Photo: Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez at podium, and Mayor Eric Garcetti, right, attend a news conference in Los Angeles on April 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez was forced to resign after leaked audio recordings revealed racist remarks she made about Black people when speaking with colleagues.
While she did give up her powerful post–she is the first Latina to have the position–her resignation letter did not contain an apology, nor did not mention the Black community. She did later apologize, but Black residents and leaders in L.A. are outraged that her apology was not included in her official resignation letter to the council.
The LA City Council is responsible for enacting laws that govern the city and has the final say on the budget for all departments and agencies within the city. There are 15 city council members who each preside over a council district.
Martinez, the child of a dishwasher and a factory worker from the Mexican state of Zacatecas, is a Democrat.
An anonymous Reddit account leaked the racist audio recordings. The voices on the recordings seem to be that of Council President Martinez, Councilmembers Kevin de León, and Gil Cedillo, and L.A. Labor Federation President Ron Herrera, Knock L.A. reported.
Martinez and two other council members used the language while discussing a white colleague and his toddler Black son in a broad conversation with a labor leader.
In the October 2021 conversation, Martinez can be heard calling fellow council member Mike Bonin “that little bitch.” She also said that he handled his adopted son like “an accessory.” She refers to the child as “su negrito,” which is a disparaging term in Spanish for a Black person. She also called the child “ese changuito,” or that “little monkey.”
“There’s nothing you can do to control him, parece ch****ito.”
“This kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner, I’ll bring him right back.”
“I take responsibility for what I said, and there are no excuses for those comments,” Martinez said in a statement separate from her registration letter,
The California/Hawaii State Conference of the NAACP and the Los Angeles Branch of the organization are asking the city to investigate “how far the racial animus has impacted hiring and other decisions of the City Council,” they said in a joint statement, The Los Angeles Times reported. “We will not sit idly by and allow our elected representatives to engage in these kinds of disgusting and racist behaviors,” said Latricia Mitchell, president of the Los Angeles branch of the NAACP. Photo: Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez at podium, and Mayor Eric Garcetti, right, attend a news conference in Los Angeles on April 1, 2022. The three Los Angeles City Council members at the center of a scandal over a recording of racist comments have each had long, influential careers in state and local politics. Now, those careers could soon come to an abrupt end as Martinez, Kevin de Leon, and Gil Cedillo face enormous pressure to resign — including from President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
