Citing statistics that “Santa Clarita Valley hate crimes against Blacks rose 36%,” the president of the SCV’s local chapter of the NAACP, Valerie Bradford (letters, Dec. 19), would have us believe the SCV is a hotbed of racism directed against Blacks. Ms. Bradford goes on to cite 30 reports of alleged, not proven, acts of racism targeting SCV Blacks in the past 34 months. That works out to 0.88 alleged incidents of racism per month. Is that really statistically significant?
Let’s take a closer look at the numbers: One population reporting service (PopulationU.com), cites the current population of SCV to be 226,738. Of that, 4.9%, or 11,110, are Black. Based on Ms. Bradford’s own statistics, that means that local SCV Blacks have less than a 0.000079 percent chance of being the victim of racism in any given month. Again, is that statistically significant and does it warrant Ms. Bradford’s call for city leaders to come up with an “action plan” to address racism directed against Blacks? A problem that, in my opinion, she overstates.
Rather than beat the same tired drum of racism that continues to harm and to divide our country, I would rather our city leaders come up with “action plans,” as Ms. Bradford has called for, that address the REAL local problems of an explosion in crime; homelessness; traffic; unaffordable housing; and water infrastructure.
Max Morgan
Valencia
