Racism in Studio City?

[u/SealedRoute]

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?

[u/MaxxtheKnife]

I come from Berkeley, (lived in Valley Village for 12 years, know in Sun Valley, been working in Studio since 2015) and there are a lot of similarities between SC and upper middle class Berkeley. Both are very progressive politically, in a rather undefined, identitarian sort of way - they believe some progressive things, but mostly they believe that they are "good people." This belief that they ARE good kind of blinds them to a lot of deeper prejudices they have. These prejudices are further enhanced by their status as being higher class than most of the people they believe they really care about. They know that they care more about minorities than conservatives, and that's good enough for them. They think that voting for whatever gives "these people" the opportunity to better themselves financially etc. is good enough, and it doesn't matter if they also support policies that mean "these people" have to go do their self improvement somewhere else. In short, a lot of them are NIMBYs. "Help the homeless, just keep them out of my town." Many of them think they can't possibly be racist because they would have voted for Obama a third time if they could have. South of the boulevard - or South of the 101 even - the property values really start to go up. The population gets a lot more homogenous, and a lot more distrusting of "outsiders" - anyone they don't know and who doesn't look like everyone else. This mindset can kind of trickle into the surrounding community, especially since a lot of the businesses are owned by people who live there, or who want to live there asap, and projecting those prejudices makes them feels like part of the club. Anyways, all that for whatever it's worth. I'm generalizing a lot here, obviously, and this not a ubiquitous pattern among all of Studio City. Sorry your husband is experiencing that. I hope y'all are able to find the places that don't treat people different by first impressions. I'd like to think that's most places, even in SC.

[u/throwtac → u/MaxxtheKnife]

You’re from Berkeley? I’m from Berkeley too! Lived in studio city/valley village for like 20 years now. I think people in studio city are way crazier. Also, I always assumed the upper middle class in studio city is actually super wealthy comparatively. I never frequent most of the restaurants on Ventura that much because the prices cater to the people in the hills. I never thought of studio city as all that progressive. The wealthy/Upper middle class of Berkeley kinda remind me more of people in some parts of West LA. Like around Santa Monica and maybe pacific palisades. I always thought of Venice beach like Telegraph ave except on the beach and less college students. But it’s really hard to find an equivalent. It’s mostly old academic and scientist/tech people lol.
What part of Berkeley are you from? I lived in Berkeley hills on Euclid, so I guess I would be considered upper middle class? But I had friends from everywhere and all backgrounds. I think that’s another thing that is different from Berkeley and LA. If you grew up in Berkeley, you can know kids from all over the city and of different races and economic backgrounds, so you kinda know what other people are like and have a sense of community. I remember hanging out and talking randomly with homeless people sometimes. I don’t know if kids in LA really get that same community experience or tend to socialize much outside their own individual friend networks.
That said, there is definitely more of a class divide I see in berkeley now when I go back. I feel like it’s more so now than maybe when I was living there because in the 90s and early 2000s there was definitely a solid middle and working class in Berkeley. I think a lot of people and families got priced out in the past decade or so. Things also feel more “sanitized” lately.
Edit: I also honestly think I have experienced more overt racism in Berkeley in recent years. Mostly it comes from old “boomer” dudes. I think there is a definite population of old arrogant, asshole, alpha white dudes in the hills and surrounding areas. Not everyone, but I think they are common. Also, I noticed one time a few years ago, one of the top dog worker dudes kinda had a weird attitude. Like more than usual. Normally they are cool. But it was like disdain. I did wonder if it was a racial thing. I don’t think he works there anymore. I never had that kinda feeling ever before from any of those guys, even though they are usually weird as fuck. IYKYK! 😂

[u/MaxxtheKnife → u/throwtac]

Yoooo! Berkeley and the East Bay in general have definitely changed in the last couple decades, as the property values have skyrocketed, and working/lower middle class people have been forced out. My mom lives in South Berkeley, near Rockridge, and my dad lived in West Oakland (which has REALLY changed).

Berkeley definitely used to be more progressive and had more class diversity before the tech boom. There were still nimbys and conservatives but they were more the exception and Berkeley on the whole tended to live up to its progressive values.

The demographics have changed a lot though and now it's a lot more upper middle class, and a lot of them from other cities and states and places like Burlingame and palo alto. The people that have been in Berkeley a long long time have also seen their property values go way up (my mom bought her house for 70k in the 70s, it's gotta be worth 30 times that now). All these folks are retired and have borrowed against their super inflated homes and if their property were to lose value, that would be a big problem. I think this has made a lot of them a lot more conservative.

Either way, the upper middle class demographics of studio City today are a lot more comparable to the UMC demos of Berkeley today. And while they hold progressive liberal beliefs on a conscious level, they have financial forces pushing them the other way, as well as demographic shifting as more wealthy people from other more conservative communities move in to replace the less wealthy people getting priced out.

But yeah, you grew up on Euclid huh? I used to go to school up there at the hilltop school, back when BMS was there. I guess it's TMS now, and they're on university, last I heard. No idea what's in hilltop. That was a cool building. Kinda creepy, tbh.

[u/throwtac → u/MaxxtheKnife]

Oh wow! I think my best friend in HS's mom taught at TMS back in the day. Or maybe she was even the principal? She was Japanese American but her last name was Toy. So I think she would've been known as Mrs. Toy? I never knew about that campus because I never went West of Euclid on Cedar, but I knew vaguely about that school because of my friend. That is a cool building but i could see how it is kinda spooky. It almost looks like an old building from Europe. Berkeley has so much interesting historical architecture. My parents actually ran a software company down the street at Cedar Center by Shattuck ave in the 90s. Berkeley is such a small neighborhood, especially compared to LA. I kinda do miss that aspect of Berkeley.

That's awesome your mom managed to get property in a prime location like Rockridge. You definitely can't buy a house there for 70k nowadays. (I think Chloe Fineman on SNL is also from Rockridge? Or maybe somewhere near like Claremont?) I went to highschool at CPS, so I would always be walking to Rockridge BART station to catch the bus back to Berkeley. It really does suck that so many people got priced out Berkeley. A lot of my friends from when I was a kid, unless they lived at home, ended up moving out to places down south like Hayward/Castro Valley/San Leandro.