A leaked recording of crude, racist comments that resulted in the president of the Los Angeles City Council resigning from the post also provided a look into City Hall’s racial rivalries
FILE - Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez at podium, and Mayor Eric Garcetti, standing to her right, are seen during a news conference at Los Angeles City Hall in Los Angeles on April 1, 2022. The president of the Los Angeles City Council resigned from the post Monday, Oct. 10, 2022, after she was heard making racist comments and other coarse remarks in a leaked recording of a conversation with other Latino leaders.
Blacks and Latinos often build alliances in politics, but tension and rivalries among groups separated by race, geography, partisanship or religion have a long history in Los Angeles and, indeed, the country. The friction can cross into housing, education and jobs — even prisons — as well as the spoils of political power.
On the recording, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera expressed the need for caution in handling a district held by a Black councilman who had been indicted on federal corruption charges. He warned that the Black community could look at it as “a hostile takeover.
“A lot of it goes back to when Latinos started to organize and get political power in the first place. That meant breaking the door down to City Hall,” Regalado said. Black leadership has worried about potentially losing historically Black U.S. House seats in Southern California, amid shifting demographics.