Latino Tries To Get Elected In Compton

The Los Angeles Times wrote an interesting story this week about a Latino who’s been trying like heck to get himself elected to pubic office in Compton, an area that has been heavily African-American for a long time. It’s an interesting story because it comes back to an issue that we can all relate to: Fighting at the bottom between Latinos and African-Americans.

Elias “Elijah” Acevedo has run for city clerk and city council a total of three times and hasn’t won once. He’s 36 and thinks that it will eventually happen because Compton is now two-thirds Latino but a Latino representative has never been elected to city office or the city council. Three Latinas there have filed a lawsuit, suing Compton under the 2001 California Voting Rights Act, alleging that the at-large elections dilute their voting power.

If you ask me, it’s typical divide and conquer. While neither Latinos nor African-Americans can wield large amounts of power, the little bit that is available to them must be squabbled over between groups that are already disenfranchised. So it is in Compton.

What do you think?