Home » News » Editorials » Editorial: Santa Clarita, Do We Follow The Law Or The Mob
Louie - Editorial - Santa Clarita News

Editorial: Santa Clarita, Do We Follow The Law Or The Mob

Editorial by: Carl Goldman

Is Racism Rampant In Santa Clarita?

Last week our valley had a rocky confrontation over an incident involving three William S. Hart Union High School District female students.

Last June the three girls sang the lyrics to a hit rap song from 2019, “I Hate N*****s.” 

The artist is a black singer. The girls are white. 

The girls were insensitive and stupid to record it. They were even stupider to put it on a private social media group.

Recently someone took the post and released it publicly. 

There was an immediate call by some in the community that these girls be named and expelled. The parents be brought in and “reeducated” and that there be an assembly to call out racism in the schools and discuss how bad it is. There is no argument that these girls should face some consequences. However, there was no due process. Education code and state law do not allow the District to divulge the names of, or disciplinary actions taken. The law does require the District provide an education for all youth, in some cases up to 22 years of age, unless they are convicted of a violent felony.

In legal technical terms the girls’ idiotic stunt didn’t even qualify as a hate crime or hate “incident.” If the girls were at the rapper’s concert and got up and sang the lyrics with the rest of the audience, we wouldn’t be writing about it.

In the recent Chris Rock Netflix special, Rock says the N word every few sentences. We’re told it’s okay for a Black artist to repeatedly use that word because it lessens the sting when a white person says it.  That by any means does not justify the girls’ actions, but it doesn’t mean the girls should be expelled or this valley’s racism is off the charts as the NAACP and their supporters would have us believe. Local crime stats would disprove that.

At last Wednesday’s school board meeting the NAACP representatives and their supporters consistently jeered and heckled anyone who spoke with content that didn’t follow their narrative. In one case an emotional Asian woman claimed that when a racial slur was used that offended her. She reached out to the NAACP and got no help, at which she received jeers and laughter from those wearing the NAACP shirts. This is not OK either.

In the 33 years I’ve lived in Santa Clarita, I’ve witnessed incidents of racism. But to say our entire valley is racist is unfair and detrimental to enhancing our sensitivity. 

Even though the girls are minors, everyone throughout the District knows who they are. In addition to consequences, they face from the District, they will have that video attached to them for the rest of their lives.

KHTS has experienced earlier run-ins with the NAACP, who wrongly attacked us for what they labeled a racist incident without ever approaching us to find out if their accusations really happened the way they claimed it did. It didn’t. Yet they sent out a press release, attacked us on social media, and went before the City Council to wrongfully declare us racist. Their followers called for our advertisers to boycott the station. We were called KKK radio.

The same pattern is now taking place with these girls. Yes, we as white radio station owners (I’m Jewish) and the three white girls who weren’t thinking when they recorded that song, should have a better sensitivity to the hurt our actions can cause, however until the NAACP tones down their rhetoric it will be difficult to have a beneficial dialogue to understand their position and bring us closer together.


Sponsored Articles


Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or send an email to news@hometownstation.com. Don’t miss a thing. Get breaking KHTS Santa Clarita News Alerts delivered right to your inbox. Report a typo or error, email Corrections@hometownstation.com

KHTS FM 98.1 and AM 1220 is Santa Clarita’s only local radio station. KHTS mixes in a combination of news, traffic, sports, and features along with your favorite adult contemporary hits. Santa Clarita news and features are delivered throughout the day over our airwaves, on our website and through a variety of social media platforms. Our KHTS national award-winning daily news briefs are now read daily by 34,000+ residents. A vibrant member of the Santa Clarita community, the KHTS broadcast signal reaches all of the Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the high desert communities located in the Antelope Valley. The station streams its talk shows over the web, reaching a potentially worldwide audience. Follow @KHTSRadio on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

KHTS AM 1220 & FM 98.1 - Santa Clarita Radio - Santa Clarita News

Editorial: Santa Clarita, Do We Follow The Law Or The Mob

6 comments

  1. Where is the City of Santa Clarita Human Relations Roundtable?

  2. You’ve got to be kidding me! I saw the original story last week, but it didn’t say much about the details.

    Kids sing a song by a black artist and dare to actually say the lyrics out loud, then get called racist? The NAACP has no place anywhere near people with actual brains.

  3. What BS! They didn’t do a smash and grab or knock down an Asian woman or rob a jewelry store. Yes, they need to be talked to but its’ ok for a Rapper, isn’t it? Blacks can say or do anything but when a white person does anyth8ing it’s huge news! I have black friends who are sick of this too.

  4. This editorial has so many run-on sentences and sentence fragments I found it impossible to read it to the end. Please have an editor review your pieces before posting. And regardless of what a great grammarian you consider yourself, no writer should ever edit his own stories, by the way.

  5. WOW! An actual ‘news’ article. This is such an honest, fact based report on what actually happened at that meeting. The Signal could use a couple of tips from you. Thank you so much. I love your station.
    Di Z 🙋🏻‍♀️🇺🇸❤️🙏🏻

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About Carl Goldman

Carl Goldman, along with his wife, Jeri repurchased KHTS AM-1220, Santa Clarita’s hometown station on October 24, 2003. They owned it from 1990-1998, and then sold it to Clear Channel Communication in 1998, buying it back from Clear Channel in 2003. Since then, they have rebuilt KHTS as a critical voice of the Valley. In 2015 the radio station moved to its new headquarters on Main Street in Old Town Newhall, in the original Newhall Hardware building. In 2018 an FM was added, 98.1, with its signal being simulcast with AM-1220. In January 2020, Carl and Jeri cruised on the Diamond Princess. Carl was one of the first Americans to come down with Covid-19. Months earlier he was impacted by Guillain Barre Syndrome as a result of a Shingles vaccine in September 2019. He is still in recovery from the vaccine.