media and uninformed Angelenos.

Unfortunately, the students interviewed for Charlotte
Hsu’s piece have done just that. First of all, USC is cited
as being “near Crenshaw in south Los Angeles.” Both
areas have been lumped together by the students interviewed for
Hsu’s piece as a “crime-ridden” place.

It depends on what you mean by “near,” since USC is
clearly five miles from Crenshaw. Residents of both the USC and
Crenshaw districts will have varying views on this subject. The
assertion that takes the cake though, is one by Kim Ofria (a
third-year student, mind you) who said that crime happens
everywhere, but “it’s not like we’re in
Compton.”

I have to ask how they formed these perceptions. Did they come
from the media? Do any of these students actually know anyone from
these areas, or have they visited them as a basis for these
statements? This is all the more disconcerting because students are
supposedly at UCLA to learn how to process information, to discern
what is factual or not, and to develop and use some reasoning
skills.

One could argue that these skills should have already been
learned when they arrived at UCLA. Areas as disparate as those
neighborhoods bordering La Cienega Boulevard southward to
Inglewood, Compton and Carson are regularly villified as hotbeds of
crime without taking into account the diversity of the people and
families who live there, the complexity of their lives and
circumstances, and the external factors affecting the statistics
cited in the media.

Let us also not forget that “crime-ridden” is
usually used as a code word for neighborhoods where people of color
live. So make no mistake ““ when you speak of these
neighborhoods you are speaking of the people who live there.

I think the students making these statements might also be
interested in learning that at least a few of their UCLA classmates
are residents of these areas. Do these students know any of these
residents or venture outside their own comfortable circle to
befriend them? Have these students traveled outside of UCLA and
West Los Angeles to other neighborhoods?

This will offer them an education far beyond UCLA and maybe,
just maybe, they will think before making these statements.

Stevenson is a program representative for the UCLA Center
for Oral History Research.