If you were white and nice looking you always had a job in Los Angeles in the 1950s and 1960s. Unemployment rate was very very low like now of about 3 or 4 percent or less so there were always part time jobs available then if you were a white educated straight white male then.
But, my experience of it was very strange. I was aware the problems other races and groups were having but there wasn't a lot I could do about it. For example, I saw knife fights at lunch in High School but I didn't see anyone die like you might see in bused High Schools that were more racially balanced then. So, I literally was in a pretty much all white High School with Hispanics and Asians along with White people but if there was anyone black maybe there would be 1 to 4 in the whole school and they would appear and talk and act a lot like Obama there.
So, my experience in Los Angeles was living in one of the most liberal States along the very tolerant west coast and yet there were still football players that would go out on Friday and Saturday nights with baseball bats to kill gay men and black men if they found them. Police in the 1950s and 1960s wouldn't even report some of this kind of thing then. This went on in (at least from 1960 to 1965 when I left the school and went to Santa Fe, New Mexico to a private school to graduate high school.
Obviously, things were much different then and reminded me more of Grease, the movie. But, just remember Grease is a fond memory of someone who lived in those times. The reality often was more like a horror movie for many. Mostly I survived okay because I was white and tall and could defend myself and was careful where I went. But, many people were not as lucky as me and didn't make it even to 20 years of age then (even in California).
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