It portrays Los Angeles not as the liberals' fantasy "melting pot," but as an ocean of isolated and disconnected people, "lonely and fearful in the crowd," surrounded by other races they despise as monolothic groups.
In the end, the story is written in such a way to bring the characters toward personal redemption in such a way that they are seen as having decency beneath a pervasive, racist surface.
It turned out to be a better and deeper story than I thought it might be.
I grew up there, and I think this is an accurate description of it...