PERSPECTIVE ON JOBS : ‘Who Is It That Cries for Us?’

More than any local politician, cleric or neighborhood organizer in recent years, DANNY BAKEWELL, the defiant head of the Brotherhood Crusade, has captured the allegiance of Los Angeles’ inner-city African-Americans and has revived protest as an effective political tool.

His critics, however, say that Bakewell practices racial politics to advance his causes and interests. As an example, some point to his confrontation with a Latino immigrant working to clear wreckage of a store burned during the riots. Bakewell temporarily closed down the job until it employed blacks.

The 45-year-old Bakewell, who has close ties to Mayor Tom Bradley and other prominent African-Americans, has been at the helm of the Brotherhood Crusade for 19 years, building it into one of the nation’s most prestigious black charities. He was interviewed for The Times by staff writer Edward J. Boyer.

Question: Certainly you have heard yourself called a racist because of the confrontations you have led.

Answer: I refuse to apologize for standing up for the interests, dignity and respect of black men, women and children. Look at the reaction of white people in Los Angeles when they gave that contract to build Metro Rail cars to a Japanese firm. These people went crazy. They said, “How can you do that with the economy as bad as it is? With our people being laid off?” They were called loyal Americans.

Now here’s Danny Bakewell saying to insurance companies and white general contractors, “You’re not going to come into this community. You’re not going to take these jobs.” They call me a rabble rouser, a racist.

They said Lee Iacocca ought to run for President when he said, “Give the Japanese nothing. It’s time to think about ourselves.” When I say that black people have to be included or nobody will be, they want to put me in jail.

Q: What message does that widely published photo of you confronting a Latino worker at a job site send?

A: My action was clearly pointed at stopping the job. No responsible Hispanic, no responsible white person, no responsible women activists came on the site and said, “Stop this job. You don’t have any black people.”

Black leaders in the past have felt uncomfortable saying, “I am here in the interest of black people.” When I show up on a site, I am representing the interests of African-American men, women and children. Be real clear. I’m not there to speak for or advocate for other people. OK?

By the same token, that does not mean I am insensitive to the plight of others faced with a similar situation. If people look at that photo and not understand my pain and the pain of black people, then it seems to me that they are not people of goodwill. The system makes room for everybody but us.

Q: Central Los Angeles now has a population more than 40% Latino. Are you saying, “If you don’t live in the community, you don’t work?” Or is it, “If you are not black, you don’t work?”

A: I’m saying if black people don’t work, nobody works. I wouldn’t give a (expletive) if they’re rainbow-colored. If they get self-controlled machinery, it won’t work. Latinos working is not going to feed black children. Koreans working and operating businesses is not going to help black people with jobs, and it’s not going to help us feed our senior citizens. We acknowledge everybody else’s suffering. But who is it that cries for us? Remember that the backdrop of all this is that the city was damned near burned down. We have to be responsible for doing something for ourselves. That’s what I was doing this morning.

Q: What were you doing this morning?

A: I was putting my money where my mouth is. I’ve been in the forefront of saying to insurance companies and businessmen that the black community has to work. I hired B.T. Turner Construction, a black general contractor, to rebuild a small shopping center a company I head owns at 41st and Main streets. It was burned down.

People working there are Hispanic and African-American. We have women working there. We aim to set an example of what needs to be.

Q: Wouldn’t you expect workers at a site being shut down to see that act as being against their interests?

A: We explain to workers that we’re not against their working. But if we can’t work, you can’t work. It’s important to note that after we reached an agreement at the site where the photo was taken, we let the Latino stay on the tractor. We put black people on laborer jobs. We made them subcontract with a black trucking firm. And we let them keep the Asians. So everybody worked on that particular job.

If people are truly honest and decent and they want to let their actions catch up with their rhetoric about this wonderful pluralistic society we ought to have, somebody from the city or the state, or from whoever is providing this money, ought to ensure that black people are on every job.

Q: Does that approach inevitably lead to pitting minorities against one another:

A: The point of conflict is not between minorities. The point of conflict is with the system--with white general contractors and the insurance companies.

I am saying to people who ask what they can do, stop looking out the window and start looking in the mirror. What is happening in construction is happening in the music industry, the unions, city government, in every segment of the economy. Black people are being ignored, displaced and replaced.

The work stoppages are always done with an emphasis on the lawful exercise of one’s constitutional right to peacefully assemble and protest. We have always done it with the utmost sensitivity and compassion for the people working. We’ve always tried to ensure that those people who were working are returned to work. We must include black people if we are to avoid what happened two months ago. But what is showing up is that the system is rotten to the core in terms of its rejection of African-Americans.

Should people who are not African-American be allowed to work on reconstruction in South Los Angeles? An interview with community activist Danny Bakewell.