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| The Most Ridiculous Part of the L.A. City Council President’s Apology | The Most Ridiculous Part of the L.A. City Council President’s Apology |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| Nury Martinez, the disgraced former president of the Los Angeles City Council, said that there were “no excuses” for the racist remarks that she made in a leaked audio recording that has outraged residents of the city and appalled people far and wide. She got that much right. Referring to a fellow Council member’s Black child as a little monkey is purely and unequivocally vile. | Nury Martinez, the disgraced former president of the Los Angeles City Council, said that there were “no excuses” for the racist remarks that she made in a leaked audio recording that has outraged residents of the city and appalled people far and wide. She got that much right. Referring to a fellow Council member’s Black child as a little monkey is purely and unequivocally vile. |
| She said that she was sorry, and she should be, though I always wonder: Sorry for the hate she felt and hurt she caused, or sorry that she’s now in a world of hurt herself? | She said that she was sorry, and she should be, though I always wonder: Sorry for the hate she felt and hurt she caused, or sorry that she’s now in a world of hurt herself? |
| But Martinez, in her necessary apology, also said something ludicrous — ludicrous but telling. “As a mother,” she confessed, “I know better.” | But Martinez, in her necessary apology, also said something ludicrous — ludicrous but telling. “As a mother,” she confessed, “I know better.” |
| As a mother? | As a mother? |
| I’m not a mother. I’m not a father, either. But, miraculously, I too know better. And I’m both amused and offended by the notion that having a child typically bestows on someone a greater sensitivity and a keener conscience. If that were the case, this world would be in significantly better shape than it is. It’s chockablock with parents — you can’t throw a binky without hitting one — and somehow bigotry and cruelty are doing just fine. | I’m not a mother. I’m not a father, either. But, miraculously, I too know better. And I’m both amused and offended by the notion that having a child typically bestows on someone a greater sensitivity and a keener conscience. If that were the case, this world would be in significantly better shape than it is. It’s chockablock with parents — you can’t throw a binky without hitting one — and somehow bigotry and cruelty are doing just fine. |
| The statement by Martinez, who resigned from the Council on Wednesday amid a national uproar over her remarks, invoked yet another popular but debatable idea, which is that women in general and women leaders in particular aren’t as reflexively and gratuitously divisive as men. That they’re more instinctive uniters, more natural nurturers — and as such, demonstrate greater concern for the welfare of future generations. | |
| Martinez, after all, didn’t say “as a parent.” She specified her gender, and in doing so promoted a gendered if women-flattering conceit. It’s a conceit that, I admit, I buy into. I indeed think that we’d be well served with more women in leadership roles, in both the public and the private sectors, and not just as a matter of representation. | Martinez, after all, didn’t say “as a parent.” She specified her gender, and in doing so promoted a gendered if women-flattering conceit. It’s a conceit that, I admit, I buy into. I indeed think that we’d be well served with more women in leadership roles, in both the public and the private sectors, and not just as a matter of representation. |
| But I also think that our discussions about this can be softheaded and our analysis of the evidence selective. When we in the media admire a prime minister who’s a woman (Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, Sanna Marin in Finland) we often cast her as a parable of women’s untapped potential. When we don’t (Liz Truss in Britain, Giorgia Meloni in Italy), we tend to shy away from such grand generalizations. | But I also think that our discussions about this can be softheaded and our analysis of the evidence selective. When we in the media admire a prime minister who’s a woman (Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, Sanna Marin in Finland) we often cast her as a parable of women’s untapped potential. When we don’t (Liz Truss in Britain, Giorgia Meloni in Italy), we tend to shy away from such grand generalizations. |
| Martinez’s racist remarks occurred in a meeting last year with three men: Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, who served with her on the City Council, and Ron Herrera, who was the head of a powerful local labor organization. It’s not yet known who made and released the recording, but after The Los Angeles Times published an article about it on Sunday, Martinez stepped down as Council president — though not as a Council member — and then announced a leave of absence. That did little to quell public rage, which led to her quitting the Council altogether. Herrera also resigned from his post. There are widespread calls, including from President Biden, for Cedillo and de León to resign from theirs as well. | |
| The whole sordid episode speaks to the prevalence and perniciousness of racism, even among people of color — Martinez was the first Latina Council president — and even among members of the same ethnic group. In the recording, Martinez referred to Oaxacan immigrants from Mexico as “little short dark people.” | The whole sordid episode speaks to the prevalence and perniciousness of racism, even among people of color — Martinez was the first Latina Council president — and even among members of the same ethnic group. In the recording, Martinez referred to Oaxacan immigrants from Mexico as “little short dark people.” |
| As we know but too often overlook, racism comes from every corner of society, in all shapes and stripes and sizes. It comes from parents, no matter their responsibility to model ethical behavior for their children and instill decent values in them. The insinuation in Martinez’s apology that parents make some special effort to rise above prejudice and hate will be news to anyone who has watched them fight school integration or denounce gay teachers as “groomers.” | As we know but too often overlook, racism comes from every corner of society, in all shapes and stripes and sizes. It comes from parents, no matter their responsibility to model ethical behavior for their children and instill decent values in them. The insinuation in Martinez’s apology that parents make some special effort to rise above prejudice and hate will be news to anyone who has watched them fight school integration or denounce gay teachers as “groomers.” |
| And the suggestion that women are inclined to empathy edits a great many of them and big chunks of history out of the picture. | And the suggestion that women are inclined to empathy edits a great many of them and big chunks of history out of the picture. |
| “There’s no reason to expect women to be less bigoted than men,” the historian Linda Gordon said in a 2018 article in Mic by Jack Smith about her book “The Second Coming of the K.K.K.,” which notes the role of women in that hate group’s resurgence in the 1920s. The headline on the article: “Why Women Have Always Been Essential to White Supremacist Movements.” | |
| In Air Mail this month, George Pendle wrote that Italy’s Meloni “is the most spectacular example of a recent trend in European politics in which charismatic women have taken the reins of far-right political parties and led them to increasing legitimacy. Just look at Marine Le Pen in France, Alice Weidel in Germany, Pia Kjaersgaard in Denmark or Siv Jensen in Norway.” Pendle mentioned in particular the “rather worrying obsession with what Weidel calls ‘genetic unity.’” | In Air Mail this month, George Pendle wrote that Italy’s Meloni “is the most spectacular example of a recent trend in European politics in which charismatic women have taken the reins of far-right political parties and led them to increasing legitimacy. Just look at Marine Le Pen in France, Alice Weidel in Germany, Pia Kjaersgaard in Denmark or Siv Jensen in Norway.” Pendle mentioned in particular the “rather worrying obsession with what Weidel calls ‘genetic unity.’” |
| Here in the United States, I’m rather worried by such current members of Congress as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, to name just two women prominent in the MAGA brigade. Greene, by the way, has three children, and Boebert has four, proving that mothers are as mixed a bag as the rest of us. They’re altruists and narcissists, creators and destroyers, openhearted and closed-minded, colorblind and color-conscious. | Here in the United States, I’m rather worried by such current members of Congress as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, to name just two women prominent in the MAGA brigade. Greene, by the way, has three children, and Boebert has four, proving that mothers are as mixed a bag as the rest of us. They’re altruists and narcissists, creators and destroyers, openhearted and closed-minded, colorblind and color-conscious. |
| It’s not because she’s a mother that Martinez should know better than to hurl racist insults. It’s because she’s human. | It’s not because she’s a mother that Martinez should know better than to hurl racist insults. It’s because she’s human. |