CommentsTHE VIEW FROM HERE - A glance at Los Angeles City Council shows no White domination. Our longest serving White councilmember (putatively Irishman Mitch O’Farrell) is also Native American and Gay.
While at one time (1964), adjacent Glendale was western headquarters of Norman Lincoln Rockwell’s American Nazi Party, today it is best known for a vibrant Armenian community. I coached UCLA’s Mock Trial Team in the 1990's. At AMTA Nationals in Minnesota, I was asked where my team came from since it was “so exotic.” The person assured me he was not being disparaging, but he could not figure out our city of origin. The UCLA team was what any Angeleno would expect, heavily Asian, with Mexicans, Jews and mixed-race.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of LA’s Non-Wokerism is that Black Lives Matter (BLM) was the driving force to remove the Black female District Attorney Jackie Lacey and had her replaced by the elderly White George Gascón. BLM judged Lacey and Gascón by the content of their characters and not by the color of their skin.
The Evil Which Stalks Los Angeles Is Predation
Predatory abuse infects all our institutions from the city council, to the schools, to the judicial system, to the Los Angeles Times. The powerful prey upon the weak, and poor people are least able to defend themselves. Did City Council Herb Wesson or any other Black city councilmember stop the gentrification of South Los Angeles and the destructions of thousands of rent controlled apartments resulting in Black homelessness? No, but then no councilmember did anything to protect Latinos or Whites. Wesson and the others were 100% pro developer. Quality of Life for Blacks or for anyone else never figures into any decision at LA City Hall.
BLM focused on the predatory nature of the criminal justice system. I recall no BLM spokesperson saying it would be OK if Blacks were equally abused in the same percentage as others. BLM wants to eradicate all predation – that was the direction Martin Luther King was going – the Civil Rights Movement was becoming the Poor Peoples Movement. In contrast, Wokers trample on MLK’s memory.
Without Predation, Racism is Impotent
A society which eschews predatory abuse has no way to be racist. It does not matter how much the Chief Justice may dislike Blacks or Jews, if our judicial system were not predatory, then all abuse would be persona non grata. However, we have a state judiciary where the abusive whims of the judges are all powerful. As (federal) Ninth Circuit Judge Alexis Kozinski said in January 2015, the California judicial system had a”an epidemic of misconduct.” He singled out then California Attorney General (Asian-Jamaican) Kamala Harris for her condoning the perjurer-prosecutor’s use of a lying jailhouse informant in the Baca v Adams case http://bit.ly/1As5sLJ. The state appellate court had found nothing wrong with the Baca prosecutor’s taking the stand and committing perjury nor with his procuring a lying jail house informant. As federal judge Kozinski had done for years, he was objecting to a predatorily unjust judicial system. Subsequently, Judge Kozinski was forced off the bench despite his life time tenure. The abusive Black AG Harris became Vice-President! Predation not racism controls. However, a predatory system allows racists to have full reign.
Why Power Mongers Foment Racial Hatreds
Wokers and supporters of Critical Race Theory (CRT) including the 1619 Project serve a useful purpose for the predators in charge. They keep racial strife and rancor alive. Their claim that slavery began America’s true history in 1619 is bunk. In April 1502, the Spanish colonists transported the first Africans to Hispaniola to be slaves. Nikole Hannah-Jones is off by 117 years. The Bible spoke of slavery; it was wide spread in ancient Greece and Rome and throughout Africa. There was nothing special about 1619. It was merely more of the same evil – but it was nothing new. Pre-colonial Aztecs had slaves (tlacotin), as did pre-colonial Native (North) Americans. It would have been remarkable if the English colonies had been non-slave holding. England did not abolished slavery until 1833.
The grand conceit of CRT is set forth in the poorly worded beginning of the 1619 Project:
“Those who do are at most a tiny fraction of those who can tell you that 1776 is the year of our nation’s birth. What if, however, we were to tell you that this fact, which is taught in our schools and unanimously celebrated every Fourth of July, is wrong, and that the country’s true birth date, the moment that its defining contradictions first came into the world, was in late August of 1619?”
With those words, the 1619 Project erases four millennia of western civilization in favor of Ms. Hannah-Jones’ decision that one slave ship outweighs everything else. Code of Hammurabi (1860 B.C.E.) refers to slavery as an established institution. Slavery was not new in 1619 and not new to the “new world.” The arrogance of CRT continues:
“Our founding ideals of liberty and equality were false when they were written. Black Americans fought to make them true. Without this struggle, America would have no democracy at all.” Nikole Hannah-Jones
Ms. Hannah-Jones is so dead wrong on so many vital points that it is absurd anyone took the 1619 Project seriously.
(1) Equality is not an inalienable right in the Declaration. Thus, her reference to equality reveals her abysmal ignorance of political philosophy.
(2) Liberty was not false when written. The Declaration set forth the philosophical goal for the new nation. If King George’s government were protecting inalienable rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, there would have been no need for independence.
(3) Lie by omission. We are to believe that without Black Americans, no one else would have fought to actualize inalienable rights.
(4) “No democracy at all” (4a) We are not a democracy. We are a republic. (4b) the idea that without the Blacks’ struggling, the Republic would have no democratic element “at all” is poppycock. Even if Whites get together and re-elect Trump and forbid all Blacks to vote, we’d still have a democratic element.
How Will CRT Play out with Angelenos?
Presently, neither are players, but they could become significant in November 2022, depending on what Gov. Newsom’s slavery reparations commission says. If the commissions expects Angelenos of Mexicans descent to pay slavery reparations, we will have a different world. So too if Asians are tapped to pay slavery reparations. Armenians won’t be too happy. Since California never had slavery, it is unlikely generic Whites will agree that the Black experience is the only one that matters, and everyone should do penance by adopting CRT. CRT may not impact city elections, but the House and Senate races could tip GOP. On the other hand, never underestimate the ability of the California GOP to be vilely bigoted and racist. That’s what keeps the LA City Council almost GOP-free.
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. The views expressed herein are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch. You may email him at [email protected])
