One week after an audio recording leaked of racist remarks from the Los Angeles City Council president that led to her resignation, the nation’s second-largest city is still reeling from racial tensions laid bare and the uncertainty of its future political leadership.
Since the leaked audio was first reported by the Los Angeles Times Oct. 9, then-City Council President Nury Martinez resigned from the council Wednesday after mounting pressure from Los Angeles politicians, labor groups and even President Joe Biden.
Ron Herrera, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, also has resigned over his role in the conversation. Councilmembers Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, who could be heard in the leaked audio alongside Martinez, have not resigned their seats despite public pressure.
In the recording, which was made during a meeting in October 2021, Martinez is heard in conversation with de León, Cedillo and Herrera discussing the city’s redistricting plans. Among multiple comments, Martinez spoke disparagingly about white councilmember Mike Bonin and made racist statements about his Black son.
The audio’s release sparked nationwide outrage and demonstrations by protesters at the council’s Tuesday and Wednesday meetings amid calls for all three councilmembers to resign. Acting Los Angeles City Council President Mitch O’Farrell canceled the group’s Friday meeting in favor of councilmembers meeting with constituents to hear their concerns.
TIMELINE:Here’s how racist leaked audio dismantled the Los Angeles City Council
How will the City Council move forward?
Councilmember O’Farrell has served as interim council president since Martinez’s resignation, but he has said he has no interest in remaining in the role. O’Farrell is also calling for de León and Cedillo to step down.
“We are resolved to make sure that Mr. Cedillo and Mr. de León resign,” O’Farrell told local outlet Fox 11 on Friday. “That is absolutely necessary because it is presenting an obstacle to us in order to get the people’s business done, to move on from this, to begin healing.”
To address Martinez’s vacant seat, the council must decide whether to appoint a temporary replacement or leave the district without a voting member until there is a special election to fill the remainder of Martinez’s term, O’Farrell’s spokesperson, Dan Halden, told the Times.
Martinez became the City Council’s first Latina president in 2019. Her term is set to end in December 2024.
The council also must grapple with rebuilding the trust of Black constituents, who make up a little less than 9% of the city’s roughly 4 million residents, according to census data.
The Rev. Eddie Anderson, Black senior pastor of the McCarty Memorial Christian Church in Los Angeles, said the “horrific statements by the highest officials in local government” were just part of “a plan to dilute the Black vote and power in our community.”
“There was a real plan of Black erasure, of people who have been here a long time building this city,” Anderson said.
Oaxacan community, protesters respond to leaked audio
Martinez can also be heard in the audio referring to Oaxacan immigrants in the city’s Koreatown neighborhood as “little, short dark people.”
“I was like, I don’t know where these people are from, I don’t know what village they came (from), how they got here,” Martinez said, adding “Tan feos” – “They’re ugly.”
Los Angeles is home to the country’s largest Mexican population and nearly half the city is Latino, according to U.S. census data. Informal studies indicate that several hundred thousand Oaxacan immigrants live in California, with the largest concentration in Los Angeles, according to Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, director of the University of California, Los Angeles Center for Mexican Studies.
Lynn Stephen, an anthropology professor at University of Oregon who researches Mexican migration and Indigenous peoples, said historical discrimination of Indigenous communities persists.
“These kinds of comments directed toward Indigenous people from non-Indigenous people from Mexico, Guatemala, etc., it’s a different kind of layer of racism,” Stephen said.
Hundreds of members of the Oaxacan community held a solidarity march in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, calling for de León and Cedillo’s resignations and requesting a public apology from Martinez, the Los Ange Times reported.
Contributing: The Associated Press; Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY
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