John, I've been supporting local leaders, local elected officials and local activists, including with many of you on our Real Justice team. I'm deeply involved in a lot of stuff in Los Angeles but this is incredibly frustrating.

We learned about some blatant, overt anti-black racism coming from members of the Los Angeles City Council. 

Councilmembers Kevin de León, Gil Cedillo, and Nury Martinez as well as Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, were key leaders. But this past weekend an explosive leaked audio shared their racist, crude conversation.

Ron Herrera and Nury Martinez have resigned from their positions but the two remaining City Council Members appear to be digging in their heels refusing to resign — even though almost every influential Democrat in the city in the state and across the country are calling on them to resign immediately.

Join our calls for their IMMEDIATE resignation by signing on to our petition right now. We can’t have this kind of racism leading one of the biggest and most influential cities in the entire country.

SIGN ON

If I asked you to describe a racist person to me, my guess is that you would probably describe a white person. Perhaps a white conservative, and maybe even a white conservative from the south. 

But the truth is that is a false or at least an incomplete narrative on who is racist and where racism is coming from in this country. 

It comes from the North, South, East and West and everything in between.

Racism is international. It's definitely not relegated to the South and here's the conversation that we need to have. 

California is no exception, and we can’t treat it as such — especially those in power.

Their anti-black racism is as disgusting as anything you'll ever hear from whoever you think about when you think about racism talking about.

They were calling Black children and babies monkeys. 

They were talking about gay people and indigenous people.

They were criticizing the district attorney of Los Angeles, our friend who we've supported and endorsed with Real Justice PAC, George Gascón who is Latino himself and they said to “F**K him” because he supports Black people.

It went on and on and on. The whole thing was disgusting.

And what’s frustrating is they've always been racist — we just didn't know it.

They don’t deserve to lead the people of Los Angeles, to have the positions they hold.

And they need to resign. Immediately. 

Sign the petition right now demanding the remaining two councilmembers who went on a racist, homophobic tirade resign immediately, OK? Then share the petition with your loved one.

We can’t stand to see them hold these positions for even one more day.

Sending love to the people of Los Angeles, California, and all of you who care about anti-black racism in this country. We have got to do better.

Take care,

Shaun