RESIGN NOW: Demand Racist L.A. City Council Members Step Down
by White People 4 Black Lives
WP4BL is a white anti-racist collective committed to ending white support for “state violence,” defined as “the use of legitimate governmental authority to cause unnecessary harm and suffering to groups, individuals and states.”
The leaked tapes from an October 2021 secret meeting between then-City Council President, Nury Martinez, then-leader of the Los Angeles Labor Federation, Ron Herrera, and still-sitting City Council Members, Gil Cedillo and Kevin De León, was simply that: state violence.
This secret meeting was held to discuss the proposed redistricting maps of the city’s 15 council districts with a clear intention to strip Black people of their political power. In addition, the attendees’ anti-Black racist remarks were abhorrent and have caused immense harm to the people they purport to represent, and to people all around the world.
Therefore, as members of this collective, it is our responsibility to speak out in this critical moment. Anything less sanctions this act of violence and allows corruption in our City Council to continue unchecked in the future. We must use our voices and our bodies to answer the calls to action today, tomorrow, and until Gil Cedillo and Kevin De León resign.
It is also essential in this moment for white folks to remember that this corruption hurts us all and that it is not the obligation of Black & Brown people to do this work for all of us, alone. None of us are free until we are all free. And when we fight, we win.
CALLS TO ACTION:
To start:
Call and email the offices of Gil Cedillo and Kevin De León and demand they “Resign Now!”
Call your own Councilmember and tell them, “No Council meetings until Kevin & Gil are out!”
- Find your LA City Councilmember here: https://neighborhoodinfo.lacity.org/
- For more on what to say: https://jlanow.org/cancelcc
Want to do more?
Post these directives to your own socials. Use the hashtag #ResignNow
Text 5 friends and ask them to make calls and send emails with you.
Ready to make a bigger impact?
Show up at City Council Meetings (in person, virtually or on the phone) and make public comment, demanding both their resignations, and that the other members of the City Council back their supposed support for these resignations with action, by refusing to continue with business as usual until Kevin & Gil resign!
Follow Stop LAPD Spying on Twitter for the latest calls to action, including demands that City Council not meet until Kevin and Gil resign.
And, follow BLMLA for updates on Twitter and Instagram.
This piece was written as a collaborative effort by members of White People 4 Black Lives. WP4BL is a white anti-racist collective and activist project of the Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere (AWARE-LA) and operates within a national network of white anti-racists called Showing Up for Racial Justice. WP4BL is rooted in acting in solidarity with Black Lives Matter: Los Angeles. Visit www.awarela.org and follow us @wp4bl.
