CIVIL RIGHTS VETERANS FORM NEW GROUP TO FOSTER NEW
PERSPECTIVES ON RACE, HUMAN RELATIONS
Organization Will Challenge Dominant Strategies of Civil Rights
Groups and Instead Promote Common Ground Issues That Transcend
Race, Identity and Religion
LOS
ANGELES (October 17, 2002) - Two of the city's foremost leaders
on civil rights issues with a combined 50 years of experience
have joined forces to form Community Advocates. Joe Hicks,
former Executive Director of the Los Angeles City Human Relations
Commission and David A. Lehrer, former Regional Director of the
Anti-Defamation League, today announced their partnership in the
new organization, which will offer innovative approaches to the
fields of race relations and human relations. Also on board is
Richard J. Riordan, former Los Angeles Mayor, who will serve as
the organization's chairman.
In contrast to the prevailing vision of Los Angeles as a hotbed
of racial and ethnic conflict, Lehrer and Hicks argue that L.A.
is a place in which a richly diverse, ethnically mixed population
interacts in ways that are, for the most part, civil and positive.
Instead of portraying Los Angeles as a city that is experiencing
an "epidemic" of hate crime seething with ethnic and racial conflict,
Community Advocates will seek to present an accurate view of L.A.
as a place where common interests, more often than not, trump
race, ethnicity and religion.
"For most of the past century, civil rights and human relations
groups focused their attention on discrimination, bigotry and
hate crimes," says Lehrer, President, Community Advocates, Inc.
"Enormous progress has been made over the last 35 years. Now it's
time to concentrate on building a positive and transcendent civil
culture."
Community
Advocates will promote its vision of post-civil rights, transracial
politics through forums, symposiums, seminars, leadership training
and targeted events with strategic partners throughout Los Angeles.
These programs will present the rich mixture of racial, ethnic
and religious communities in Los Angeles while also spotlighting
the common themes that weave these different groups and parts
of the city together. An affiliation with the University of Southern
California will allow CAI to bring its vision to a larger audience
via cooperative programming efforts. The organization is in the
process of putting together an advocacy council that will be comprised
of individuals who have a proven commitment to human relations
issues. Initial council members include Stewart Kwoh, Ron Rogers,
Gregory Rodriguez and Ron Iden (Assistant Director in Charge of
the FBI in Los Angeles), in addition to Mayor Riordan.
Lehrer
and Hicks contend that Los Angeles, the most diverse city in the
world, is overdue for a new definition of what civil rights and
"human relations" means.
"Anti-discrimination legislation and hate crime laws are securely
in place and being aggressively enforced, and tolerance and diversity
accepted as the mantra of nearly all of America, including the
nation's corporate community," says Joe Hicks, Vice President,
Community Advocates. "In this environment, we need a fresh approach
to civil rights, one that is not based on comparative and, often,
competitive claims of victimization."
The unique geography of Los Angeles creates a special challenge
for human and race relations advocates because its diverse population
lacks opportunities for mixing in a positive setting. Unlike the
residents of New York or Chicago, Los Angeles residents don't
tend to walk the streets or ride public transportation together.
In this balkanized environment, CAI's challenge is to develop
an awareness of "interests" and "common ground" that transcend
one's race, ethnicity or religion, an objective that is counter
to the prevailing strategies of identity-based politics and advocacy.
