Letters: Reference to racial profilingin letter seems misplaced

The Del Norte County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce collaborated with Julian Valdez and submitted a letter to the editor ("Racial profiling a hate crime and civil rights violation," Aug. 27) accusing unspecified parties of racial profiling and civil rights violations over an article carried in The Daily Triplicate five days earlier.

A report submitted to the School Board by the assistant principal of Del Norte High School and the county superintendent of schools revealed that a "handful" of students are emulating the behavior and dress of Southern California street gangs, especially the Sureos and the Norteos, who are of predominantly Hispanic ethnicity. The report also stated that the presence of Pelican Bay State Prison adds a mystique to the allure of gangster activity, thus encouraging young "wannabes" to emulate that image. The reported gangster admirers include, as well, students with "white power" tattoos and an unspecified number of Hmong gang emulators.

Included in the report was background information regarding the gang symbols, colors and graffiti "tags" of the Sureos and Norteos. One of the more notable symbols was of the Norteos, who use for their symbol the Huelga bird, a black Aztec eagle, which the United Farm Workers under the leadership of Cesar Chavez adopted as their logo.

In the letter, Mr. Valdez and the Hispanic Chamber made strident remarks to the effect that to "make a statement that the Cesar Chavez United Farm Workers' flag is a gang symbol is unacceptable." Mr. Valdez further states that whoever is making those statements needs to know what they are talking about and not make assumptions about it. That raises the question, is the reported logo correctly reported or not?

The main concern, however, by the aggrieved Hispanic group, is the negative presentation of Mexican-Americans and farmworkers as being "all about the gangs." I understand the concern, but it seems highly unlikely to me since farmworkers work and gangbangers bang. They are not interested in stoop labor. The report deals with high-school-age admirers of gang machismo as presented by MTV, films, television coverage (including news of prison riots), etc. It does not lend itself well to workers in the field or a father and mother with children.

The big question here is: Does the Hispanic Chamber and Mr. Valdez demand that information such as that contained in the report be censored? The reference to racial profiling and civil rights violations here seems eminently misplaced.

Dale Bohling

Crescent City