Present-day California has become one of the most racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse societies in the world. Eastern cities have their black ghettoes and Puerto Rican barrios, and still also have their Little Italys and even their Chinatowns, but in Southern California, though "white ethnic" neighborhoods are scarce, you can find not only African-American and Latino neighborhoods, and Chinatowns, but also "Little Saigons," Armenian neighborhoods, and literally scores of other ethnic groups. For some we don't even have clear names; the immigrant from Bombay who identifies himself as Indian is liable to be asked, "oh, what tribe?"
This complex ethnic character--and the complex ethnic politics that stems from it--is by no means peculiar to present-day California. California once had the densest Native American population--about 300,000 people--of any part of the present United States. The first "racial" confrontation was between Spanish missionaries and these Indians. The first Anglo-American settlers intermarried into an existing Hispanic society (the modern term "Latino" is misleading in this context), before annexation and the great influx of the Gold Rush era overwhelmed that society. A century ago, the great racial issue in California revolved around Asians, or as they were then called, "Orientals." Half a century ago, during the Second World War, race riots erupted in Los Angeles, the chief victims being Mexican-Americans. At the same time, the Japanese population of California was forcibly uprooted and sent to "resettlement" camps that were in fact a (relatively) benign form of concentration camp. Also at that time, the first large influx of African-Americans arrived in California. California's racial complexity, and the complexity of race and ethnicity in California politics, are as old as California itself.
In this respect, the California experience is distinctly different from the more general American...