A ‘big city’ newspaper wrote about race in Paso Robles. Not everyone is happy

It can be uncomfortable when an outsider comes to town and holds up a mirror that forces us to look at ourselves through someone else’s eyes.

That’s what a reporter with the Los Angeles Times has done in an insightful column focusing on the racial divide in Paso Robles.

He paints a picture of Paso as an “idyllic” community, but one where people of color often feel invisible and racism is often ignored.

Predictably, not everybody is happy with the portrayal.

“Pretty sad when one of the largest papers in a sea of propaganda has to pick on a town of 32,000 people not falling in lockstep ... all while worldwide attention has shown what failures that their liberal cesspool of ideas has brought them,” one reader commented on the Paso Robles Daily News website.

In shoot-the-messenger fashion, some even blame the Times for writing about race in the first place.

“The more ‘race’ is talked about, the more resentful people become towards other races, especially when big city newspapers push an agenda instead of just reporting the news,” a person posted on the L.A. Times website.

In other words, if we ignore racism — bury it like some dirty little secret — the issue will just go away.

It doesn’t work that way. Any problem that’s ignored only festers.

‘100% true,’ one commenter says

The author of the column is Tyrone Beason, a Black journalist who is writing a series for the Times called “My Country.”

“As a Black man in America, I’ve always struggled to embrace a country that promotes the ideals of justice and equality but never fully owns up to its dark history of bigotry, inequality and injustice,” he writes in an introduction to the series.

Some praise the Paso column as an accurate portrayal of the community.

“As someone who grew up in Paso and still visits my family often, this is 100% true. The amount of blatant racism and segregation is astounding,” one reader posted on FaceBook.

But others call it pejorative and worry it could hurt the local economy by dissuading tourists from visiting Paso.

Paso Mayor Steve Martin diplomatically points out that the article reflects one reporter’s point-of-view.

“The piece is a thought-provoking article and recounts the experiences of his subjects,” he said in an email. “It also illuminates the ongoing conversation regarding racism on a local level, which continues in our city and many others.”

There have been efforts by white leaders like the mayor to make the community more inclusive.

For example, following a Black Lives Matter march in Paso Robles in August 2020, Martin spearheaded a task force that evolved into a Diversity Panel the sponsors community programs based on the “Five E’s: Embrace, Educate, Empathize, Engage, Equity.”

Here’s its vision statement: “Paso Robles will be recognized nationally as a model of multi-cultural diversity united to form a community made richer by the contribution and participation of all its citizens.”

School board’s message: Diversity doesn’t matter

Yet the opposite message is coming from other sectors of the community.

Consider the school board’s decision to ban teaching critical race theory, which Beason cites in his article.

Mind you, CRT wasn’t even being taught in Paso schools.

No matter.

Board President Chris Arend was on a self-righteous mission to stomp it out before it could gain so much as a toehold, and many parents who spoke at board meetings agreed. They worried that, if it were taught, it could make white students feel guilty and uncomfortable.

Juanetta Perkins, one of the Paso Roblans interviewed for the Times column, had a powerful response: “My daughter, in the second grade, is called a N—, but you’re worried about your white kids getting offended because of the truth?”

There have been other sorry episodes, including some not mentioned in the article:

• The school district’s initial, tepid response when a student ripped a pride flag off a classroom wall at Paso Robles High, took it to the restroom, and defecated on it. (The district reacted by limiting the size and number of pride flags that could be displayed.)
• Arend’s admonishment of a speaker who addressed the school board in Spanish. “Speak in a language we can understand,” he ordered.
• The egregious decision to pass over a well-qualified Latina parent for a vacant seat on the school board — which is dominated by older white men — and instead appoint a far-right, white, 82-year-old retired pastor. That discussion included this telling comment, also from Arend: “Obviously, I think diversity is the last thing that we really need to consider as a qualification,” he said. “I don’t give a damn about anybody’s skin color or ethnicity or gender or anything else.”

Sadly, each one of these incidents represents a wasted opportunity.

Think, for example, of the message of inclusion the school board would have sent if it had recognized the value a Latina mother would bring to board discussions, and welcomed her to join them.

Instead, it says loud and clear that diversity doesn’t matter, so it’s perfectly OK to pack a school board with white men.

Is there any wonder that people of color who live and work in Paso Robles feel invisible?

The Los Angeles Times did a service by providing a wake-up call not just to Paso Robles, but also to every community in predominately white San Luis Obispo County.

Instead of worrying about the reputational harm done by a story in a “big-city newspaper,” we should worry about what’s driving that coverage and how we should respond to it.

Here’s a start: No matter where we live — Paso Robles, Arroyo Grande, Cambria, San Luis Obispo — we should all commit to giving a damn about diversity, and demand the same of the people we elect to represent us.

This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 5:00 AM.