Latinos Fail to Change Knight’s Viewpoint : Race relations: Activists had hoped to ‘re-educate’ the assemblyman. He had distributed a poem mocking illegal immigrants.

PALMDALE —  About 100 Latino constituents in the Antelope Valley tried but failed Sunday to re-educate Republican Assemblyman William J. (Pete) Knight, who touched off a furor last week when he distributed a poem deriding illegal immigrants.

During a two-hour meeting at the Palmdale Cultural Center, Knight continued to blame immigrants for draining money from social programs, refused demands that he hire Latinos to work in his Assembly office, and declined to support a state holiday honoring farm labor leader Cesar Chavez.

“We certainly have met a blank wall with respect to our requests being acknowledged. But frankly, we expected that,” said attorney Richard Loa, who helped organize the session on behalf of the newly founded group Latinos for Social Justice.

For his part, Knight also got little satisfaction when he tried to turn the meeting into a forum on the costs of illegal immigration. Asked by reporters after the meeting what he had gained, Knight replied: “A lot of hostility.”

The controversy began Tuesday, when the 63-year-old lawmaker distributed copies of a poem entitled “I Love America” to fellow Assembly Republicans at a private caucus meeting. The five-stanza poem, which Knight said he received from a constituent, parodies immigrant slang as it tells of a fictional immigrant crossing into the United States, receiving welfare and Medi-Cal, asking other immigrants to join him and ridiculing Americans for paying taxes to support them.

The freshman assemblyman from the 36th District, which encompasses the Antelope Valley and most of the Santa Clarita Valley, later apologized. He offered another public apology Sunday, saying he distributed the poem “in a moment of unthinking.” He also denied being a racist.

Sunday’s public session occurred as a result of Friday’s meeting with Loa and another organizer of Latinos for Social Justice. The group was formed to speak out on racial issues in response to the controversy over Knight. The only request that the assemblyman agreed to during the meeting was to continue discussions with the organization.

Loa said he hoped that Knight, a former Palmdale mayor and record-setting Air Force test pilot, would learn from the concerns voiced at the meeting and that he would become more responsive. But when asked if he saw such an indication from Knight’s comments, Loa replied: “Very little evidence.”

Rather than cooling the controversy, the session raised new accusations against Knight. One speaker accused him of telling Palmdale High School students earlier this year that he didn’t care about saving endangered species such as the California condor.

Another speaker, George Salas, who said he was an administrator at Edwards Air Force Base when Knight was vice commander of its Flight Test Center, accused Knight and others at the time of failing to enforce affirmative-action goals for blacks and Latinos.

Knight acknowledged questioning what he said has been the millions of tax dollars spent to preserve the condor. He at first rejected the other challenge, but then said he couldn’t recall if affirmative-action goals were met during his tenure.

The Sunday session began with a series of speakers publicly lecturing Knight on Latino contributions to society, their feelings about discrimination, reasons for supporting bilingual education and their belief in the need to honor Chavez, the late United Farm Workers leader.

Regarding Chavez, Knight said he wouldn’t support the request because “I don’t think we can make rational decisions” about a holiday so soon after his death.

On the staff issue, he said, “I will not hire anybody based on ethnic background.” He added that he didn’t have the money to hire any additional staff anyway.

Knight tried to get the participants to discuss the costs of illegal immigration, but his opponents said attacks on illegal immigrants harm all Latinos.

“Immigration reform is not the point here. It’s racist reform,” said activist Eugene Hernandez. Hernandez criticized what he called “the racist climate” in the Antelope Valley.

As the session grew more heated, one of the members of Latinos for Social Justice, Steve Meza, told the audience, “This will be my contribution to the re-education of Pete Knight.”

Several speakers warned that distributing the poem created “a ripple effect” of racism in the Antelope Valley, causing people who agree with the poem’s sentiments to become more vocal. One speaker said he found a copy of the poem Friday attached to a pump at a gas station.

Indeed, Knight told reporters after the meeting that calls to his offices in Sacramento and the Antelope Valley have been running “98-99%” in support of his views.

Latinos account for only about 16% of the residents in Knight’s overwhelmingly white and conservative district.