LCHC strongly condemns the racist, anti-black, anti-Indigenous, homophobic, remarks made by sitting members and leadership of the Los Angeles City Council and LA County Federation of Labor, and joins countless partner organizations in demanding their resignation.
LCHC strongly condemns the racist, anti-black, anti-Indigenous, homophobic, remarks made by sitting members and leadership of the Los Angeles City Council and the LA County Federation of Labor president. These comments have no place in California. While we are shocked and disappointed at the racism perpetuated by Latinx identifying elected leaders, we are not surprised. These biases are entrenched in systems that must be uprooted. We know this is not a unique instance, but one in which light has been shed. We cannot ignore this.
Black and brown communities have historically been divided for political gain and fed the false narrative that to get ahead and grow, it is at the expense of one another. Communities have worked to combat this system – learning to lean on each other and advocate for change together. It is unfortunate that the rhetoric heard in the leaked audio this weekend has the power to impact our collective power and the work we do together in Los Angeles and beyond.
These leaders were elected to serve a community – a community made up of many races, genders, ethnicities and backgrounds, and if representing us ALL is too much to ask of them, then we are asking the wrong people. We hold Latinx leaders to a high standard – we see ourselves in them – for all of the good that they do, and unfortunately today, as a mirror of the work that has to be done within our own communities.
Trust has been lost, and while we implore these officials to do the work within themselves, to learn the hard lessons – we can no longer support them in doing so on the platform they have held. LCHC stands with countless partner organizations in demanding that City Council members Nury Martinez, Gil Cedillo, Kevin de León and LA County Federation of Labor president, Ron Herrera resign from their respective offices. We look forward to seeing leaders in these seats who can support city planning, redistricting and housing policies that benefit ALL Angelenos, and who can lead with a strong focus on equity, collective power and restorative healing.
As a statewide advocacy organization – we will hold ourselves accountable in taking real action to continue building bridges with Black and Indigenous serving organizations. Advocating hand in hand for our collective interests, partnering to ensure we are mobilizing clearly equitable anti-racist policies, working with the greater Latinx community to address deeply rooted colonialist behavior of racism, colorism and classism in our communities and finally – doing the work internally, as an organization, in the form of anti-racist trainings to ensure we can hold ourselves to the highest of standards in promoting true equity and true justice. We are stronger together.
In Solidarity,
The LCHC Team
