Minor Discord Becomes Major Disharmony in the Key of Ego

The election’s over. Come Monday morning, Jim Hahn, the white lawyer who may turn out to be the last black mayor of Los Angeles for a long time to come, lifts his hand and takes the oath of office. So move along now, as the movie policeman says, there’s nothing to see here.

Not . . . so . . . fast. That old saying about one door opening when another closes? The election has kicked open a very big door. Look to what’s there beyond, you can see a smack-down reevaluation of politics and power brokers in L.A.’s African American neighborhoods.

It’s more than a glib generation gap--younger black voters for Antonio Villaraigosa, older black voters for Hahn--more than the “Jimmy Is Not Kenny” buttons on the pinstripes and the T-shirts of the under-40 Villaraigosa fans at the Crenshaw High mayoral debate.

As so often happens, something fairly minor revved all this up. The parting of the ways between a freelance columnist few Angelenos have heard of, and a monthly African American newspaper most Angelenos don’t read, is now a high spin-cycle story, about the black leadership of Los Angeles and over accusations of “my-way-or-the-highway” politics with those who disagree.

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Najee Ali is a brash practitioner of politicking by press conference. The ex-convict and head of Project Islamic Hope has ably decried police abuse and corporate bias and sundry racism, all classics on the political playlist. But he has also busted ranks, picketing the NAACP Image awards, Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and even the revered Magic Johnson, when his theaters aired the yucky blaxploitation film “The Players’ Club.”

A business card and the masthead listed Ali as “community affairs editor” of LA Focus, a well-regarded monthly religious-based newspaper that carried Ali’s freelance column “Behind the Headlines.”

But after the June election, Ali says U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters pressured the newspaper to fire him. Ali supported Villaraigosa, who ran against Hahn, whose chief booster was Waters, who is tight with Jheryl Busby, who is chief operating officer of LA Focus and co-owner of Founders National Bank along with Magic Johnson, another Hahn supporter.

Since election week, too, other rumors made the rounds: that KKBT radio host Dominique DiPrima was suspended for a day for criticizing the notorious Hahn “cocaine” ad, and that her popular colleague, Steve Harvey, toned down his Hahn criticisms after Magic Johnson called the station.

LA Focus’ publisher and editor, Lisa Collins, says simply that Ali’s column was one of two discontinued. “I don’t have a relationship with Maxine Waters,” she said. “She hasn’t called my office since we did a story on her four years ago. Jheryl Busby doesn’t have any editorial input.” Steve Harvey’s manager said, “Nobody pressured us,” that Harvey “wanted to stay middle-of-the-road.” A Magic Johnson spokesman said no such calls were made. DiPrima didn’t want to comment, and Waters did not return calls.

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Despite the denials, some people close to the incidents remain convinced that they see Waters’ hand at work. Indeed, what has made the Ali issue front-page news in The Wave newspaper and front-burner gossip in town is that it is seen as symptomatic of the way Waters and some local power brokers play politics.

A couple of in-the-know people told me that after Operation HOPE Inc., an inner-city nonprofit investment banking group, snagged Al Gore to speak at its economic summit last year, Waters was so annoyed that the organizers had not gone through her to book Gore that she tried to persuade Gore not to come.

“People who don’t even much like Najee Ali are fed up,” one African American political insider told me. “Can’t we have more than one voice in our community?”

Writer and activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson, whose latest book is “The Disappearance of Black Leadership,” says, “Leadership has become a business. If somebody else comes along, they’re the competition . . . a threat to the power position . . . and are ostracized or frozen out.”

Mervyn Dymally, the former lieutenant governor, hasn’t reconciled with Waters for 25 years, since he didn’t endorse her for office. “I was boasting yesterday how civil the divisions were in the black community--with this exception,” he said.

Maybe all the spin and speculation can be to the good, growing pains of African American politics, growing up and out. In Compton, the presumed mayor-for-life Omar Bradley got thumped by 261 votes. In L.A., the City Council and congressional candidates endorsed by Maxine Waters both lost.

The mainstream news media are at fault too, for blithely bestowing the title of “leader” and depending on familiar dial-a-quote voices to the exclusion of others.

The election’s over. Leadership is a big word. A big job. Too big for one person or one group of people. Too big for one idea or one voice.

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Patt Morrison’s columns appear Mondays and Wednesdays. Her e-mail address is patt.morrison@latimes.com