CONTACT
Kacey Bonner: kbonner@chromacollaborative.com

LOS ANGELES — In response to the leaked audio from a conversation between Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez, Council members Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, and now former Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera in 2021, STAND-LA made the following statement:  
“As a multiracial coalition committed to racial and environmental justice, STAND-LA adds our voices to the growing chorus condemning the unconscionable anti-Black, anti-Indigenous racism and anti-LGBTQIA+ bigotry espoused by Los Angeles City Council members Nury Martinez, Kevin de León, and Gil Cedillo, and former President of the LA County Federation of Labor Ron Herrera. We join the call led by Black and Brown community leaders from across our city and urge all three Council members to resign their seats on the City Council immediately.

“The appalling comments made by these individuals represent historic, present, and systemic racism in our country, our city and our council. While the sentiments denigrating Black, LGBTQIA+, and Indigenous communities – including a young child – are themselves abhorrent, it is also telling that three powerful Council members and a prominent LA labor leader plotted to restrict and reduce the political and economic power of already disenfranchised Black Angelenos. Neighborhood oil drilling exists because of the same dynamics on display during this backroom manipulation of the City’s electoral redistricting process: racism, abuse of power and anti-democratic processes that allow for Black and Brown people to continually be sacrificed and our communities erased.

Yet, their hunger for power at the expense of solidarity is not the norm. Our coalition has worked for over a decade to build multiracial and ethnic grassroots power to challenge corporations and city planners who have sacrificed Black and Latinx neighborhoods to toxic oil drilling for generations. The revelations in this conversation are a stark reminder that our communities must continue leading the charge to uproot racism, create a democracy that works for all, and drive real change. We are committed to partnering with all those struggling for racial justice to be the backbone this city needs and deserves.”

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