It’s Not Always the Far-Right
The L.A. City Council scandal exposes the racism and bigotry on the left — and in communities of color
By now, you’ve probably heard about the recent anonymous leak of an audio recording of Democratic members of the Los Angeles City Council. In it, President Nury Martinez, council members Kevin de León, Gil Cedillo, and L.A. Labor Federation President Ron Herrera discussed a variety of the city’s priorities, such as redistricting.
Under normal circumstances, meetings between some of Southern California’s most powerful politicians draw little attention. This instance, however, reveals a group of the country’s most prominent Latino politicians engaging in racist, bigoted, and antisemitic comments, expressing sentiments more commonly associated with white supremacists.
I asked Arturo Dominguez, who publishes Anti-isms on Substack, to weigh in on this incident and the phenomenon of racism and antisemitism in the Latino community. I hope you find it insightful. By the way, I’ve left the comment function on this post open, so both free and paid subscribers can feel to share their thoughts.
The comments on the leaked audio, recorded last year, cannot be classified as a slip of the tongue or an inartful comment spoken out of ignorance. The audio recording, posted earlier this month by an anonymous Reddit user and later published by KnockLA, shows Latinos engaging in a full monte of hateful speech: anti-Black racism, colorism, antisemitism, xenophobia, and anti-gay language. What made the discussion worse was that they found humor in their racism and bigotry:
The most jarring slurs made by three Los Angeles City Council members caught on tape involve the Black son of one of their white colleagues. The child is referred to as a monkey, and his father is accused of using him as a political prop.
The council members also crudely derided other groups, using ethnic stereotypes for Oaxacans, Armenians, and Jews.
The impact of the incident, which so far has resulted in the resignations of Martinez and Herrera, goes well beyond their inappropriate language. Martinez, de León, Cedillo, and Herrera — Latinos with real power — were caught red-handed, perpetuating many of the same tropes directed at people of color and other minorities by many of those on the right.
The secretly recorded conversation provides insight into how elected officials with racial biases can do massive damage on the local level. It also underscores the presence of hateful and racist sentiments within the Democratic Party.
The incident in Los Angeles, considered a liberal stronghold, also dispels the myth of hate speech as something confined to right-wing political circles.
Recent years have revealed a disturbing trend of elected officials, law enforcement members, and politicians affiliating with hate groups. Several Latinos with racist leanings have risen to prominence within the so-called alt-right. Enrique Tarrio, former Proud Boys chairman, who is currently in a D.C. jail for his involvement in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, is one example.
LISTEN: L.A. City Councilmembers engaging in racism and bigotry in their decision-making on a variety of issues
Nick Fuentes, the far-right white supremacist, is a favorite of Marjorie Taylor Greene. Lesser-known far-right influencers include Cuban Alex Otaola and a slew of A.M. radio personalities striving to be the next Rush Limbaugh. Despite their Latino heritage, they use social media, television, and A.M. radio which is enormously popular in the Spanish-speaking community, to spread misinformation, and outright lies, not to mention bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, and transphobia.
The Uvalde school shootings provide another example of racism by Latinos in power. All along the Southern border, the racist and xenophobic Blue Lives Matter counter-movement gained traction because those with the most influence — white people — drive narratives.
In Uvalde, that impact grew because it was driven by fear. Latinos, particularly non-English speakers, fear law enforcement — and white people — because the white minority holds outsized political power.
Several government agencies, such as the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as local, county, and state police, employ a significant number of Latinos on the southern border. They use Latinos like Pedro “Pete” Arredondo and a good portion of their police force to enact racist policies. Although many of these employees have undocumented family members — or undocumented acquaintances — they choose to fall in line with the white power structure.
The notion that people of color in authority will benefit from affiliations with racist whites is absolute willful ignorance. But hate groups such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three-Percenters, Boogaloo Bois, and others will gladly build alliances with non-whites to achieve their goals — for now.
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I listened to the recording earlier this week. I don't entirely agree with the angle much of the media is taking on the story, but the language towards this child was irredeemably ugly. Accusing the kid of being a prop is going to leave a scar on this poor kid.
Is the term "the left" proper here? Democrats are now the only party in many ways and thus encompass all variety of folks, some of whom want to actually represent the people, but some who use want a position of influence for one reason or another. In a place such as California this may have been the case for a lot longer. Are the LA council properly described as "the left" --ie. are they progressive and countering of monied interests (to use shorthand). In any case, I think we are all seeing that an awful lot of politics is suspect and a magnet for some of the worst people. At the moment we seem to be stuck with the system and this is not the time to look to "the right" for sure....