What the city council scandal reveals about LA's racial divides — and solidarity
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Protesters outside City Hall call for the resignations of LA City Council members Kevin de Leon and Gil Cedillo on Wednesday.Mario Tama / Getty Images -
People protest before the cancellation of the Los Angeles City Council meeting on Wednesday.Ringo H.W. Chiu / AP
A leaked Los Angeles City Council recording hasn't just upended local politics. It also has highlighted long-simmering racial tensions within the multicultural city — and the work needed to help it heal.
First, a quick recap: Former city council president Nury Martinez resigned her seat on Wednesday, days after a recording surfaced of her making racist remarks during an October 2021 conversation with two other councilmembers and a city union leader, all of whom are Latino.
They discussed strategies for using the city's redistricting process to maximize Latino political power and dilute the power of Black voters (California's attorney general is now opening an investigation into that process). Martinez used crude and racist language to describe the city's Oaxacan and Black communities, including the Black adopted son of one of her white council colleagues.
"What Nury Martinez was heard saying on this leaked tape were just about the worst things you could say as a politician in a city like Los Angeles, where cross-racial coalitions are so important in politics," as NPR's Adrian Florido reported.
After the recording emerged — first posted anonymously to Reddit and then published by the Los Angeles Times — a growing chorus of voices, from local protesters to the White House, called for the implicated council members to step down.
Martinez quit, and Ron Herrera has left his post as the head of the LA County Federation of Labor, but the other two councilmembers — Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León — have refused to resign. The acting council president canceled a meeting that had been scheduled for Friday, saying the body couldn't conduct business until those departures happen.
Los Angeles is electing a new mayor in less than a month, and in this week's debate candidates focused largely on the turmoil, and on who would be best suited to heal the city's racial divides. Beyond city hall, community groups are bringing Black and Latino residents together to promote solidarity and prevent long-running tensions from flaring up.
Changing demographics have provoked racial tensions
Los Angeles' population has shifted from majority-Black to majority-Latino over the past several decades, and Black Angelenos are increasingly worried that their concerns (including gentrification and homelessness) will be ignored by leaders as Latino political power grows.
Erika Smith, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, wrote this week that the substance of the recording confirms the "worst fears of many Black Angelenos: That Latino politicians treat political power as a zero-sum game. That because of their numbers, they will take over the leadership of the city, and that because of their racist beliefs, they will ignore our needs."
Smith wrote that the incident has shattered the popular narrative of Los Angeles — and California in general — being some sort of "multicultural mecca, where Black and brown people build alliances to work together."
Despite the tensions associated with its demographic shifts, Los Angeles does have a history of Black and brown communities cooperating in pursuit of progressive causes, according to University of Southern California sociology professor Manuel Pastor.
Both he and Smith spoke to Morning Edition host A Martínez about how that came to be, and what needs to happen to preserve those alliances and help the city heal.
But there is also common ground and collaboration
"There really were tensions and conflicts around jobs and schools and communities, but ... there's been a tremendous access of Black-brown solidarity building, community bridging, power building that has occurred over the last 30, 40 years, with a lot of that happening in South LA but a lot of that being citywide," Pastor says. "And so one of the things that I think is perhaps the most tragic about what's been happening with the revelation of these racist comments by four Latino leaders is that decades and decades of solidarity building were eroded, really, in a very short amount of time."
Smith says the recording has shown much work still needs to be done to bring those groups together, "where maybe a lot of people thought that the hardest part kind of was over."
One challenge she mentions in her piece is underrepresentation on city council for Latinos, who make up half of LA's population but less than a third of its councilmembers. Smith says the question isn't whether Black people are overrepresented, but how the council can pursue equity in a way that isn't at their expense.
"We've always kind of moved forward as if we just had Black and brown alliances and we're moving together in equity," she says. "But these very real concerns haven't really been addressed recently."
The scandal could be an opportunity to foster unity
Pastor is the co-author of a study called "Black Experiences of Latinization and Loss in South Los Angeles," which details the area's shift from 80% Black in 1970 to majority-Latino today. He interviewed Black residents of South LA about their experiences losing what he describes as "hard-fought space."
Black residents had long struggled to gain a foothold in certain parts of the city that had been inaccessible to them because of racially restrictive housing covenants, redlining and other racist real estate practices.
Pastor says he heard a variety of perspectives during these interviews. There was concern about the growing Latino presence, especially because it changes the language spoken in the neighborhood.
"Imagine if you're a parent in a school in South LA, you're a Black parent, [and] all of a sudden the vast majority of kids are Latino," he explains. "And the language that's spoken at the PTA or when a principal is speaking to parents is Spanish, and someone is actually translating into English to you, in a space that was hard-fought."
On the other hand, Pastor says, he heard many people say that Black and Latino communities face the same struggles, "in terms of job quality, unaffordable housing, environmental problems, schools that need significant improvement so that our kids can go to college." He also heard people in predominantly Black spaces talk about the need to form alliances with Latinos.
"So I think there is definitely some sense of resentment that is there," he says. "And there's also some ground on which coalitions can continue to be built."
Smith says Black and brown communities are going to continue to share spaces and interact, and so it's important to find a way to continue to live and work together ways that benefits everybody. She believes those efforts start on the streets, at the grassroots level.
"I think right now we're seeing a coming-together of people from various different races and ethnicities that are frankly just outraged at what has happened," Smith adds. "And it's brought about a unity that probably, frankly, wouldn't have happened if this offensive recording had not been released."
The audio roundtable was produced by Marc Rivers and edited by Mohamad ElBardicy.
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Transcript
A MARTINEZ, HOST:
Los Angeles politics is in turmoil. The acting city council president canceled today's meeting, saying the body cannot do business until two members, Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Leon, resign. Both can be heard in recently leaked audio of a conversation that included racist and derogatory comments. Many of them were made by former Council President Nury Martinez, who has already resigned. Also heard is Ron Herrera, who stepped down as head of the LA County Federation of Labor. They've all apologized, but critics say it's not enough. Protesters shut down a city council meeting earlier this week.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Resignations now. Resignations now.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: What do we want?
MARTINEZ: The scandal has exposed racial divides in this multicultural city, as we'll hear from our next guests. LA Times columnist Erika Smith recently wrote an Op-Ed about those divisions. And University of Southern California professor Manuel Pastor co-authored a study called "Black Experiences Of Latinization And Loss In South Los Angeles." Now, in it Pastor explains the area's demographic shift from about 80% Black residents in 1970 to a now-majority of Latinos.
MANUEL PASTOR: There really were tensions and conflicts around jobs and schools and communities, but that as time went on, people began to find their way to one another in terms of organizing, and that there's been a tremendous axis of Black-brown solidarity building, community bridging, power building that has occurred over the last 30, 40 years with a lot of that happening in South LA, but a lot of that being citywide. And so one of the things that I think is perhaps the most tragic about what's been happening with the revelation of these racist comments by four Latino leaders is that decades and decades of solidarity building were eroded really in a very short amount of time.
MARTINEZ: And so, Erika, so on the decades of coalition building, you write how this story has shattered what you describe as the narrative of Los Angeles as, quote, "being some sort of multicultural mecca where Black and brown people build alliances to work together in solidarity towards solving problems." Erika, was that narrative ever true, you think, or maybe that alliance was just not as strong as people thought or hoped?
ERIKA SMITH: I do think there is, you know, a sense that we do get along here. And I think that some of that, you know, as Dr. Pastor was just saying, has been shattered. I think that there has been a lot of work that has been done that people did believe that alliance, particularly between Black and brown, Black and Latino communities, did exist. I think that this recording has shown that obviously things aren't as great as we thought they were. And maybe it's kind of opened our eyes a little bit to the work that still needs to be done, where maybe a lot of people thought that the hardest part kind of was over.
MARTINEZ: And one of the components, the political component, Erika, about this whole story is that the Latino leaders in that audio recording were attempting to consolidate Latino power. Now, I saw a stat in your piece that Latinos make up half of LA's population, but less than a third of LA's 15 council seats. Is seemingly a lack of fair representation, according to those numbers, maybe a legitimate concern for Latinos in LA?
SMITH: I don't think anybody disputes the fact that Black people are - to a certain extent - are overrepresented on the city council and that Latino people are underrepresented. I think the question goes back to how do you go about achieving higher numbers and equity and do you have to do it at the expense of Black people? And I think that that was what came across on that tape. We've always kind of moved forward as if we just had Black and brown alliances and were moving together in equity. But, you know, these very real concerns haven't really been addressed recently.
MARTINEZ: Manuel, you interviewed Black residents of South LA to get their feelings about their spaces shrinking or in many cases just plain evaporating. What did you hear from them?
PASTOR: Well, we heard a number of things. We heard people who were deeply concerned about the growing Latino presence, both because it changed the language spoken in the neighborhood - imagine if you're a parent in a school in South LA - you're a Black parent, and all of a sudden the vast majority of kids are Latino. And the language that's spoken at the PTA or when the principal is speaking to parents is Spanish and someone is actually translating into English it to you in a space that was hard-fought, you know. African Americans struggled to be able to gain a foothold in South Los Angeles and in particular various parts of South Los Angeles that had been ruled off-limits to Black home seekers through racially restrictive covenants, redlining and a number of racist real estate practices. So this is hard-fought space.
On the other hand, you also heard, even at a very grassroots level, people saying, we face the same struggles in terms of job quality, unaffordable housing, environmental problems, schools that need significant improvement so that our kids can go to college. And you found a lot of people in Black-only spaces talking about the need to form alliances with Latinos. So I think there is definitely some sense of resentment that is there. And there's also some ground on which coalitions can continue to be built.
MARTINEZ: I'm just wondering how can a shared sense of space be created in places where Black and brown people are literally sharing the same physical space - I mean, sharing, being economically marginalized, overpoliced, underrepresented in big issues that affect both of them?
SMITH: Well, I mean, I think it starts really with what's happening right now. I think right now we're seeing a coming together of people from various different races and ethnicities that are frankly just outraged at what has happened. And, you know, it's brought about a unity that probably, frankly, wouldn't have happened if this offensive recording had not been released. And so I do think there is this renewed effort to kind of rebuild these alliances. But I also think it starts on the streets. You know, as the professor said a little while ago, I mean, as Black and brown communities, we interact all the time - granted, you know, not necessarily equally, but we do. And so it's not like we're going to escape each other. And so we have to find a way to work together, to live together as we're already doing, and to, you know, to do it peacefully in a way that I think is productive for everybody in Los Angeles.
MARTINEZ: Los Angeles Times columnist Erika Smith and USC sociology professor Manuel Pastor - my thanks to you both.
PASTOR: Thank you.
SMITH: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF KUTIMAN'S "6AM") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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