Re: Anti-Semitic graffiti in Michael Perelman's town

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Chico article is fairly accurate as far as it goes.  Chico is in the middle
of Butte County, which is one of the poorest and probably the most conservative
in all of California.  The hills around Oroville are filled with meth labs and
descendants of poor Southerners, who came to the area to work on Oroville dam
during the '50s.

When I first came here, and Butte County was known as being the center of
activity for various right-wing groups, including the Nazis and the Secret Army
Organization.  I had a speaker from the latter group in my class is the just
after a Nixon established wage and price controls.  The poor guy was sure that
the country had gone Communists and that "my side had won."  The Nazis murdered
on kid after he refused to go along with with something -- I cannot remember
what.  I remember standing in front of the actual murderer, who was not
imposing figure, but surely a very strange man.

There has not been much anti-semitism, but violence against blacks is not
uncommon.  I can remember that a couple of young people went hunting for deer,
and when they could not find any, they shot a young, retarded black boy.

The two brothers who killed the gay couple of the didn't seem quite like the
year average fanatic.  One was a student in Chico.  They were into organic
gardening.  Besides killing the gay couple, they did some damage to have
several synagogues in Sacramento.

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx