`US' AND `THEM' : THE ATTITUDE BEHIND RACIAL VIOLENCE MANIFESTS WHEN THE RACES SEPARATE THEMSELVES. THE COUNTY HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION'S ANNUAL REPORT ON HATE CRIMES SHOULD BE A SPRINGBOARD TO ACTION BY POLICE, PROSECUTORS AND THE PUBLIC.

Byline: Earl Ofari Hutchinson

ON the first anniversary of the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building last April, the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission released its annual report on hate crimes in Los Angeles County. It reported that hate crimes against Latinos, Jews, Asians and gays rose in 1995. Equally disturbing, for the 14th year since the commission began compiling the hate crime figures, African-Americans were the most frequent target. The hate crimes did not simply consist of scrawling racist graffiti on homes, yelling taunts or slurs. There were violent assaults and attempted murders. The hate crimes occurred in nearly every part of the country.

I wouldn't be surprised that when the commission issues its report for 1996, the number of hate crimes rose again in the country. There's already one disturbing sign that this may be the case. The U.S. attorney and L.A. County district attorney recently announced they're stepping up investigations into racially motivated hate crimes in the Antelope Valley. Some of the crimes involved actual murders.

Many blame hate crimes on media manipulation, fear of African-American crime, the conservative political climate, the backlash to affirmative action, the O.J. Simpson verdict and the resurgence of white supremacist groups locally and nationally. These are certainly hotly debated and contentious issues. But what I'm even more disturbed by is that the personal lives of too many Americans still seem to be tightly manacled by race. L.A. County reflects that pattern of racial Balkanization in which whites, African-Americans, Latinos and Asians remain socially insulated from each other. This does little to foster understanding and respect for diversity.

I see it every day on my job. I work for a public agency. There are no visible racial barriers, antagonisms or incidents. It has strict prohibitions against discrimination and an actively enforced affirmative action program. There are African-American, Asian and Latino supervisors. Minorities are fairly well-represented in the professional and skilled positions within the agency.

During the lunch and coffee breaks, however, it's a different story. The interracial mix abruptly halts. Each group stakes out its respective turf. African-Americans sit at one table talking and eating. Whites at another. Latinos and Asians at another. No one seems to give a second thought to this separate but equal clustering. It's just friends ``socializing'' with those that they feel most comfortable with.

When I leave my office to go home, I pass the neighborhood school. With the exception of a small but growing number of Latinos, the students on the playground are all African-American. My neighbors are a good mix of professionals, businesspersons and skilled workers. But other than a couple of whites, who are retired, they are all African-American. At the market the shoppers are nearly all African-American. My son and daughter's social contacts and relations are exclusively African-American. I'm almost certain it's the same for young African-Americans and Latinos in South Central Los Angeles and young whites in the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys.

If the images young whites have of African-Americans come almost exclusively from TV shows like ``Cops,'' news broadcasts, sitcoms and ``gangsta'' movies, can they be blamed if they think that all African-Americans are dope dealers, drive-by shooters, gang members, absentee fathers, welfare freeloaders and chronically poor? An Anti-Defamation League survey in 1993 revealed that 31 percent of whites between 18 and 30 years old believed that African-Americans were lazy and violence prone. I immediately thought of that survey when I read the Human Relations Commission's finding that young white males committed the majority of hate crimes in the county.

The commission's report provides law enforcement with valuable data to monitor hate crimes and prosecute offenders. It provides an opportunity for state lawmakers to strengthen legislation, to stiffen punishment for hate crimes. It provides an opportunity for local, city and county public officials to convene more countywide forums that can bring community leaders in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys together with African-American and Latino leaders in South Central Los Angeles to discuss problems and needs with residents. It provides the public the opportunity to dialogue on racial and cultural conflicts and problems.

Thirty years ago the Kerner Commission warned that America was moving dangerously toward two societies, ``one black, one white - separate but unequal.'' Today, with the huge increase in the number of Latinos and Asians in America, and particularly L.A. County, I'd have to make that three, four or more societies, each one separate and still unequal. To break down the racial and ethnic barriers and transform America into a truly open society, the commission called on Americans to adopt ``new attitudes, new understanding and new wills.''

Sadly, the longer those racial barriers remain rigid, the harder it will be for African-Americans, whites, Latinos and Asians to learn from, and appreciate each other's diverse social and cultural lifestyles. The siege mentality that African-Americans and whites are locked in only guarantees that they will continue to think of each other as ``us'' and ``them.''

Fortunately, Los Angeles County has been spared the mass destruction of an Oklahoma City terror-type bombing or the racial trauma from the murders of African-Americans by suspected white supremacists in North Carolina. As residents of Los Angeles County, it's our job to make sure that bigotry and violence don't thrive here. If it takes arrests and prosecutions of violent hatemongers, then so be it. But we can't depend on law enforcement to solve social and racial problems. It takes hard work, dedication and dialogue. I like to think there are far more of us willing to do that then those who aren't.