Posted on 06/05/2005 4:32:34 PM PDT by calcowgirl
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- As a candidate for mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa packaged his ethnicity as carefully as he knotted one of his designer ties. Looking to appeal across the racial rainbow, he became the candidate who happened to be Hispanic, not the Hispanic candidate.
But only days after his watershed election as the first Hispanic mayor of modern Los Angeles, a rash of fistfights between black and Hispanic students forced him to speak to the racial lines that crisscross - and sometimes divide - one of the nation's most diverse cities.
On issues from jobs to housing to education, the city's complex and shifting racial milieu will test his promise to be a mayor "for all Los Angeles."
Among blacks and Latinos, "at the street level, the tensions are there, at schools, over employment," said Harry Pachon, director of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California.
School-yard fights are commonplace, but the racial rivalries that played a part in the recent brawls at Jefferson High School gave the mayor-elect an early, unexpected opportunity to take up the role of civic and cultural bridge-builder he talked about during his campaign.
On May 26, several dozen black and Hispanic teens at the school were involved in a fight so serious that school police used batons and pepper spray to break it up. It was the third racially motivated brawl in six weeks at the overwhelmingly Hispanic school.
There were no serious injuries. Police said they were unaware of any link between gangs and the violence.
After a campaign in which he promised to "bring this great city together," Villaraigosa was at the school the next day, meeting with teachers and students. He is reviewing the organization of the mayor's office to determine if a special office for race and safety issues is needed to work with the Los Angeles Unified School District, which runs the 800-campus system.
"One of the most important responsibilities for the next mayor is to help bring this city together," said Villaraigosa, 52, the son of a Mexican immigrant. "We cannot allow - in a city as diverse as this one - racial violence in our schools. We've got to have a zero tolerance for it."
Villaraigosa's election came as the latest sign of expanding Latino political clout in California and across the nation. He was elected the city's first Latino mayor since 1872 by knitting together Hispanics, blacks and left-leaning whites - a coalition that some analysts called a new paradigm in urban politics.
When he takes office July 1, Villaraigosa will inherit a city with chronic growing pains. Steady population growth has contributed to snarled traffic, housing shortages and a troubled school system. Downtown needs a makeover, the airport a major renovation.
After running as a unity candidate, the mayor-elect has elevated expectations for a new period of racial and ethnic cooperation. But recent history shows such volatile issues can quickly alter the political landscape.
Tensions flared in February after police shot and killed a black teenager, Devin Brown, while he was driving a stolen car. Police treatment of car-theft suspect Stanley Miller, who was hammered repeatedly with a steel flashlight after a chase in South Los Angeles last year, recalled the infamous Rodney King case.
Mayor James Hahn saw his popularity among blacks plummet after he helped push out the city's black police chief in 2002. The issue contributed to Hahn's loss to Villaraigosa last month.
A Los Angeles Times exit poll in the May 17 election found that Villaraigosa was seen by supporters as a candidate who understood the city's cultural complexity and can bring people together. Still, race relations ranked well below education, gangs and jobs as top issues.
"Soothing racial tension is something he cares about, but it's not an easy thing to accomplish," said Matthew Streb, a political scientist at Loyola Marymount University who studies politics and race.
"Appearances at high schools are great, but people are going to ask 'what more are we going to see?' The average person on the street, are they willing to overcome their prejudices?"
Villaraigosa isn't alone in wanting to city to be more assertive on racial issues at schools.
"We can't just keep responding to this like a fire department - responding when something happens," said Police Chief William Bratton. "We need to focus much more on what we need to do to prevent it in the future."
fights between blacks and latinos are nothing new.
Gee, I thought the human race would all love each other and sing Kumbaya once the leftist "diversity" crowd took power.
Geez, when my parents were kids in the 1950s/early 60s, you had Blacks vs. Italians vs. Puerto Ricans. In my last nabe in Brooklyn, you had Russians vs. Arabs vs. Latinos. Nice to see that California has the same sense of "brotherhood" that we had on the east coast.
Well, he's talking "zero tolerence", so I guess legislative force will be used to hold this mess together.
Uh, has this journalist ever heard of Harold Washington? Ed Koch (first term)? David Dinkins? Lee Brown? They all won elections with a similar coalition over the past 25 years, so I wouldn't call it a "new paradigm."
Not to mention Tom Bradley...
Welcome to the racial rainbow Tony....
Let me guess. The remaining black and white gringos won't get out of "his" city?
Just have the kids put on an updated version of "West Side Story" starring these young hoods, then they can hold hands at the end and sing "Somewhere"... /sarcasm
leftist "diversity" has always been about tearing down and tearing apart
"racial rainbow"
"racial milieu"
"cultural bridge-builder"
"the city's cultural complexity"
Barf-worthy phrases galore in this piece.
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