BRATTON JOINS A CITY ENTERING A NEW ERA.

Byline: Richard J. Riordan, David A. Lehrer and Joe R. Hicks Local View

THE reactions over the past few weeks to William Bratton's nomination and confirmation as the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department is noteworthy for the absence of complaints about the nominee's race.

In contrast to recent years and the rancor over the removal and selection of various Los Angeles Unified School District superintendents and previous police chiefs, something has dramatically changed.

We are emerging from the ``civil rights era'' into a new period of tolerance and acceptance, calling for fewer complaints and grievances.

In fact, we are accelerating out of the civil rights era with warp speed.

For most of the past century, civil rights and human rights organizations focused their energies on fighting discrimination and bigotry and lobbying for the passage of legislation to deal with those evils. They educated America about the evils of prejudice and the benefits of a tolerant society and did an excellent job.

Anti-discrimination and hate crime laws are securely on the books and being enforced; tolerance has been accepted as the mantra of nearly all of America.

In recent months, several seemingly unrelated events evidence the new environment of cooperation toward realizing common goals.

In the controversy surrounding the film ``Barbershop,'' the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton objected to a segment of the film that they felt was offensive. Local as well as national leaders rejected their assertion clearly.

Several pundits observed that the old rules of confrontation and thin skins are out of sync with America and its attitudes in this ``new, post-civil rights generation.''

Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, has observed that ``(American Jews) are the luckiest Jews who have ever lived - there is nothing, nothing, in the politics, the society, or the culture of the United States that can support such a ghastly premonition (of significant anti-Semitism in America) - the American Jewish community has become the model for what an ethnic group can accomplish in such conditions of freedom.''

A leading observer of the Latino community, Gregory Rodriguez, made a similar point vis-a-vis that ethnic group following the decision of a federal appellate court that dismissed a voting rights lawsuit challenging the redistricting of legislative districts in California.

The court held in Cano v. Davis that the ``rapidly changing multiracial and multiethnic community that is present-day Southern California ... is a fundamentally different context than the Southern states in which the voting rights laws developed ... Latinos are a far more formidable political force than they were in the 1980s.''

The recent defeat of two militant African-American congressional incumbents (by moderate black candidates) showed that the confrontational tactics of the civil rights era are no longer working. The African-American electorate is far more successful, more entrepreneurial, business-savvy, politically moderate and sophisticated than ever before.

We are moving toward the ``trans-racial'' society that represents the future of America. Yet too many are still playing the victimization game.

There are issues that are pointed to justify the culture of complaint. Hate crimes do demand and deserve attention, but they are too often presented as indictments and reflective of society at large. Their numbers remain minuscule in a country of our size and diversity.

Discrimination cases do still occur, the plaintiffs need and deserve representation, but genuine cases of employment, housing or public accommodation discrimination are, thankfully, few and far between and are invariably met by near universal condemnation.

Even the last arena of socially acceptable discrimination - social and country club restrictions on admission - is now in retreat nationwide (witness the recent furor surrounding Augusta National's anti-women policy).

Especially here in Los Angeles, the most diverse city in the world, the need for redefining what civil rights means is manifest. Rhetoric that argues to our city's residents that they are potential victims of discrimination perpetrated by others and that Angelenos are but a few steps away from returning to a bigoted, unforgiving society (i.e., that the ``sky is falling'') will only foster retreat to the ethnic, racial and socioeconomic enclaves that mark our city's geography.

This city needs more voices speaking out on behalf of what has gone right.

We need to work together to make this most diverse of communities enjoy and celebrate its uniqueness. Developing common ground where Angelenos of different races, ethnicities and socioeconomic strata will actually encounter each other - not pass by at 55 miles per hour - is critical.

Training young leaders to direct, inspire and reinvigorate nonprofits in all communities with a new vision for the post-civil rights era must be a priority.

The media need to be encouraged to shed the rhetoric of ``political correctness'' and learn about the myriad ethnic, racial and religious groups in Los Angeles and who their leaders are, not just their labels.

Chief Bratton is coming to a city entering a new era - one of less confrontation, rancor and racial/ethnic divisiveness; a city ready to focus on the mutual benefits we have to gain from moving forward in unison rather than looking back in anger.