Brothers and Sisters,
Something quite weird happened yesterday.
In Thursday’s published Los Angeles Sentinel, the front page is adorned with a color, above-the-fold puff piece on Metro’s behind-schedule and over-budget Crenshaw-LAX Line (that still does not have the 11-block tunnel in Park Mesa Heights the community requested for years.
This was followed by a full-page color “Letter to the Community” from the Metro CEO on the inside cover front page, and a full-page color “Yes on M” ad (Metro’s half-cent tax increase that has nothing for black communities).
The weekly column by black leader activist Larry Aubry outlined why black leaders, including the Black Community Clergy & Labor Alliance, Ron Hasson of the NAACP, Pastor William Smart, Dr. Melina Abdullah, Greg Akili, former City Council member Bob Farrell, the Crenshaw Subway Coalition and many others are opposed to Measure M.
He titled the piece: “Measure M: Robin Hood in Reverse & Racist.”
In addition to outlining how Metro’s Measure M was racist, regressive and had nothing in it for South L.A., Mr. Aubry called out County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and Mayor Garcetti.
Specifically, he cited Mr. Ridley-Thomas for his failed representation of the Crenshaw community on the MTA board as “Exhibit ‘A” of Metro’s disregard and disrespect for the black community:
“Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa or under current Mayor Eric Garcetti and County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, the LACMTA board has consistently ignored the community’s request [for the Park Mesa Heights tunnel].
“Each time, the LACMTA board has said they lacked resources, seemingly expecting black people to ignore the board’s consistent appropriation of additional public dollars into other projects in other areas. And in 2013, when 3 of the 4 bidders for the construction contract requested that they be allowed to give the community what it requested – the 11-block tunnel (including one which said it could be done for just $60 million) the LACMTA staff rejected the bidders’ request and Mark Ridley-Thomas stood silent.
“To add insult to injury, the LACMTA board gave the large construction contract to the one bidder that did not request to bid the tunnel: Walsh-Shea Corridor Contractors.
“The LACMTA board, including Mark Ridley-Thomas’s refusal to allow the contractors to bid the Park Mesa Heights tunnel in 2013, is in itself is worthy of a grand jury investigation. “But the absence of representation for South L.A. on the LACMTA board by Ridley-Thomas and Mayor Garcetti and his predecessor Villaraigosa is reflective of the current challenge we have with deficient representation and our inability to hold them accountable.
“If the Pico community wanted an 11-block subway to maintain the Jewish business corridor or the Armenian community wanted an 11-block subway to maintain their business corridor in Glendale, would their respective representative on the LACMTA board be allowed to be anything but a champion for the cause? Yet not once in the past five years, with two ballot measures proposed and dozens of new appropriations provided to LACMTA has Ridley- Thomas or the Mayor ever made a peep about the Park Mesa Heights tunnel.”
Finally, on the pages of a black weekly, the truth was put in print about Mr. Ridley-Thomas’s betrayal of the Crenshaw community on the Crenshaw-LAX Line.
I say that as the person who has led the effort for over 8 years. (And in case anyone dare question my characterization of his failed leadership and how Mr. Ridley-Thomas for years consistently passed up opportunities to make the tunnel possible, I only have four words: I have the receipts!).
Mr. Aubry, along with about 300 others were in the audience when Mr. Ridley-Thomas refused to request the contractors be allowed to bid the Park Mesa Heights tunnel, and he has received regular reports from yours truly at the General Assembly of the Black Community Clergy & Labor Alliance on the project.
Nonetheless, I received a Google alert for Mr. Aubry’s column. When an article is posted with a particular phrase, Google sends an alert directly to my inbox. In this case the phrase is “Measure M.” The link to Mr. Aubry’s column was live on the Sentinel’s website when I clicked on it at about 2:15 Thursday. It actually showed up on the front page of the Sentinel’s website. But less than 2 hours after the Google alert went out, the article was no longer on the Sentinel’s website. Go ahead and click on the link to check it out yourself. You’ll get the message “The page you are looking for could not be found.”: https://lasentinel.net/lacmtas-measure-m-robin-hood-in-reverse-racist.html
Frankly, folks, for good reason, I am suspicious. Despite the fact that the Sentinel was emailed a press release with quotes from numerous black leaders opposed to Measure M right outside the Garcetti/Ridley-Thomas’ press conference with a handful of black leaders promoting “M” not a word about the opposing view was mentioned in their article on the press conference. The press release was hand-delivered to the Sentinel writer at the very press conference. (Comparatively, the L.A. Wave, which received the same press release solely via email, ran a balanced article that responsibly included the opposing view in an article appropriately titled: Black Voters Divided on Measure M … A more accurate title is, “Handful of Black elite out of step with Black community leaders”, but I digress.)
Now I know Metro and Yes on M has been paying heavily for ads in the Sentinel and some other black publications/media outlets. It is what they do: Promise black people jobs that we never get — tell us not to believe our lying eyes on projects like the Crenshaw Line, where 15 percent black hire in a community that is 68 percent black is called “success” – get a few black leaders who they’ve paid off to tell us how great what they want to do is, and sell it to the community. But did someone put in a call when they got the Google alert and demand Mr. Aubry’s column be taken off the Sentinel website? Would they really attempt to censor a community leader and icon like Larry Aubry?
I recall vividly a time not that long ago when a prominent black columnist used his/her allotted weekly words to criticize Mr. Ridley-Thomas. A little over two years ago Betty Pleasant’s Soulvine columns (which were always the most read online story for the L.A. Wave) were censored by that paper’s editor/publishers when she decided to shine a light on the smear campaign Mr. Ridley-Thomas ran against Dr. George McKenna: link. She ended up being pushed out of the L.A. Wave.
On my way home, I inconspicuously walked into the Sentinel’s headquarters at about 4:45. I first wanted to secure a print version of the Sentinel just in case someone would pay to go to the extreme of giving the edition with Mr. Aubry’s critical words about Metro the “Fahrenheit 451 treatment.” (It has happened before with other publications!)
I limited my conversation to the front desk, and calmly and innocently asked, “Is there a reason the Aubry column was taken off the Sentinel’s website?” I was told that happens regularly (huh?), but then pointed out after looking on my phone that the other columns and stories still were up on the website. I was then told that the article would be put back up. It hasn’t returned.
Maybe Mr. Aubry’s column will return to the Sentinel’s website. Maybe it won’t. Maybe it’ll return the day after Election Day. Who knows?
Regardless, I’ve attached the cached version of the web address, which shows that at one point yesterday the article was actually on the Sentinel’s page (“the internets” got the receipts!)
We also have posted Aubry’s column on the No on M website at: www.noforevertax.com/aubrymracist
And I just shared it in the Crenshaw Subway Coalition Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crenshawsubway/permalink/1449832825046284
We want to make sure that those searching for the column, who are perplexed why it no longer can be found, can read it, for no other reason than Larry Aubry’s words should always be easily available.
Be sure to read it and share this email and the Facebook post widely.
All the best,
Damien Goodmon
Speaking for myself only
BCC: My 500 closest friends
Mr. Goodmon, prominent community leader, may be contacted at damienwg@gmail.com