Two separate racial incidents in Santee raise questions on how the city is addressing hate.
For years the East County city of Santee has tried to fix its image.
Racial incidents have occurred in the community, earning it the nickname “Klantee”
Local leaders have been trying to prove that these monikers aren’t representative of the community, but two recent incidents have made that more difficult. A man went shopping in a Santee Vons wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, and another person wore a mask adorned with a swastika.
During this pandemic, racial and anti-Semitic actions are particularly troubling because economic downturns and other disasters have preceded systematic targeting of minorities in the past.