“The most puzzling aspect of L.A. life was that the races were infinitely more segregated in this liberal utopia than in the deep South from which I hailed. California progressives were endlessly eager to inform you of how oppressed and downtrodden minorities were, but had virtually no real contact with them. Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Burbank (where I lived) had no Black communities . . . the “People of Color” were all pressed into the dismal south central corner of the city where Whites weren’t at all welcome.”