Wednesday’s redistricting meeting closed with several White residents defending that they were not racist. It is still unclear who lodged the claim they rebutted. The entire night, however, was rife with passion, frequent outbursts from the public and heated exchanges between Redistricting Commissioners.
But what brought down the house was a 6th District resident's joke about Joe Jost's that brought into focus both our city's profound racial tensions as well as our shared humanity. Click here to skip to the "Joe Jost's Joke".
The sum of the matter is that Long Beach diversity is on public trial.
On one hand is the utopian viewpoint that Long Beach is a diverse melting pot. On the other is the thinly veiled exercise of carving out District boundaries based mainly on class and color.
But what drawing redistricting lines has revealed is that while Long Beach may be a pot full of diversity, the residents are hardly melted. In fact, if the most vocal community members have their way, Long Beach Districts will be more recognizable by their racial or ethnic makeup than anything else. Is it progress or a step backwards?
I’m not sure.
What I can tell you, is that whether residents know it or not we have made an unspoken agreement with our neighbors. That agreement is that we are okay with racial segregation so long as we all have a say in the racial boundaries.
More than 25 years ago my parents crossed a Long Beach color boundary and purchased a home in Los Altos. For years we were the only Black family on the block and several other blocks in every direction. All these years later, last I checked, we still are. The home was a fixer-upper. Our dad swiftly put us to work doing just that - fixing her up. A few years in and my brother and I were expert painters and could meticulously manicure the sod we had also installed.
While we lived in a “White neighborhood” the Black community in Central Long Beach was also a part of our world in a way that our neighbors likely couldn't relate. My brother and I got our hair cut on the weekends at “Bobby Neal’s”. West Coast rap artist Warren G. would frequently come in for a fresh cut. Neal’s was a Black owned 6th District barber shop.
Aside from a close fade, Central Long Beach was also where we’d visit family members. They too were Black homeowners. During the summer months we’d spend days in the 6th District working alongside my uncle. He was one of few Black general contractors in Long Beach.
In the most literal terms, I am a black person living in a White District. During the redistricting meeting most white residents, sweepingly termed “Eastsiders”, sat on the right side of the Civic Chambers while most minorities sat on the left side. Not sure where I fit in, I sat on the floor.
The reality of segregation squarely came into frame during a rather heated exchange between Commissioners Scott, a Black woman, and Oritz Licon a Latina.
The exchange was ignited when the Commission’s chair remarked, “I will not be comfortable moving anything forward without the unification of [Wrigley] neighborhoods.”
Commissioner Scott replied, “Shifting borders for the Wrigley community is going to exacerbate existing problems in the the other districts.” Nearly 6 Hours later and with only a single map voted to move forward, Scott’s prophecy proved true. But not before meeting a scathing rebuke.
Commissioner Licon protested that the mindset of some commissioners was so “fixed” against equitable mapping that “we are okay with leaving the Eastside intact but continue disenfranchising” Districts 7 and 1.
In other words, unless Wrigley was redistricted in step with Centro CHA’s “Equity Map”, Latino voters were being disenfranchised while historically White districts got better treatment.
“I’m a little shocked!” Scott responded. “If your neighborhood is preserved and not split up but its coupled with a neighborhood you don’t like that’s a problem? Because the city I grew up in appreciated having a diverse neighborhood,” Scott challenged. Commissioner Scott went on to list all of the various ethnicities that comprised the area of Long Beach during her childhood. It sounded like the United Nations beside the Queen Mary.
Scott followed up with the hypothesis, “Are we trying to self segregate? Whats going on?”
Commissioner Licon would later accuse an anonymous speaker with having referred to Latino areas of the Westside as “trash”.
Like it or not, redistricting in Long Beach this year has often been a crude exercise in carefully carving out communities along racial lines. Sometimes blurry lines. And as one Bixby Knolls resident commented around 1AM Wednsday morning,“ It feels like surgery with a scalpel…” She paused, “but without anesthesia.”
First, let me point out that it’s unlawful to use race as the only criteria for drawing a District. Time after time, City staff remind neighbors of this at the start of redistricting meetings. But then, in a matter of minutes, that veiled attempt at racial neutrality is quickly over-run.
The racial language is subtle at first but if you listen long enough you begin to hear its unmistakable undertone. The most subtle are terms like “communities of interest”, “shared socio-economics” and “keeping neighborhoods together”. Nearly every time these race-neutral buzz words are uttered, the true objective is a carve-out for one racial group versus another.
Black and Cambodian Lines
The term “historically Black Community” is used to describe swaths of the 6th District. Several of the first Black Christian congregations formed the epicenter here of what would become Black neighborhoods in Central Long Beach.
The term “Cambodian Community” has been used to describe neighborhoods inside the 6th District where Cambodian refugees congregated after fleeing their native country under threat of cruelty and annihilation. Naturally, the overlap between the Black and Cambodian community’s rightful claim to the 6th District has led to difficult choices in redrawing district boundaries.
Ultimately, the true nature of the 6th district boundary dispute falls along racial and ethnic lines. Simply put, will there be enough Cambodian voters to elect and re-elect a Cambodian representative? Or alternatively, will there be enough Black voters left within the new 6th District boundary to elect and re-elect a Black Council person?
Latin Lines
While the language is slightly nuanced, where lines are being drawn in other districts the same sort of racial contests are playing out.
For instance, there is the term “Latinos on the Westside”. Another community of interest where most talks have centered around the present day 1st and 7th District. Among this group is a particular interest in capturing the voting power of a growing number of Latino homeowners in the Wrigley areas. Like Backs or Cambodians in the 6th District, these districts too want lines drawn in a manner that assures that Latino Council persons have the best chance at winning elections.
White Lines
Different from Latinos, Blacks and Cambodians, residents from largely white neighborhoods shied away from clearly aligning themselves with any identity group. So much so that several neighbors in the Bluff Park would quickly reference being LGBTQ only to retract the identity and claim that their standing as a community of interest was mostly based on the fact that their homes were historic. The same neighborhood wielded posters featuring a rainbow colored heart.
One Eastside resident referenced he and his partners sexuality sarcastically and only to make the point that it hardly mattered. Other non-white Eastside residents made the case that they were living proof that their community was more than a white enclave of Long Beach. They generally touted an immigrant story of poverty, hard work and sacrifice.
But in a room full of progressive politics, it made sense why predominantly whiter and more affluent residents danced around identity and race. Anything less would have been bad for optics. Their part of the City is nicer, cleaner and safer. Their chief concerns at redistricting were airport noise, historic homes and proximity to the coast for water sports. While they have a legitimate a right to protect their community’s interest it was a smart move to tread lightly since other districts’ concerns included big moral items substantial air pollution and staggering shooting rates.
When talking about Whites the politically correct terms don’t refer to color at all. White neighbors are sweepingly called “Eastsiders” by non-whites. Eastside residents, however, tend to refer to themselves simply by the specific names of their communities or by the catch-all "Coastal Communities" when it applies. Still, any Long Beach native is distinctly aware that neighborhoods such as Bixby Knolls, Bluff Park or Cal Heights are predominantly white and often more affluent.
Like Cambodians, Latinos and Blacks, residents from these districts plead with Commissioners not to divide their communities.
And therein lies the irony. Each community - whether they admit it or not - says they value not being divided from people that look like them. While at the same time, meticulously drawing lines to preserve historical divisions from people that don’t look like them. Underlying it all is the presumption - however true - that Black voters will vote for Black candidates. White voters will vote for White candidates… I think you see where this is going.
What wasn't considered is whether an elected official could fairly serve a district where the majority of residents don't share the same color skin.
Let's take, for instance, the second largest population of Latinos in Long Beach. They reside in the 9th District. For more than a decade this district has elected a Black person to council. Under Vice Mayor Rex Richardson, the 9th District has seen several successes in infrastructure especially.
Compare that with the 1st District where after years of Latino leadership it still has the City's highest shooting and fatality rate. It's current Councilmember was recently told during an infrastructure Committee meeting that the reason her most dangerous community doesn't have funding for a much-needed Community Center is because she had not done the work to submit a shovel-ready project.
Taken side-by-side, these are two districts with the greatest Latino populations in the city. One is represented by a Black man and the other a Latina. But what both politicians also share is that while more Latinos reside in their districts than any others in Long Beach they also have the poorest voter turnout. So while Commissioner Licon throws charges of "voter disenfranchisement", even redistricting commissioners couldn't draw a more Latino favored map than already exist in the 9th District where Rex Richardson handily wins office.
Perhaps that truth is that we can carve voters on a map but we can't make them vote.
Then there is the looming question of the quality of the candidates. When we peel back skin color, in most cases, the same corporate lobby interest funds Latino, Black, Cambodian and White elected officials in Long Beach alike. Not to mention that nearly every vote on Council is passed with all 9 Council members voting yes.
These are hardly motivating factors to get out the vote.
After public comment, the floor was given back to Commissioners to deliberate on what maps would move forward to the next meeting scheduled for November 10. Only one map passed the vote. It was the map most favored by Latinos and Blacks. It was the map least favored by Whites and Cambodians.
Some Commissioners went into a frenzy when their favored map failed to gain sufficient votes. A member of the public yelled, “Who voted no?” The City Attorney was called on for counsel. Two Commissioners openly feuded over whose motion should be heard first. After failed a vote the second time, Commissioners were pressured to explain the rationale for their votes. They obliged.
Although not their first choice, the chosen map did satisfy the bulk of Eastsiders' demands. For the most vocal Eastsiders the sticking point was the airport. Instead of having four districts touch the Airport, the new map fused several neighborhoods that wanted a stake in the Airport into a single district that touches the Airports footprint. The 5th District. A move that could prove troublesome for incumbent Stacy Rose Mungo who took political beatings for her support of Airport expansion.
For Eastsiders in the Coastal Communities this map still puts some of their neighborhoods outside of present-day district 3. However, Commissioner Josias Gonzalez seems to have found a path to deliver on their ask as well.
Speaking on behalf of Long Beach’s Cambodian community, Attorney Marc Coleman remarked, “Cambodian residents do not support maps that cut their community off at Junipero. The map should continue on for a few more blocks. At least to Orizaba.” Coleman went on to defend that the boundary lines he proposes “have nothing in common with beach communities or the 2nd District.” In fact, those blocks are “historically, ethnically and financially connected to the Anaheim corridor,” Coleman declared.
Senay Kenfe, a strong critic of the boundaries demanded by Cambodian redistricting allies, says that the numbers do not support what Cambodians are asking for.
“It makes no sense for the 6th District to go so far East. We have never been a part of Zaferia,” Kenfe explained. “That is an area that trended historically White and is now Latino. If you go to Orizaba park there are few if any Black or Cambodian people there but it is a majority latino area which is why it should be a part of the fourth District.”
A 6th District business owner, Kenfe is a ‘numbers guy’ and says he’s poured over the data. “As a metric, the ethnic makeup of schools that serve the area that Cambodian consultants want to add doesn’t reflect either Black or Cambodian communities of interest in the 6th District," Kenfe argues.
While most public comments refrain from disclosing their naked intentions, Kenfe is an anomaly. Usually donning shades and cornrows, Kenfe is publicly intent on drawing 6 District boundaries that will lead to Black residents having the best chance of electing a Black council person. “We are making hard decisions and concessions with every community so that everyone gets a piece of the pie. But We gotta get a piece of the pie.”
While perhaps more outspoken, in this arena Kenfe is no different than most everyone involved in redistricting Long Beach. Like Latinos and Cambodians he is there pushing lines for the identity group to which he belongs. And while Long Beach Eastsiders may pat themselves on the back for not playing the race-card at Wednesday night’s redistricting meeting, there was a rare moment of tragic comedy that spoke volumes about the real boundaries of Long Beach diversity.
The Joe Jost's Joke
A Commissioner was redrawing a line in the 6th District. The district is historically Black. The City’s consultant uses a live mapping software tool so the audience can watch the renderings take shape in real time. The line moved the 6th District boundary east to Anaheim. Founded in 1925, a popular local pub called Joe Jost’s rest on Anaheim's Eastside and is wildly popular among Whites. It’s common to see White locals wearing the popular Joe Jost’s T-shirts like a badge of honor.
Out of nowhere, Senay Kenfe’s voice rings out, “They don’t want us in Joe Jost’s.” Most everyone in the Civic Chamber knows that Kenfe is a Black leader in the 6th District.
The Civic Chamber erupted in a well-deserved and sustained belly of laughter. Most of us knew that a Black man walking into Joe Jost’s was about as unlikely as a White guy walking into Bobby Neal’s for a fresh fade in the 90’s. Kenfe’s humor had struck a core because he had spontaneously centered on a truth none of us could deny.
No matter how politically correct our progressive language, we had assembled not as a loving community but as segregationists intent on drawing lines that revealed more about our shared prejudice than our shared diversity.
A truth so pungent that the only thing left to do was laugh out lout loud to refrain from crying.
I laughed too. But for a different reason. I’d been to Joe Jost’s. I was invited by friends. Yes, they were white. And no, I don’t remember another Black person being there other than myself.
The next Long Beach Redistricting meeting is Wednesday November 10.