By Melina Abdullah
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass broke my heart. Like my divorce, I knew it was coming but clung to the notion that no one would actually do that to someone who loved them.
And I mean love them. Karen Bass used to be progressive. I’ve known her since 1996, when the Community Coalition that she founded was the cutting edge and she was unabashed about the resources that were needed for South Los Angeles. Nineteen years her junior, I looked up to her. We shared more meals than I can count, planned travel together, laughed about children, whispered about partners. I was part of the small group pulled together when Karen considered a City Council run and one of those who consoled her when her father died. My heart still breaks over the tragic loss of her daughter, Emilia. She graced my classrooms at West LA College and Cal State LA and helped develop the curriculum for the Black women’s leadership institute at USC that emerged out of my dissertation. I love Karen from a place that is not theoretical, but nurtured and built.
I didn’t always agree with every position that she took, but we engaged in principled struggle to address disagreements, to serve on the keynote panel for the Congressional Black Caucus in 2016. (I’m sure she was disappointed when I made the point: “If the Democrats want our vote, they should run better candidates.)
In 2020, the Congresswoman went on national news to call #DefundThePolice “one of the worst slogans ever.” She phoned me immediately to apologize, an offering that I – like a love-starved partner – quickly accepted.
We remained conciliatory. There was never a BLM-led protest at the Mayor’s mansion, a daily occurrence during the latter years of the Garcetti administration. Never have we directly targeted her…only loving “call ins.”
Sadly, it seems that Mayor Bass has resigned herself to the position of so many former progressives…that maintaining their own position is the priority. Here’s the truth…we don’t need her, or any of them, in the position if they are going to do the bidding of the police that continue to kill and harm communities in record numbers. In fact, it’s worse in some ways when the oppression and abuse of our community comes with a smiling face. To be clear, I am staunchly opposed to a Caruso or even a Beutner mayoralty. I am appreciative that Bass gives rhetorical support to those who are most targeted by ICE. However, there is a reason that a small group of young Black Angelenos went to her house in recent weeks. She called them a threat when they said they might not vote for her if she doesn’t support calls for meaningful public safety reform. I call them courageous. This is a call for Mayor Bass to match that courage and return to the progressive values that she once advanced. For voters, we must also be courageous.
Dr. Melina Abdullah is Professor of Pan-African Studies at Cal State LA and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Grassroots and Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles.