Tension Among Minorities Upsets Old Rules of Politics

Members of a new minority, black residents in South-Central Los Angeles, were complaining recently to their City Council member about how Latino immigrants were disrupting their neighborhood. Chickens clucking in back yards. Cars parked on front lawns. Soccer players commandeering parks. Ranchera music at all hours of the night.

“It’s a different culture, a different breed of people. They don’t have the same values. You can’t get together with them. It’s like mixing oil and water,” the president of a black homeowners’ association told Councilwoman Rita Walters at a recent neighborhood forum.

Walters, who is black and newly elected, was getting an earful of the ethnic discord that increasingly is dominating political discussions and strategies, from neighborhood gatherings to City Council meetings.

Cultural collisions, often violent, occasionally fatal, are occurring every day. Hostilities between black residents and Korean shopkeepers, Latinos and blacks vying for jobs at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, interracial fighting at a Lawndale high school, and repeated charges of police brutality against minorities--all of this is disturbing the city’s racial peace in a way that has some political analysts recalling Watts.

The number of racial hate crimes reported over the decade has grown from a handful to nearly 300 a year, according to the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission. The victims, these days, are as likely to be Cambodian or Central American as they are black. Those committing the hate crimes are as likely to be black or Latino as white.

“Increasingly, you have this climate where people feel exclusively isolated and victimized--the white storekeeper in Westwood, the Latino student in Hawthorne, the Korean merchant in the Wilshire District,” said political consultant Richard Maullin. “If those feelings get out of control, if we get groups turning on each other vigilante style, we could have our own Beirut,” said Maullin, a former State Energy Commission chairman who has worked for Mayor Tom Bradley and several City Council members.

The prospect of a city divided into warring camps violates Los Angeles’ proudest sense of itself as an oasis open to all cultures. Through trade and tourism, the city has profited from the image and has struggled to preserve it. The coalition of blacks and whites that elected Bradley and secured racial peace after the 1965 Watts riots remains the best example of the city’s efforts to live up to its self-image.

Today, community leaders are again wondering whether there is the political will to overcome ethnic feuding. There is renewed talk of ethnic coalitions by local politicians, some of whom would like to replace Bradley in the 1993 election.

“Since our diversity has grown and expanded in recent decades, the challenge for the future is to help our city’s population continue to find common ground,” the mayor said. He said this would be best accomplished by balancing the need for economic growth with the desires of residents to preserve their neighborhoods.

But the task of coalition building is more complicated than it was when Bradley took office, when there was only one minority group at the bargaining table and racial tension, as often as not, involved trouble between blacks and whites.

Civil rights groups, once known for championing the rights of all minorities, find themselves defending one minority group against another. Incumbent politicians, their eyes trained on the voters, often stand accused of ignoring the needs of non-voting immigrants.

At the same time, Latino, Asian and black leaders are under increasing pressure to put the interests of their own groups at the top of the local political agenda.

“Folks are pretty parochial here, African-Americans concerned about their issues, Latinos about theirs,” said Kerman Maddox, a political consultant who ran unsuccessfully for the City Council this year.

As politicians of various stripes get ready for the volatile business of legislative redistricting, there is a natural tendency for each ethnic group to concentrate on enhancing its own power, for Latinos to draw districts that maximize Latino voting strength and for other groups to act similarly.

Ethnic politicians can make a compelling case for putting their own interests first. There is not a single Asian member of the Legislature. While Latinos make up close to 40% of Los Angeles, the 15-member City Council has only one Latino member. (A runoff in the 1st Council District on Tuesday could lead to the election of a second.) As the African-American population declines in the inner city, blacks are fearful of losing hard-won representation in City Hall, Sacramento and Washington.

Yet, critics of ethnically driven redistricting warn that the end product is political segregation--a city and county cut up into Latino, Asian, black and Anglo voting districts.

In New York City, where the political map already has been divided along racial lines, a national magazine recently likened the outcome to South Africa’s infamous Group Areas.

On the eve of redistricting in Southern California, ethnic groups are poised to expand their political influence.

“I have been to preliminary negotiations between the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the NAACP over Assembly redistricting, and I didn’t see any spirit of compromise on either side,” said a veteran observer of the redistricting process who asked not to be named. “You had one side saying ‘our population is growing and you’ll have to make room’ and the other side saying ‘our population may be smaller but we vote in greater numbers than you do.’ ”

In the city of Los Angeles, the fear is that Latinos and blacks could goad each other into a bitter redistricting battle in the heart of South-Central Los Angeles, where traditional black political dominance is being tested by a new Latino majority--over 60% in Walters’ 9th Council District.

City Councilman Michael Woo, who represents Hollywood, has also expressed concern about ethnic friction between Latinos and Asians, particularly in parts of the San Gabriel Valley, such as Monterey Park and Alhambra, where representatives of a rapidly growing Asian population are demanding more political representation.

“There is tremendous potential for a lot of antagonism,” Woo said recently.

Among community activists, 1991 has not been not a banner year for coalition building.

A number of Latino leaders expressed disappointed that more blacks did not join the “Justice for Janitors” campaign to win higher wages and benefits for custodial employees, most of whom were Central American immigrants.

Disappointment turned to anger in some quarters when John Mack, the head of the Urban League in Los Angeles and a black man, was quoted on the front page of the Wall Street Journal as saying that blacks “are entitled to have their own institutions.” Mack was responding to questions about labor disputes at King/Drew Medical Center, where blacks have continued to hold the great majority of jobs even as the surrounding neighborhood has become largely Latino.

“Some leaders are intent on pursuing an exclusionary civil rights agenda,” said a Latino activist who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Resentment flowed the other way after the videotaped police beating last March of black motorist Rodney G. King. African-American leaders criticized Latinos for not showing greater support for a movement to recall Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.

“We really thought, given the record of police brutality, the two communities would have come together on the issue,” said Maddox, who headed the campaign to recall Gates. “But there just wasn’t the rage we anticipated among Latinos.”

Rudolfo Acuna, a professor of Chicano Studies at Cal State Northridge, deplored the lack ofLatino participation in the recall movement, which dried up after Gates announced that he would retire in April, 1992. But Acuna said it was typical of the way groups turn a blind eye to each other’s needs.

“When it is a black issue, we don’t go and vice versa,” Acuna said. “Both groups are cognizant of each other’s civil rights, but somehow people get overburdened by meetings or work and only have time for their own cause.”

Blacks and Latinos often do not think alike on local issues, according to several 1991 surveys by The Times Poll. Nearly half of the Latinos surveyed in July said they thought the Los Angeles Police Department was doing a good job, compared to 23% of the blacks surveyed. Fewer than 30% of Latinos approved of Gates’ performance, but only 9% of blacks offered a similar view. Asked about the quality of life in general in Los Angeles, more than 40% of Latinos said things were going well, compared to 22% of blacks.

Where two cultures coexist cheek by jowl, as they do in Walters’ City Council district, the differences can seem irreconcilable. For struggling immigrants, cars getting repaired in the front yard can be the beginning of a small business. For the neighboring home owner, the same scene is a sign of neighborhood deterioration.

The situation creates a delicate balancing act for Walters. She must represent the homeowners and other black residents, many of whom believe they are becoming an endangered species in the 9th District. And she must serve the Latino newcomers, most of whom do not yet vote. In office three months, the councilwoman said she does not speak Spanish but is looking for a bilingual deputy.

Walters may also face a redistricting battle with Latino Councilman Richard Alatorre over who will control the city’s downtown, currently attached to the 9th District.

Walters said she believes she can avoid a showdown with Alatorre and is confident she can bridge the cultural gaps in her district.

“It’s in the interests of both cultures to coalesce,” Walters said. “People may have their differences, but their needs--for housing, jobs, clean streets and safe neighborhoods--are more similar than dissimilar.”

Leo Estrada, a UCLA demographer and a prominent Latino strategist in redistricting and voting rights cases, says voting patterns increasingly support the argument that race is less a factor in the way people vote in Los Angeles than are economic and neighborhood issues.

Instead of creating districts that isolate minority groups, Estrada said the emphasis should be on creating districts that unite different minorities who vote along the same lines.

“Evidence shows that factors like income, party affiliation and neighborhood concerns are more important than race” in determining how people vote, he said.

Estrada’s contention is particularly noteworthy because, over the years, he has been a leading proponent of the theory that race is the main determinant in the way people vote and that districts should be shaped to allow racial minorities to elect their own.

Enshrined in voting rights law, that argument was essential to the lawsuit last year that led to the creation of a predominantly Latino district for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Working for MALDEF, Estrada was the architect of the new 1st District, where Gloria Molina was elected.

Estrada is not alone in giving a nudge to class-based politics as opposed to race-based politics. It is the rallying cry of several politically active groups that are trying to unite poor people of all races around common concerns.

One of the most visible successes has been the fledging Watts Neighborhood Council, a coalition of blacks and Latinos working to improve water quality, import jobs and expand child care. This spring, the council celebrated Cinco de Mayo with a parade that starred several of the region’s prominent black and Latino elected officials.

Critics argue that class-based politics can be as divisive as the race-based variety--pitting suburban Latinos and blacks against their inner-city counterparts and further isolating the urban poor.

A more immediate problem for minority coalitions, however, is their lack of voters. Political power is hard to achieve when so many constituents can’t or won’t vote.

The city is now 40% Latino. But at the time of the last mayoral election, in 1989, Latinos made up just 6% of those who voted, according to a survey by Maullin’s firm. Asians, the fastest-growing group, are 9% of the city’s population, but they totaled 1% of the electorate. Anglos, on the other hand, make up 37% of the population and 66% of the citywide electorate. Blacks constitute 13% of the populace and 20% of the voters.

Ten years ago, the conventional wisdom among politicians running in citywide elections was that a victorious coalition needed some combination of three groups--Westside liberals, blacks in South-Central and conservatives from the San Fernando Valley. Despite enormous changes in the city’s ethnic makeup during the past decade, the electoral arithmetic may not have changed much.

This years’ race for the 46th Assembly District is a case in point. Stretching south from Silver Lake to the western edge of downtown Los Angeles, the 46th is one of the most diverse in the city--more than half Latino, 25% Anglo, 20% Asian and 2% black. The contest drew a huge field of candidates, Anglo, Latino and Asian, vying for the seat being vacated by Assemblyman Michael Roos.

When it was over, two Anglos, Deputy City Atty. John Emerson and former Deputy City Controller Barbara Friedman, dominated the field. The winner, Friedman, successfully targeted people who had voted most often in past elections, including elderly Anglos, gays and African-Americans.

Friedman did something else. Her supporters offered complimentary doughnuts in two neighborhoods where so-called “high propensity” voters lived. Present a voting stub and get a free doughnut. In a race that was decided by 31 votes, every doughnut counted.

The election was a reminder to people of how things can change but stay the same.

“Newfangled town, old-fashioned politics,” said one of Friedman’s advisers.

Cultural Collisions

In a city that historically has prided itself on cultural harmony, a new era of divisiveness is testing the ability of local politicians to build governing coalitions.

In the past, forging ties meant getting blacks and whites to agree on a political agenda. Today, the process involves getting Asians, Latinos, blacks and Anglos together. With interracial tensions on the rise and with ethnic minorities demanding the opportunity to elect their own leaders, the task of coalition building has

never been harder, experts say. That process is even more complicated because the proportion of the population that casts votes varies from one ethnic group to another. For example, here is a look at the ethnic voting pattern in the 1989 mayoral election * : Anglos: 37% of the population; 66% of the voters. Asians: 9% of the population; 1% of the voters. Blacks: 13% of the population; 20% of the voters. Latinos: 40% of the population; 6% of the voters. * 3% other ethnicity or group; 4% refused to answer.

NOTE: Ethnic turnout figures from political consulting firm of Fairbank, Bregman & Maullin.

Comments From the Opinion Makers

“Increasingly, you have this climate where people feel exclusively isolated and victimized--the white storekeeper in Westwood, the Latino student in Hawthorne, the Korean merchant in the Wilshire district. . . . If those feelings get out of control, if we get groups turning on each other vigilante style, we could have our own Beirut.”--Richard Maullin, political consultant

“For two decades we have found common ground around the concept of economic opportunity for all our people. Some of this ground has been eroded because many believe we have grown too fast. But I believe we can form new coalitions around the notion that managed economic growth to provide jobs for our children can co-exist with our neighborhoods.” --Mayor Tom Bradley

“When it is a black issue, (Latinos) don’t go and vice versa. . . . Both groups are cognizant of each other’s civil rights, but somehow people get overburdened by meetings or work and only have time for their own cause.” --Rudolfo Acuna, Chicano studies professor at Cal State Northridge

“It’s in the interests of both cultures to coalesce. . . . People may have their differences, but their needs--for housing, jobs, clean streets and safe neighborhoods--are more similar than dissimilar.”--Rita Walters, city councilwoman