‘Progressive’ politicians of color aren’t immune to racism

We are not outraged at the language used by Los Angeles City Council Members Nury Martinez, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ve heard much worse from people closer to us than big city politicians. We are outraged because of who they are and what we expect of them.

Public servants are elected by the people for the people. Surely we expect more from our “progressive” politicians of color because we believe they’ve personally experienced racism and know how painful it can be.

The problem is not with Martinez, who has resigned, de León or Cedillo or the language they used behind what they thought were closed doors.

The problem lies with us thinking, hoping and believing that any city council, school board or housing authority is immune from anti-Blackness.

Those are the very places where anti-Blackness can hide until the recording goes viral.

Those are the places where harmful beliefs turn into destructive policies.

It’s not ironic that those three politicians probably condemned former President Donald Trump and some of his supporters for their racialized rhetoric.

That’s the hypocrisy of antiBlackness, and like politics, it creates some strange bedfellows.

Corey Jackson, San Francisco

Keep S.F. streets open

Regarding “Doggie Diner heads popping up along JFK Drive inside Golden Gate Park”

(Bay Area & Business, Sept. 28): The closure of John F. Kennedy Drive and loss of 1,000 free public parking spaces deprives thousands of elderly and disability-challenged people of reasonable access to Dahlia and Rose Gardens, Conservatory of Flowers, museums and more.

The Chronicle article told us that “there is a project to lure

more people to JFK” that includes installing three 7-foot-tall Doggie Diner heads and “food trucks, places to grab coffee, areas for buskers and even a small beer garden.”

It seems the reports of crowds of children using this roadway are greatly exaggerated.

Just imagine what this project will do to a lovely area including the trash it will generate.

When the Great Highway is closed, nearby residents report that cars and trucks divert onto their narrow streets, idling in gridlock. People going to the beach take residential parking spaces, cross the highway anywhere and scramble up and down the fragile dunes disturbing the nests of endangered birds living there.

Proposition I offers a compromise that would open JFK Drive to cars on certain days and keep the highway open.

Prop. J would render the current closures permanent.

Yes on Prop. I; no on Prop. J.

Get it in writing

Regarding “Official: Breed’s letters were bid to evade city law” (Front Page, Oct. 12): My only regret in voting for Mayor London Breed is that I did not ask her for an undated letter of resignation in exchange for my vote.

Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times Los Angeles City Council Member Kevin de León and then-council President Nury Martinez, shown at an Oct. 4 meeting, were caught on a leaked audio recording making racist comments.