Poll: How Big a Problem is Racism in Elk Grove?

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday inevitably triggers reflections on how far we’ve come towards realizing his dream of a society free of racism and inequality.

Scroll down to take our poll about racism in Elk Grove.

This year is no exception. (For starters, see Mark Paxson’s on this very site.) The Nation this week published a column arguing that the racially-tinged rhetoric used by current G.O.P. presidential candidates would have been unthinkable even five or 10 years ago—in effect, that we’ve gone backwards. Meanwhile, Paul Krugman commented in The New York Times that King would be appalled at the vast income disparities that characterize present-day America.

How you assess our country’s progress towards one where people are "judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” depends in part on where in the country you stand. In Tuesday’s Elk Grove Citizen, lifestyle editor Raina LeGarreta (who is African-American) wrote that growing up in San Francisco, she rarely experienced discrimination. Once she moved to Fresno County, however, she visited “towns …where it was obvious that the residents there wanted nothing to do with someone that looked different.”

Those who say we’ve still got a long way to go cite both individual acts of racism and structural racism—the systemic problems that can keep people of color frozen out of high-quality education, jobs and housing.

Elk Grove is not immune to either type.  Within weeks of Elk Grove Patch’s launch last year, racist vandals posting slurs about the diverse local population. in what may have been a hate crime, and Elk Grove public schools, like others nationwide, suffer from a racial achievement gap.

Yet Elk Grove is also one of the most integrated communities in California, according to the demographers who directed . Rarely does one ethnic group dominate a neighborhood. In some ways, the city is one of the best places in the country to see Dr. King’s dream in action—people of all backgrounds, from Hmong to Latino, sharing the same schools, streets and parks.

Readers, we’re wondering what you think: How big a problem is racism in Elk Grove? It’s a complex question, so after you post your response, please dig in more deeply in the comments section.