CAHRO has its feet firmly planted in California, and is well aware that there is a long road ahead before the state can boast of having a solid unified human relations infrastructure. But, CAHRO's Board of Directors
recognizes that its mission to work within the state should not prevent it from taking advantage of opportunities to facilitate spreading the influence of human relations organizations in California beyond the state's
borders. The Association has been working diligently to ensure people and organizations involved in human relations in California have the opportunity to participate in national human relations efforts.In September CAHRO
was invited by Ron Wakabayashi, Director of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission, to a meeting with Richard Soccarides from the White House Public Liaison's Office who was responsible for setting up the President's
Summit on Hate Crime. As part of the discussions CAHRO agreed to submit a list of people who were active in dealing with hate crimes and human relations. There were a limited number of openings, but some of those
on the list were invited to participate. CAHRO also agreed to send invitations to human relations organizations in California that might be interested in sponsoring meetings that would include a satellite downlink from the
Summit. CAHRO was pleased to be instrumental in notifying communities outside of Los Angeles that might otherwise be overlooked. San Diego, San Bernardino, and Orange County chose to set up the downlinks despite delayed
notification from the White House and a short timeline. The Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and Ed Dunbar studying the psychology of hate crime perpetrators and the impact of hate crime worked cooperatively to
establish a satellite downlink in Los Angeles.
Rusty Kennedy, Chair of the Board of Directors of CAHRO, represented the Association at the President's Summit on Hate Crimes convened by President Clinton in November.
Participants had the opportunity to have breakfast with the President before reconvening in workshops nearby.
Earlier this year, President Clinton created a Presidential Advisory Board to help him launch his Initiative on Race
and included California as a critical partner. Los Angeles City Human Relations Commissioner and criminal defense attorney, Angela Oh and the former CEO of Nissan, Robert Thomas, were appointed as members.
Angela quickly made her presence felt by advocating that the Presidential Advisory Commission be inclusive of Americans of all racial and ethnic backgrounds as it focuses on the issue of race.
Levi Strauss Foundation
Director, Richard Woo, invited CAHRO's Director and about a dozen other San Francisco Bay area people actively involved in human relations to share information and make recommendations to the Executive Director of the President's
Initiative on Race, Judith Winston. Fred Persily, CAHRO's Director, took the opportunity to speak about the need for national support of community efforts to deal with racial issues. He also cautioned and that the
Initiative's objective to promote dialogs on race across the nation must be very carefully planned to ensure that they do not become counterproductive. He advised the staff and commission to carefully evaluate existing
dialogs [See CAHRO News: February 14, 1997 for a report on Study Circles as implemented in Riverside] and publish guidelines that have proven successful. Finally, he pledged that CAHRO would continue to maintain
a working relationship with the White House and assist its communication with human relations organizations throughout California.
Finally, CAHRO has agreed to support the effort of the Center for Democratic Renewal
(CDR) in Atlanta to host a national conference on hate violence May 21-23rd. CAHRO agreed to support CDR's efforts to stage a productive summit and provide them with suggestions based on CAHRO's long history
of staging conferences. CAHRO also promised to help CDR reach out to human relations organizations in California.
