CommentsTHE VIEW FROM HERE - About eight percent (8%) of the city of Los Angeles is Black. About forty-eight percent (48%) is Hispanics. Mexicans are the largest subgroup of Hispanics with thirty-seven (37%) of the city.
Woker Identity Politics believes in proportional representation as a vital part of equity for minority groups where each recognized subgroup is supposed to have roughly the same representation as their percentage of the city. Under this approach to voting, Los Angeles Blacks are entitled to one (1) council seat and Hispanics are entitled seven (7) council seats. Mexicans are entitled to about five (5) of the council seats. Blacks have three (3) council seats which is 300% of the number which wokeism allows them. Hispanics had four (4) seats until Nury Martinez resigned, which is minus three seats to which they are entitled. The city council has 15 seats.
Woke proportional representation is wack, and it has resulted in the anti-Mexican racism at city hall, but let’s look at the facts in this flare-up against Mexicans.
The purpose of equitable redistricting is to make certain no group has significant under representation. When one’s group is drastically under-represented, it is anti-racist to discuss re-drawing of district lines. Redistricting is done every ten years after the US Census. Drawing proper lines between districts is horrendously complex. Thus, people look at the outcome to see if it is equitable, i.e. is any group under represented? All political leaders meet behind the scenes to decide how to carve up the population into districts most favorable to them. Councilmembers Martinez, De Leon and Herrera were doing what everyone else was doing, except Mexicans are not suppose to do it without express approval of the Democrat establishment.
The only thing different with Martinez, de Leon and Cedillo’s meeting to discuss redistricting is that the meeting was being secretly audio recorded without their knowledge. That is illegal under Penal Code, § 632. About one year after their meeting, the October 2021 audio tape was released. The media now habitually, and falsely, calls it the Racist Tape.
The Tape Was Not Racist
All groups have their own views of larger society and of the various other groups in society. This has to be the situation since each group has a different place in society and the position from which one views something influences perception, i.e the Rashomon effect. The US Constitution guarantees us privacy for our personal beliefs. When Jews discuss politics, we use our history and words from Yiddish, which others may find pejorative, e.g. goyim, schvartze, goniffs, momzers, but which are not racist. Blacks have a variety of words for Whites. Armenians no doubt have their own terminology. One Armenian neighbor calls Blacks “urbans.” Mexicans have words for Whites, e.g. gavachos, and for Blacks, mayates. (Those words were not in the tape.) Some Gays call straight people, breeders. The words which we use with “our own” are not necessarily racist and privacy is a constitutional right.
To Date, No One Has Found That Martinez, De Leon, or Cedillo Used Any Racist Word
Rather, the city and the world have been subjected to undeniable falsehoods in order to make it sound as if Martinez, de Leon and Cedillo were racist. The premier example on which the racist charge was based was that Nury Martinez called Councilmember Mike Bonin’s child, “ese changuito” (that little monkey), when she actually said “este niño” (this child). There is no excuse for any politician or news person not to know this fact. Later when describing Bonin’s child’s behavior, Nury use a phrase common in Mexican households for hyperactive kids, “parece changuito” (like a little monkey), when the kid was hanging from railing of the Martin Luther Day float. Just as este niño is used for any child, parece changuito is used for any child’s behavior when the kid is “bouncing of the walls.” Nothing in the tape is racist including calling Oaxacans “tan feo” (so ugly). While it is rude, it is not racist. Mexicans see people from different Mexican states differently just as many Southerners do not like Yankees, and some Whites call other Whites “hillbillies” and “red necks.” “Judios” is not an ethnic slur. The homophobic charge is absurd. Nonetheless, the news media routinely announces segments about the tape as “The Racist Tape,” knowing that they are defaming Martinez, de Leon, and Cedillo.
People failed to notice that under Pelosi’s Identity Politics, there is actually one premier group, the Blacks, with all others playing supportive roles. For example, in 2020, Blacks are only twelve percent (12.1%) of the nation. Hispanics are 18.7%, and Whites are 57.8% US Census, 2020 U.S. Population More Racially and Ethnically Diverse Than Measured in 2010. It is reasonable that the East have more Blacks than Los Angeles, since they were slaves in Southern States. It is also reasonable that nationally Hispanics would be a larger group than Blacks since everything West of the Mississippi River was historically Spanish-Mexican. The Louisiana Purchase had been ping-ponged between Spain and France – 1699 to 1762 France, 1762 to 1800 Spain, 1800-1803 France, 1803 America. When Black slaves escaped, the Underground Railroad ran north, not westward to California. As set forth in The 1619 Project, White Fragility, White Entitlement, Identity Politics is Black centric. The experiences of all other groups are subservient to slavery. Identity Politics’ role of other groups is to support Black demands.
That is why California has a Task Force on Californians giving slavery reparations to Blacks even though California never had slavery. All Task Force Members are Black except one Japanese person. Thus, it contains no one who might say, reparations are not appropriate since California never had slavery. Nor, is there anyone to point out that The Treaty of Guadalupe had guaranteed the Spanish and Mexican land grants to the Californios but as soon as the Mexican American War was over, Anglos swindled the Californios out of their land. Under Woke Identity Politics, Mexicans’ role is (1) to vote Dem and (2) to shut up. The idea that Mexicans might gain political power in their own right and not as puppets from the Anglo-Black establishment truly frightens Dems.
The Dems know that absent the mentally ill Donald Trump, a significant portion of Hispanics, especially the older Mexican population, would be voting GOP. California’s GOP, however, is so anti-Mexican, anti-Gay, and anti-Black that minorities have no political party except the Dems. If Mexicans, however, had a power base of voters independent of what the Dem establishment allows, they could swamp the current leadership. Generic Whites also are not enthralled with Dem Wokeism and are dissatisfied with the mess wokers have made of city government. Hispanics and Asians comprise 63% of the city. We have two (2) Asians on city council and de León is ½ Chinese, ½ Guatemalan. If the two groups should form an alliance, the Dem Party control of LA City government could be dead.
This Anti-Mexican Racism Has Occurred previously
In 1942, Los Angeles press labeled Mexicans as “pachuco hoodlums and baby gangsters” on the belief Mexicans had murdered Jose Diaz. In 1943, the case, known as Sleepy Lagoon murder, culminated in August 1943 with Mexican teens being attacked and beaten during the “Zoot Suit Riots” where “American servicemen and white Angelenos, (who) attacked and stripped children, teenagers, and youths who wore zoot suits, ostensibly because they considered the outfits, which were made from large amounts of fabric, to be unpatriotic during World War II.” https://bit.ly/3D6SrjC Wiki The Los Angeles Times vilified the Mexican victims stirring more vicious attacks on Mexican teens. Later, all the convictions on the Sleepy Lagoon murder were overturned.
Today Los Angeles is recapitulating Sleepy Lagoon Suit Zoot anti-Mexican racism against three Mexican councilmembers. The establishment feels that it must discredit them as human beings or Blacks may end up with only one (1) or fewer seats on the city council. With Hispanics at 48% and growing, Mexican political power which asserts itself rather than accepting the crumbs which fall the table of the Anglo-Black power structure is a real threat to the establishment.
Kevin de Leon’s Huge Mistake
Because he did nothing wrong, Kevin de Leon should never have apologized. An apology equals admission of guilt. Anyone who told de Leon that if he apologized, he could move on the way the Black Mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, has after publicly accusing Hondurans of being drug smugglers did de Leon a huge disservice. Oct 20, 2022, Yahoo News, San Francisco's Mayor Apologizes for Remarks Made about Hondurans. The establishment must falsely vilify and banish De Leon, Martinez, and Cedillo to prevent any future Mexicans from asserting themselves. Who, do you suppose, prevailed upon President Biden to call for their resignations?
It is possible that de Leon may not be a paragon of virtue, but for the sake of our entire society, we have to stop Wokeism, where no individual gets a fair hearing. Instead, innocent people face a barrage of racist lies so that Angelenos remain blind to the fact that Hispanics have been gerrymandered out of fair representation by the Democrat Anglo-Black power structure. Perhaps Kevin de Leon should show up at city council wearing a Zoot Suit in order to visually remind everyone of Los Angeles’ history of anti-Mexicanism based on lies.
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at [email protected]. The opinions expressed by Mr. Abrams are solely his and not necessarily those of CityWatch.)
