Eventually members of the African-American (Black) community will stop electing people just because we share the same skin color or because our Black electeds tell us to. We need people in office who care about real issues that go beyond getting a check. The more I have become involved in politics and learn more of the true inner workings of campaigns, Black people are leveraged for their voting power and failure to think on their own. This became crystal clear at a press conference held today in front of the LA Sentinel Newspaper owned by Danny Bakewell. It also means our front lawns could be littered with free copies of the LA Sentinel in support of their preferred gubernatorial candidate. We always conveniently get them when there’s something in it for him.
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Despite my personal opinions on the way Bakewell pimped Inglewood Unified School District (IUSD) for the shotty work his company did building a few schools, I was invited to watch a press conference I knew nothing about.
Related: Poor Danny Bakewell Sr…NOT
What I noticed was LA County’s black electeds came out in “full force” to pledge their support to gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa.
I began watching as Compton Mayor Aja Brown was at the podium. She mispronounced Villaraigosa’s name two times. TWICE. Her voice was also quite shaky as though she was being forced to be there.
Related: Black Voters Need More Convincing From Democrats In 2018
Two years ago I was due to work on the campaign of Congresswoman Nanette Barragan but an elected official threatened to have me fired from my job if I didn’t support then Sen. Isadore Hall and in his words “betray the Black community because he was gonna win”. I also had to accept a lesser payment. In the end Barragan won.
I was furious that I compromised myself for a job I no longer have. But more so, that I was threatened in the process.
Villaraigosa began gentrification in the city of Los Angeles when he announced Angelenos didn’t need backyards and Downtown Los Angeles should mirror New York. His reasoning was that New Yorkers enjoy a great quality of life without yards and we could too. Now Downtown Los Angeles is full of high-rise buildings on top of former parking lots. They are trying to force us onto the trains. He served a good amount of time on the Metro board while mayor.
Villaraigosa also pledged to end gridlock on the I-110 freeway. Instead he ushered in more. LA County Metro hijacked the carpool lanes and misled the public on it being temporary. I worked for the South Bay Cities Council of Governments (SBCCOG) and was the “Black” face of the Metro Express Lanes project. Working alongside Metro bigwigs our job was to convince the public to purchase transponders to use the lanes and increase vanpool usage. The leader of the SBCCOG then went behind the publics back and got Rancho Palos Verdes to threaten not to use the lanes and ultimately they were successful in reducing the revenue outlying cities along the I-110 would receive to repair our roads.
Measure R and Measure R2 will again circumvent funds from our community to displace and outprice us in favor of the expansion of the rail. I recently sent an email of outrage to Inglewood Councilman Ralph Franklin, who doubles as the Metro South Bay Service Council Chair, that the latest round of transportation funding will go to sync street lights in preparation of the NFL coming to town.
Had Villaraigosa fixed our transportation ails he would’ve been hired under the Obama Administration as Transportation Secretary. He didn’t.
He is part of the machine that uses Black people for political gain and those surrounding him today had to bring in a hefty campaign check for doing so. They were paid for their support. Whether it be actual compensation or a promise to support (fund) their next political endeavors.
This doesn’t necessarily mean we need to run to the Republican Party although the current administration has a large amount of support in the Golden State despite his dangerous rhetoric. In essence, the Black electeds use President Trump’s comments to scare us into keeping them in office.
We also saw former LA Councilman Dennis Zine enter the State Assembly race in the valley and that seat is now going to a runoff between a Democrat and Republican.
Up until a huge flush of money from Republicans, one being former Mayor Richard Riordan, in support of Villaraigosa, the LA Times was reporting that Republican candidate John Cox was headed to the number two spot. Mysteriously and miraculously they now report Villaraigosa is number two.
Even farmers in the San Joaquin Valley support Trump despite ICE raiding their farms and deporting their employees.
Related: Raids and tariffs? We’ll take our lumps, say California farmers
I checked in with friend of the blog Joseph Mailander who had this to say on whether Republican’s are gaining ground in the state of California, particularly the Governor’s race.
It could be a “dead cat bounce” – the GOP had nowhere to go but up. One of the things worth analyzing I think is the Congressional races. The Dems chose to make California a battleground for potential pick-ups, but there might have been no possibility of getting any more votes in the districts they are contending in.
If they’re forcing the GOP to defend districts, the GOP is actually investing some strategy in this state. If you look at that map where Orange County is, they did not really support Trump much. That’s going to change with all the sanctuary state cities – that has worked to mobilize those places more strongly for GOP. Somebody went for a particular mobilization strategy, and it worked.
One of the problems I believe for the GOP in the state is going to be who headlines it as a candidate for Governor.
Travis Allen would probably end up damaging the effort. I think Cox would be a little better. But the race might actually be Villaraigosa and Newsom – which I thought would work out best for the GOP, because fewer Dems would be interested in the race in November.
Related: Glendale City Council moves to consolidate local elections with statewide primaries
Our Black leaders are selling us out to remain in their seats of power. That will soon come to an end when Martin and Chapman no longer control elections in the city’s of Compton, Inglewood and everywhere else in LA County next year. LA County will assume that role as head of our elections.
I would implore residents to stop voting for these people because as my buddy Brandale always says, “just because we skinfolk don’t mean we kinfolk”.
Wake up people.
Melissa
2 Comments
Pingback: Letter to the Editor: Black Leaders have short term memory re: Antonio Villaraigosa | 2UrbanGirls - Inglewood, CA based community blog
All I have to say is Amen for this article this is the truth as it relates to Ex Mayor Antonio V Danny Bakewll and our our current elected Black Officials when the Mayor was screwing us Black folks the Elected Black Officials stood silently.
We better not get out and push his A V agenda that doesn’t mean our community well we ought to be tired of being played and bullied by all of them. They all need to go MRT, Karen Bass, and Councilman Dawson, Lets support these issues No Vote!!
The Sentinel promotes all their agendas that mean us no good, he protects them cause they protect him. He has screwed Compton as well and the Mayor of Compton makes no noise about it cause they don’t tell her bad stories . In addition she does business with his Danny Bakewells girl J. Cannick we have got to straighten these wrongs out and continue to put everyone of them on Blast. I m pissed !!