Community
Advocates, Inc. (CAI) is a nonprofit organization that advocates
innovative approaches to human relations and race relations in
Los Angeles city and county. CAI was founded on the idea that
while we do not live in a perfect world, there has been steady
and continuing progress in the arena of race and human relations.
CAI works
from the premise that while Los Angeles city and county residents generally
interact in positive ways, the region's geography makes sustained,
large-scale interactions across racial, ethnic or religious lines
rare. Los Angeles suffers not from hatred or animosity between
different groups, but from a lack of understanding based in part
on a lack of opportunities for mixing in a positive setting. Unlike
the residents of New York or Chicago, Angelenos don't tend to walk the streets or ride public transportation together. The freeway
system allows people to travel in hermetically sealed cars that
whisk them over and around unfamiliar or "dangerous" neighborhoods.
Therefore, CAI's challenge is to develop an awareness of interests
and common ground that transcends one's race, ethnicity or religion
— an objective that is counter to the prevailing strategies of identity-based politics and advocacy.
CAI's leadership
is composed of Chairman Richard Riordan, former Mayor of Los Angeles;
President David A. Lehrer, former Regional Director of
the Anti-Defamation League; and Vice President Joe R. Hicks, former
Executive Director of the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission.
CAI spreads its vision through op-eds, speeches, panel
presentations, journal articles, media briefings and offering legal
services. In addition, the organization
will advance its vision through cooperative programming, made
possible by an affiliation with the University of Southern California.
