"Sorry" Does Not Cut It
“The racist and disrespectful language used by these elected city representatives is completely egregious, especially when referencing a child.”
- LAUSD Candidate Dr. Rocio Rivas
There are no circumstances when it is acceptable to call a two-year-old black child a “little monkey” in a derogatory manner. There is also no excuse for joking about violently disciplining a child, especially when it comes from a former school board member. Yet, last October Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez called her colleague's son a “changuito” (little monkey), said that the child needed “a beatdown”, and offered to do it herself. These comments were made during an “hourlong conversation” with Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera.
Martinez and her fellow city councilmen have had almost a year to reflect upon their words but none of them seems to have had a crisis of conscience over their involvement. Not one member of the group had taken any steps to publicly condemn what was said or to apologize to those who were the subject of the racist rhetoric. Can their constituents assume that these racial diatribes were normal behind closed doors?
These elected officials were finally forced to confront their bigotry when a recording of the conversation was released to the public. With their open racism exposed they finally found contrition. Martinez claimed that the words were said “In a moment of intense frustration and anger,” as if a political disagreement would somehow excuse away her bigoted beliefs. De León released a statement that he regretted “appearing to condone and even contribute to certain insensitive comments made about a colleague and his family” without providing any explanation as to why it took the release of the audio for him to finally say something.
Cedillo, who claims that he does not “have a recollection of this conversation”, comes out as the biggest hypocrite in the room. During his 2017 race for re-election, he condemned his opponent, Joe Bray-Ali, for comments that he posted on an online forum. Cedillo denounced those postings saying that they made his opponent “not fit for public office, and particularly unsuited to represent a district as diverse as Los Angeles’ 1st.” It now appears that these words were nothing more than a convenient attack against a challenger who was on the verge of defeating him in the general election. Cedillo won that election and the residents of the first City Council district still ended up with a representative willing to traffic in racist rhetoric.
Even worse than offering a fake apology, the L.A. County Federation of Labor’s response was taken right out of the Trump playbook. The group is not complaining about the racist remarks that were spoken at their facility but instead about the fact that the public was made aware of the racism. The union took responsibility for having the audio clips removed from Reddit and says that it is planning an investigation to “make sure these crimes are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.” I wonder how well-represented Black members of the union feel.
While Nury Martinez has quit her position as the City Council President, this is not enough. She has shown with her words that she cannot represent her constituents equally. The same is true of De León and Cedillo.
This is a crisis that cannot be solved with apologies, especially when the elected representatives seem to be more sorry for getting caught than they do for betraying the public trust. New blood on the council is needed immediately. It is the only way for all of our fellow Angelinos to feel represented.
Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for students with special education needs and public education. He was elected to the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and is the Education Chair. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.