Racial politics in Los Angeles

Brian DeBose:

The election of Los Angeles' first Hispanic mayor endangers the political dominance of black Democrats there, and officials from both communities say they worry that tensions over political control of the city will lead to social unrest.

"The Democratic leadership in L.A., it is not going to be black anymore. It will be brown," said Morris Reid, managing director of Westin Rinehart, a political consulting firm.

He said Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat, was aided in his win over Mayor James K. Hahn by an unprecedented display of unity between black and Hispanic politicians and voters.

This new unity is unlikely to last:

Black and Hispanic community activists said the unity that swept Mr. Villaraigosa into office is not likely to last.

"I have been, for the last 15 years, doing volunteer work in the public school system in L.A., Crenhaw and Hawthorne and I have been seeing a silent warfare building between blacks and Hispanics," said the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, president of the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND).

Mr. Peterson said blacks and Hispanics are clashing at the neighborhood level, with several incidents of ethnic violence taking place in some schools. He said there are indications that Los Angeles' largest rival black street gangs, the Crips and the Bloods, are uniting to take on Mexican and Salvadoran gangs.

The situation wasn't helped by Mexican President Vicente Fox's recent comments that Mexican immigrants were working jobs that "not even blacks" will do, said Mr. Peterson, adding that the remark identified a real division between the two groups.
"I was not surprised at Vicente Fox's comments because that is an attitude of many Hispanics here -- not all, of course, but it is prevalent," he said.

Andy Ramirez, executive director of California-based Friends of the Border Patrol, said the unease is a direct result of the shift in political leadership toward one that is increasingly majority Hispanic.

Los Angeles has been a power base for black congressmen on the West Coast since 1962, beginning with former Reps. Augustus F. Hawkins, Julian C. Dixon in 1978 and Mervyn M. Dymally in 1980. In the 1990s political power began shifting to black women, such as Reps. Maxine Waters and Juanita Millender-McDonald, and by 2000 -- with Rep. Diane Watson replacing Mr. Dixon -- that shift was complete. But the female trio may be the last influential black politicians to come out of Los Angeles.

"I think the Villaraigosa election is the end of any non-Latino representation," Mr. Ramirez said. "They are replacing everybody at the school board level, city council level, the water board, community college board levels, and they have been able to do this with Spanish radio and TV telling illegal immigrants to vote."

Welcome to Los Angeles, Mexico!