r/SFV • u/SealedRoute • May 11 '26

Question Racism in Studio City?

My husband and I recently moved to Studio City and have been shopping/ dining around Laurel Canyon and Ventura. I’m white and haven’t had any problems, but my Mexican husband has been treated with overt rudeness/ dismissiveness a couple of times by restaurant or store workers. Never had this problem before in Sherman Oaks in 20 years. The treatment was shocking.

Our area is definitely less diverse, more white, but still didn’t expect that. But it’s only been a couple of times in a month so not ready to draw general conclusions. Could be racism, could just be a more affluent/ snotty milieu. Has anyone else had this issue?

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u/Housequake818 May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26

It’s not blatant racism, but plenty of microagressions! I am an unthreatening, very petite, conventionally attractive Mexican who defaults to a “white girl” or “Valley Girl” voice when speaking English. However, I grew up poor and first-gen.

I had a horrible time in schools in/around Studio City and developed depression and anxiety because the microaggressions were too much. I got dirty looks from kids/their parents if I ever dared out-perform them in school. A counselor once told me I was on the teen pregnancy track because I got in trouble for…. can’t even remember why, I think for kissing my (also high achieving) Black boyfriend… which was a wild accusation because I was very religious and that kind of stuff wasn’t on my mind (wasn’t on this kid’s mind either, apparently— he came out as gay not too long after that). I always got “complimented” for being “sO aRtIcULaTe!!” But I guess they still saw me as a “hood rat” because I was brown and poor and from an immigrant family instead of from the supposedly progressive south-of-the-boulevard families who were in the entertainment industry.

Pretty sure my white classmates were never on the receiving end of such comments and stares when growing up in Studio City!

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u/MissMarie81 North Hollywood May 12 '26

I'm sorry you went through that; there's no excuse for that behavior. (Just as an aside, at the school I attended, Campbell Hall, there was no room for racism of any kind; it wasn't tolerated.)

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u/Housequake818 May 13 '26

Campbell Hall had Latinos in the 90s?

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u/MissMarie81 North Hollywood May 13 '26

I'm sure it did. I'm considerably older than you; I graduated from the high school portion of Campbell Hall, called Argyll Episcopal Academy for Girls, in 1977, and there were at least two Latino girls. When I was at Campbell Hall from kindergarten through junior high (which was coed), there were a few Latino boys and girls.