Letters to the Editor: Latinx communities fighting racism don’t need Martinez, Cedillo and De León

To the editor: I am glad that former L.A. City Councilwoman Nury Martinez and Councilmen Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León were caught on tape expressing values and attitudes that sadly many Latinx people hold and share only in “private.” But I am deeply enraged about how these biases also result in public policy that continues to maintain white supremacy.

For the last 10 years, I have engaged hundreds of Latinx leaders throughout California to challenge anti-Black and anti-Indigenous indoctrination that is a part of the racism we have internalized. Latinx people expressing bias and even hatred toward Black and Indigenous people is predictable given the systemic miseducation that exists in the U.S., in Latin America and the Caribbean about the history of colonization and enslavement.

I also know that I am a part of a growing community of Latinx people who are committed to building justice for Black and Indigenous people because we know that our oppression is intertwined. As growing multiracial communities, we loudly and unequivocally reject anti-Black and anti-Indigenous prejudice and any efforts to be seduced by the racist white ideologies this country was founded on.

We reject the prejudiced brand of leadership that Martinez, Cedillo and De León offer.

Ámate Pérez, Oakland

The writer is founding director of the Latinx Racial Equity Project.

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To the editor: It took a year for the recording of the now-former City Council president making racial slurs against the son of a fellow council member to be reported to the public.

While the community is rightly angry, I have yet to hear anyone express shock at Martinez’s statement that she would take the child around the corner and bring him back as a well-behaved child. To me this implies child abuse, certainly verbal if not physical.

Pamela Voetberg, North Hollywood