Black, Brown, Yellow, and Left: Radical Activism in Los Angeles (review)

Dr. Laura Pulido's book illuminates important historical theories about the "Third World Left" in Los Angeles from the 1960s to the 1990s. She exams three major groups, the Black Panther Party, 1966–1971, the Center for Autonomous Social Action (CASA), 1972–1990, of Mexican Americans and Asians in East Wind, 1972–1990. Pulido argues that racial hierarchies were dynamic and groups moved up or down the hierarchy from the 1930s to the 1990s with whites always dominant.

Pre–World War II Los Angeles whites ranked at the top followed by Asians, Mexicans, and blacks until Japanese Americans were rounded up and put in concentration camps after Pearl Harbor. Mexicans, followed by blacks, rose a notch because of labor shortages. However, Pulido failed to mention the impact of the Zoot suit riots of 1943 against Mexicans. Eduardo O. Pagan's Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, & Riot in Wartime L. A. (2003) comes to mind.

Pulido notes that the Watts Riot in 1965 caused violent repression by police and the John McCone Commission praised Mexican Americans for not rioting and demanded their inclusion in the War on Poverty. However, the August 29, 1970, Chicano Moratorium march of 20 to 30,000 against the Vietnam War was broken up by violent repression by the LAPD.

In 1988, Ronald Reagan apologized and awarded $20,000 in reparations for the incarceration of Japanese from 1942 to 1945. East Wind played a vital role in this outcome and Japanese status soared. In the Rodney King incident and subsequent massive 1992 riot, blacks and Hispanics rioted in large numbers. The riot revealed a deep chasm between Korean merchants and blacks and Hispanics who looted and burned.

In 1994, California's Proposition 187 was on the ballot to deny education, health care, and welfare to undocumented workers. Los Angeles Asians voted 57% for it and blacks 56% and Latinos 31%. Interethnic tensions were mushrooming over jobs, housing, political power and ethnic hierarchy.

The mayoralty race in 2001 between James Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa led most blacks to vote for Hahn. Blacks reversed themselves in the next election and a black and Mexican alliance elected Villaraigosa.

Finally, Pulido argues for a viable Third World Left in Los Angeles. However, Nicolas C. Vaca's The Presumed Alliance: The Unspoken Conflict between Latinos and Blacks and What It Means for America (2004) reveals deep fissures between the two groups. Even more ominous is Tony Rafael's The Mexican Mafia (2007) that is involved in race war in the prisons and declared a form of ethnic cleansing of blacks from Mexican neighborhoods. Also, the alliance between Mayor Villaraigosa and black leaders is near collapse. Larry Aubrey in the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper asked: "Mayor Villaraigosa: What About Black Students?" (Oct. 11, 2007, p. A-7) and Dr. Anthony Samad wrote: "Mayor Villaraigosa, It's Time to Ask the Question: Are You Friend or Foe to the Black Community," (Oct. 11, 2007, p. A-7). Will these ethnic liberals draw their criminal classes into the fray?

Urban-ethnic scholars must read Dr. Laura Pulido's book.