A year after the leaked recording of a backroom conversation between three Los Angeles City Council members and a prominent union president rocked local politics and reopened old racial wounds, the healing process is still underway for many Angelenos.

The four Latino political leaders, Councilmembers Kevin de Len, Nury Martinez and Gil Cedillo, and the head of the LA County Federation of Labor, Ron Herrera, participated in a conversation that included profane and derogatory comments about black people, Oaxacans and others, and how they can turn the urban redistribution process to their own advantage.

The four Latino political leaders, Councilmembers Kevin de Len, Nury Martinez and Gil Cedillo, and the head of the LA County Federation of Labor, Ron Herrera, spoke profanely and derogatorily about Black people, Oaxacans and others, and discussed how they were disrupting the redistricting process. could bend the city to their own will. advantages.

Martinez and Herrera resigned because of the consequences. Cedillo is also no longer on the City Council, having lost his re-election bid months before the audio was released; De Len will be a candidate for a new term in March.

The Times spoke to residents of Black Los Angeles this week to ask if they thought anything had changed in the year since the racist audio leak was published.

This is what they had to say:

Ariana Brewer

Shop manager at Coffee del Mundo

Brewer, 33, a store manager at Coffee del Mundo in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood, is an optimist through and through.

She is not surprised that elected officials express their racism behind closed doors, she said, because the imbalance of care is evident in Black communities across the city. She is hopeful that people in those communities will be able to do the work to call out these officials.

“You don’t rise to the top of an office without being so dirty and brash and putting down a certain group of people,” Brewer said. “We have to be better. I can’t afford to be negative.”

Since the audio recorded at the union federation’s headquarters was leaked, leaders in South LA neighborhoods have taken the initiative to bridge the divide between Black and Latino communities, Brewer said, because they feel elected officials don’t care about them.

“Our company is a bridge. We serve multiple groups of Latino, Black and all other people because there is not just one culture in the city,” she said of Coffee del Mundo, which hosts community workshops for small business owners and is open three days . a week.

As a steady stream of customers came in on a warm weekday morning, Brewer paused to prepare an iced coffee for a regular before they entered. She went on to share her thoughts on the past year and how the Black and Latino communities have responded.

“I think we share so many similarities in our struggles, with our mirrored backstories of fighting oppression. But our cultures are rich and vibrant,” she said over the sound of a coffee grinder.

“That’s all we can really do for each other,” she said. “Once I realized I could take responsibility for my own joy, it felt like a cheat code.”

Dermot Data

Political advisor

“Nothing has changed,” Givens said. ‘Nothing has changed.’

When Givens first heard about the shootings, he was angry but not surprised. Los Angeles politics have long been racist and polarized, he said.

“It’s nothing new;

,

“It’s just that it’s been brought to light,” he said.

When asked if the recordings had changed anything in Los Angeles politics, the lawyer and political consultant gave a different answer: “Nothing.”

“The congregants are still behaving the same way,” he said. “The problem, the racism, is still there.”

For Givens, this is not only noticeable in the composition of the city council, but also in that of their staff.

“There are three African-American council members,” he said. “No increase, no decrease. There will be a decrease soon, there will probably be a decrease, but we don’t know.”

At the heart of the shooting, Givens said, was the ongoing struggle for representation in Los Angeles politics, including a growing Latino population and Latino politicians seeking to increase their power in council chambers.

But representation and power at City Hall can take many forms, he said, including the people who “actually run things.”

“If you look at the non-African American council members and their chief of staff, have the professionals multiculturalized their staff?” he asked, before quickly answering the question himself. “No.”

Bernard Parks Jr.

Son and former chief of staff of former councilman Bernard Parks

“I try to be the biggest optimist I can be,” Parks said. “But the system hasn’t changed, and the ideas they’re talking about to solve these problems aren’t innovative. They’re just self-interested.”

Recent ideas for changes, such as expanding the number of seats on the city council, would not address the root of the problem, he said.

“Why would you think the answer is you need more people making bad decisions?” he said.

Parks pointed to a series of recent criminal cases involving elected leaders.

Councilman Curren Price was charged this year with 10 counts of embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest, and Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas was found guilty of conspiracy, bribery and fraud.

Council members Mitch Englander and Jose Huizar pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges.

The recent charges and the racist comments on the tapes as the politicians discussed redistricting are interconnected parts of a system designed to serve the interests of leaders, Parks said.

“If you look at what the group was talking about, which is illegal redistribution

the communities

…and bringing resources from one community to another for personal benefit,” he said, “The important question is: Has anything changed within that building? And the worrying thing is the continued series of charges.”

Carol Parchue

South LA resident

At a nail salon near Western Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard spoke to Parchue, 53, about the recordings in which Martinez insulted the black son of former councilman Mike Bonin and compared him to an accomplice.

“It was so insulting to hear that,” Parchue said. “This was a person who said something so horrible, and for no one else to say anything and stop her was so bad.”

Parchue couldn’t believe it had been a year since the racist comments were published, but she was surprised that De Len is still in office.

“His reaction to the comment about the black child said so much,” Parchue said. “It wasn’t good for black people. I leave it to God, but it’s so bad.’

Over the past year, Parchue said little has changed in her South LA neighborhood. Parchue, who is originally from Belize, doesn’t notice any difference in the way her Latino neighbors talk to her.

“We communicate well. I don’t think anyone I know was hurt by those racist comments. It wasn’t nice, but it doesn’t change how I feel about my neighbors,” she said.

Janet Denise Kelly

Executive Director of the youth development organization Sanctuary of Hope

Kelly, 50, felt a deep betrayal when she heard the familiar voices on the tape. After all, Martinez and De Len were in favor of progressive policies in the field of housing and assistance to the homeless.

“I still think that every day when our city council members show up to do the people’s work, that elephant remains in the room,” she said as she sat down for lunch at the South LA Cafe in Leimert Park.

Kelly acknowledged that there is a battle over who occupies positions of power and who is represented as the city’s demographics change.

During the secretly recorded meeting, Martinez, Cedillo and De Len discussed ways to ensure that key assets, such as sports arenas and recreation areas, remain in heavily Latino districts.

For Kelly, that felt like a blatant abuse of power that pitted groups of people against each other.

“It shouldn’t be a process where it feels like someone is pulling the strings or playing with that process,” Kelly said. “Especially for people in prominent positions of power.”

She still feels deeply hurt and doesn’t think any real healing has begun.

“We need to rebuild that circle of trust,” she said. “It hasn’t started yet.”

Anson Roberts

Retired handyman

Roberts, 67, held his breath under the canopy of a bus on MLK Boulevard. Last year, his grandchildren played some of the racist audio while he was at a family function.

“I thought it was a movie,” he said. “I didn’t know these people were from City Hall. What do they have to gain by saying that?’

Roberts, who retired during the pandemic, feels so many people are suffering in the city, but he can’t say if that’s because of what was said in the leaked audio.

“Politicians will always be racist,” he said. “I don’t know if things have gotten better in the last year. You can’t measure it. You feel like we’re working so hard, and then it turns out someone put their foot on your foot, so you can’t.” movement.”