So … this is the room where it happens. Not nearly as attractive as Aaron Burr described it in "Hamilton." In fact — judging from the leaked audio from a 2021 meeting among Los Angeles City Council members Gil Cedillo, Kevin de León and Nury Martinez — the room where it happens is probably the ugliest place in politics.
But it can also be quite revealing. Here's where things get really uncomfortable. The meeting was about power. The offensive language displays these politicians' thoughts about who they wanted to take power from.
It was Martinez who called Oaxacans "ugly," referred to her out gay colleague Mike Bonin as a "bitch" and described Bonin's Black son as a "monkey" — and yet the fact that those comments went unchallenged says a lot about everyone else in the room. It's hard to imagine her saying these things unless Cedillo and de León provided the environment in which such sentiments seemed OK.
