Racism in Santa Clarita: A City Plagued with Prejudice for Decades
- Quynn Lubs
- Jun 5, 2020
- 7 min read
Updated: Jun 10, 2020
Santa Clarita began as a white flight suburb, a community defined as “the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse.” According to the latest census, Santa Clarita is about 50% non-Hispanic white, 30% Hispanic or Latino, 11% Asian, 4% black and less than 1% Native American.
White people left the cities largely in part due to school desegregation; in fact, according to “Escape from Los Angeles” by Jack Schneider, a doctoral student in the history of education at Stanford University, “a survey of Santa Clarita residents revealed that relocating families cited ‘escaping the L.A. school system’ as a primary reason for leaving the city.”
Before Santa Clarita grew in size due to white flight, there was the town of Newhall. In the 1920s, Newhall had its own Klu Klux Klan group. One member was Jack Pilcher, who was also a local police officer. When Jack Pilcher died in a 1925 accident,he was given a hero’s funeral through downtown Newhall — the funeral was paid for by the local chapter of the KKK.
In a 2014 SCVHistory.com article, Lieutenant John Stanley of the LA county police department writes, “Constable Jack Pilcher is still remembered in the Santa Clarita Valley with fondness. Like his friend and partner Ed Brown, his tragic line-of-duty death has at last been recognized, and his name was enrolled on the monuments at peace officer memorial ceremonies in California and Washington, D.C., in May 2014.”
On September 17, 1966, KKK members held a rally on Soledad Canyon Road, complete with a cross burning. The rally was organized by the Grand Cyclops, or leader, of the California Knights of the Klu Klux Klan, William Fowler, who sought to “reignite” the KKK after it was banned in 1946. Only one person was arrested: a man who sought to stop the rally by blocking the road with his truck, and for assaulting a police officer when he confused his clothing with that of the KKK.
The rally’s opening line from Fowler claimed that their intention was “to protect the weak, the innocent, the defenseless, from the indignities, wrongs, and outrages, the lawlessness, the violent, and the brutal, like these [n-word] down here.”
The flyer for the rally read, “There will be two main speakers, one very well known throughout the South, the other the best crusader for our race on the West Coast. All White Christians are welcome.”
White supremacy seems to have lingered within the city of Santa Clarita.
In February of 2005, an article was published in the LA Times entitled “Alleged Racial Incidents Shatter Security of Santa Clarita Valley,” which explained that as the demographics of SCV diversified, countless cases of white teenagers bullying or even attacking peers of other ethnicities arose. The article revealed that city officials attributed the racial problems with young people being unable to adjust to the growing diversity of the city.
In May of 2018, two teenagers described as “white men with swastika tattoos on their necks” assaulted and robbed a man in Newhall, stealing his phone and wallet.
In May of 2020, the city cleaned up graffiti associated with white supremacy — a tree trunk and stone pillar painted with the number “88,” a white supremacist code for “Heil Hitler.”
The blame for these racist acts falls upon the people who commit them. However, the blame also falls upon a city government that condones this racist behavior.
At an anti-illegal-immigration rally in Santa Clarita in 2010, Bob Kellar — who was elected to the Santa Clarita city council in the year 2000, and served four terms as mayor in 2004, 2008, 2014, and 2016 — quoted Teddy Rosevelt by saying “one flag, one language,” and then proclaimed, “You know, the only thing I heard back from a couple of people? ‘Bob, you sound like a racist.’ I said, ‘That’s good. If that’s what you think I am, because I happen to believe in America, I’m a proud racist. You’re darn right I am.'” This comment received national attention, reaching headlines at the LA Times, the Daily News and more. All sources say that Kellar refused to apologize for his statements.
I sat down with Councilmember Bob Kellar at a Coco’s Bakery to discuss more of his political views. At one point, we discussed Santa Clarita’s decision to oppose California’s decision to be a sanctuary state, meaning that the city of Santa Clarita refused to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation or prosecution — the first city in LA county to oppose.
Kellar stated, “I am the guy who brought that forward, and I brought it forward because if we don’t protect our borders, we’re gonna lose our nation. They don’t teach you things today like they did when I was your age. Kids, if we don’t protect what we’ve got, we’ll lose it. To open up our borders and let people just come in, and we’re a ‘sanctuary’ city, really? Or a sanctuary state now? Beautiful. This is insane.”
He went on. “Go down to Los Angeles. Go down around City Hall. See what you see. And if you really want the supreme answer, go to Sacramento. The city is turning into an absolute dismal mess with what’s going on. You must understand these policies are not working. You don’t have streets and cities turning into this and tell me that you’re doing something right… Do you think you have to help these poor people? You’re not helping them by leaving them on the street, you’re not helping them by giving them needles for their drugs. You’re not helping. You’re destroying them…
Do you ever go down to Tijuana, Mexico and see what goes on down there? Do you want that here? You destroy your communities.”
When asked about day laborers in Santa Clarita, Kellar stated, “I will not give any illegal a job. I never have and never will. I have a cleaning lady that’s Hispanic, and the first thing I did I said, ‘I want to see your papers.’ If you’re not legal you’re not working for me. All you’re doing is exacerbating a problem. They come up here, no matter what they get good stuff. That’s not the way society is supposed to work.”
When Kellar’s “proud racist” comment began making headlines, he was met with applause from his supporters. During a city council meeting after Kellar’s “proud racist” remark, the local Minuteman group (an organization independently created to monitor the flow of Undocumented immigrants between the U.S.-Mexico border) stated they wanted the council to enforce laws against the hiring of illegal immigrants, especially those “waiting to find jobs meant for Americans.”
This seems to be a shared belief in Santa Clarita. As Kellar put it in our interview, “A lot of people are leaving. They are leaving. The numbers that are white compared to some other race I have no idea, but I will tell you why they’re leaving; the producers. The people that work for their families are getting fed up. And they’re leaving because of the decisions being made in Sacramento. I can’t begin to tell you how problematic they are for hard-working Americans.”
To be a sanctuary city means to limit cooperation with the national government’s enforcement of immigration laws. Sanctuary cities limit cooperation with immigration enforcement in order to protect low-priority immigrants from deportation while still turning in those who commit serious crimes.
To oppose this — to ban sanctuary cities or to declare a city a non-sanctuary city, as Santa Clarita did — can create distrust between minority groups and law enforcement and encourage racial profiling.
Racism in the Santa Clarita Valley is not limited to the city’s history or the actions of political figures. Racism has become so ingrained into our society that it affects those around us. The community is plagued with hatred that faces little to no consequences.
Countless members of the community in Santa Clarita have experienced racism here first-hand.
A source, who wishes to remain anonymous, told me, “My entire family has experienced racism in SCV. My mother, a nurse, has had patients ask her not to care for them because of her race. My father, a business owner, is always followed by security at our local grocery store. My siblings and I are always assumed to all have different fathers because of the stereotype that black men cannot be stable fathers. I guess the worst part is that some assume the worst from us without having spoken to us before.”
Another anonymous source shared, “Basically, when I was in 9th grade, a bunch of racist shit happened to me at Hart [High School]. For example, when I was wearing box braids, a few kids started mocking me and calling me a ‘dirty black girl’ for not washing my hair while wearing them, even though that’s not necessary for braids. Then another incident, I was called the n-word with a hard ’R’ by some kids at school. And that’s happened a lot. Not even just to me, but to other black people. It feels as though people in Santa Clarita don’t understand the weight of racial slurs like the n-word and their impact even in the modern world.”
There is a line between being racist and speaking up about your beliefs, and it seems that some living in the Santa Clarita Valley are able to cross that line a bit too easily. Santa Clarita has become too comfortable within their racism. It has become a normality.
Racism has been built and molded into the system, and the city government itself seems complacent in it.
Will it continue to be normal for Santa Clarita to make headlines across the state and country, and to continue to be associated with the blatant racism that pours out of the city?
The community can no longer reside in their bubble. These injustices can no longer be ignored simply because paying attention makes people uncomfortable.
Acknowledge that racism plays a large role in the city of Santa Clarita, and actively work to fight against it. Ignorance is no longer an option.
Bob Kellar currently has no plans to run in 2020. The next city council election will be held on November 3rd of 2020.
The interview with Councilmember Bob Kellar was conducted ethically. I asked to conduct an interview, while he agreed to have the conversation recorded and allowed for everything stated to be on the record. We reached out in order to allow him to make follow-up statements and never received a reply.
Edits:
- Demographics from Census website: changed 70% white alone population to 50% non-Hispanic white
- Removed line "Deputy Ed Brown is the founder of local Santa Clarita newspaper The Signal and friend to KKK member Jack Pilcher. He was killed in a gunfight in 1924." There were two prominent Ed Browns in SCV during this time, and the founder of The Signal was not the constable killed in the gun fight.
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