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Black-Latino tensions grow in L.A.

July 23, 2006

By AURELIO ROJAS The Sacramento Bee

LOS ANGELES — Campaigning in African American churches while running for Los Angeles mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa stopped at Redeemer Baptist Church in South Los Angeles.

The Rev. Robert Lee DeFrance Jr. bluntly told Villaraigosa his congregants' big fear: that they would be left behind if a Latino became mayor.

"The needs of African Americans continue to be slighted, and the Spanish population is getting preference in jobs," DeFrance told Villaraigosa, who assured the gathering that his administration would be color blind.

The day after he was elected the city's first modern Latino mayor last year, Villaraigosa's visit to a San Fernando Valley high school was marred by one in a series of brawls between African American and Latino students.

In April, when more than 500,000 people marched through the streets of Los Angeles in support of illegal immigrants, Najee Ali had a visceral reaction.

"It was a real sense of fear," said the African American activist who campaigned for Villaraigosa. "Fear of being displaced."

As the region's Latino population grows with immigration, mostly from Mexico, African Americans are finding it more difficult to land jobs and housing.

Latinos now make up an estimated 45 percent of the 10 million residents of Los Angeles County; African Americans account for only 10 percent.

Even South Los Angeles, where rioting by African Americans against police oppression in 1965 and in 1992 sparked violence in other U.S. cities, is predominantly Latino.

Rioting in recent months between Latinos and African Americans in the county jail — the nation's largest — has spilled into the street.

Fights between African American and Latino students were the most the frequently reported racial conflict reported last year to the county Human Relations Commission — and African Americans were most often the victims.

America's second-largest city, often a social beacon, is again ground zero as other urban areas brace for similar demographic turbulence.

Mindful of Los Angeles' volatile history, political, religious and labor leaders are working to ease tensions as the city's poorest groups compete for jobs, space and opportunity.

"Kids are acting out because their parents are talking about it," said Bishop Edward Turner, an African American minister and Founder of Power of Love Christian Fellowship. "We need to sit down and come up with a plan that supports African Americans and Latinos."

Turner, director of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Multi-Faith Clergy Council, is working with clergy from both communities and other civic leaders to build unity over such hot-button issues as immigration, jobs, education and gang violence.

Last month, they participated in a race relations summit at the University of Southern California. Other participants included the Rev. Al Sharpton and Christine Chavez, who noted that her grandfather, United Farm Workers union co-founder Cesar Chavez, was influenced by Martin Luther King Jr.

After Ali and other African Americans complained about being left out of the immigration march in April, leaders from both communities formed the We Are America Coalition to encourage Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

Rather than harping on their differences, black and brown leaders are focusing on economic challenges they face.

Councilwoman Jan Perry, an African American whose central city district is predominantly Latino, describes the divide "as a human relations problem — not necessarily race relations."

"People want the same thing: They want jobs first and foremost," Perry said. "We have to focus on creating jobs, housing and improving education."

Maria Elena Durazo, head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said that demands for hiring more African Americans will be pressed in contract negotiations involving the Hotel and Restaurant Employees union.

Durazo also cited a recent deal, brokered by Villaraigosa, between the Service Employees International Union and the city's biggest commercial property owners that will pave the way for thousands of mostly African American security guards to unionize.

"There's a new awareness, a new consciousness, at least among the leadership," said Durazo, a respected Latina activist. "I don't know how it goes, but definitely, among the leadership, people are raising the right issues."

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said that as Latinos assume more political clout, they must remain sensitive to the needs of other communities.

"We have to make sure that African Americans, every step of the way, are not being left out," Nunez said. "It's part of the message of social responsibility."

Nunez said, for example, that in agreeing to support the new state budget — which provided money for 50 more judges — he urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to expand the pool of African American candidates.

Michael Preston, an African American professor of political science at the University of Southern California, said Latino and African American political leaders generally work well together.

"The tension is not there, because they tend to know each other," Preston said. "The tension we've seen is when people don't know each other."

Nothing has strained relations in Los Angeles as much as competition for jobs.

As the chief attorney for the regional office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Anna Park has noticed an upswing in complaints filed by African American job applicants who believe they were passed over for Latino workers.

The EEOC secured two settlements against a meat packer and an insurance company, both accused of pervasive discrimination against African Americans. In each case, the hiring official was Latino.

"It's not uncommon to what was happening when whites were doing the hiring," Park said. "There was a natural gravitation to people who looked like them."

Latinos who are put in positions of power often do not receive adequate job training, Park said. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, employers are required to ensure people who do hiring are familiar with discrimination laws.

While the recent cases involving African Americans received widespread attention, Park said discrimination claims filed by Spanish-speaking applicants still account for half the cases in her office.

Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, chairman of the California Legislative Black Caucus, has preached tolerance in the African American community.

When he confronted African Americans who were "talking anti-immigrant stuff" at a recent seminar in South Los Angeles, Dymally said he was heckled after he spoke about the valuable labor Latinos provide.

"A woman came up to me afterward and said, 'I know some black people who would take jobs picking crops in the field,"' Dymally, D-Los Angeles, recounted. "I said, 'Lady, what are you smoking?"'

Ali said the stereotype that Latinos will take some jobs that African Americans refuse is only partly true.

"We just won't do work for slave wages that are driven lower because undocumented immigrants take jobs and work for a low scale of pay without benefits," he said.

Villaraigosa — who campaigned on bringing the city together, and captured nearly half the African American vote — is focusing on improving the job skills of the next generation of students.

Only 55 percent of African Americans and 44 percent of Latinos graduate from high school in four years, according to a recent study by Education Week.

The mayor has often cited these statistics in his efforts to gain mayoral oversight of the Los Angeles Unified School District from the Legislature.

But first, Turner said, the city has to ensure that all students feel safe in school.

"A major reason kids are dropping out is fear — fear for their safety," the bishop said. "These are volatile times, and adults need to work out their problems."