Barbershop Perspective on the Mayor’s Race

In the barbershop education of Kevin E. Hooks, 30, his civic duty as a black man has been drilled into him early and often this campaign season.

Vote Jim Hahn for mayor of Los Angeles.

“His father didn’t have no crooked in him,” explains Mr. Jones, resident elder at L.T.’s Barber Shop on Florence Avenue near Western Avenue. Mr. Jones refers, of course, to the late Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, whom he called a trusted friend of the black community in South L.A.

Hooks, who owns an entertainment marketing company, respects his elders. But his vote is no gimme, and so he went to the first debate and decided the crew at L.T.’s was riding the wrong pony. By his read, Antonio Villaraigosa has a stronger agenda and a better chance of implementing it.

Hooks knew he was on a suicide mission when he went back to L.T.’s looking for converts. Mr. Jones, who lives a few haircuts shy of 80, owner Lawrence Tolliver, 57, and the usual hang-abouts gave him a good flogging. “The young buck knows nothing in here,” Hooks says with surrender.

But today, he’s back for another try, and he has help this time. Tony Wafford, 44, rolls eyes over rafters as he hears one testimonial after another about the good works of Kenneth Hahn. Finally, at the point of beatification, he springs to his feet.

“That’s Kenny Hahn you’re talking about, not Jim! His daddy’s dead, and we ain’t votin’ for his daddy.”

Wafford’s unholy eruption shivers the Martin Luther King portrait that hangs over the price list (haircut, $10). It rattles the framed snaps of Mr. Tolliver with Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks. Wafford has committed blasphemy, and the devil’s in his smile.

All it takes is a few scraps of campaign literature showing photos of Kenneth or Jim Hahn with “some Negro” like Magic Johnson or Jesse Jackson, Wafford says, and these poor fools are ready to testify.

“There’s Hahn with Jesse! ‘Oh, let’s vote for the man.’ That’s how they set you up. Next one’ll be, ‘There’s Hahn with Willie Brown, I like the way he dresses.’ If I put a gun to your head, couldn’t none of you tell me what he stands for. All you know is he’s Kenny Hahn’s son. You don’t even know his name!”

On cue, a patron walks in and Mr. Tolliver asks who he’s voting for. “Kenny Hahn,” he says.

This brings Mr. Tolliver out from behind his chair, resplendent in a crisp white shirt, gold tie and cuff links. He gestures toward Wafford with menacing shears.

“The Bible tells me that the fruit don’t fall far from the tree, and Ken Hahn was a strong tree!”

The introduction of religion into the discussion does nothing to save Wafford’s soul. He lets loose an inspired stream of barbershop expletives. To paraphrase, he asks if any of the strong trees in the shop, 10 solid oaks in all, have any goofed-up kids at home.

“You pick up fruit, you knock it, you squeeze it,” he says. “Jim Hahn’s daddy’s dead, I’m telling you! Is a dead white man better than a live Mexican?”

Whether that query, in all its contortions, represents a step forward or back in race relations, it’s impossible to know. But if a Hahn or Villaraigosa pollster should call and ask it of you, you’ll know where it came from.

Wafford says that as a black man, he’d be more comfortable with a person of color as mayor. But several others are sure they’re better off with the son of a trusted white man than with a Hispanic.

“It’s a new day,” Mr. Tolliver says. “I’ve got a sister-in-law dating a Hispanic, and my son is dating a Hispanic. A time will come when race is not going to matter in an election, but I don’t think this time is it. Where will we stand if Villaraigosa gets into office and turns his back on black people? With Hahn, we know he would not. It’s a certainty.”

Kevin Hooks, the traitor who started this whole thing, makes the foolish mistake of suggesting they consider the candidates’ ideas rather than flap their gums about race and whatnot. This gets swatted down like a two-handed set shot.

“Neither one of them’s going to do anything they say they’re going to do,” observes Jimmy Porter, 58, a Hahn vote.

“The bottom line,” says Mr. Tolliver, is that “90% of the black community is going to vote for Hahn.” And “when the white man goes into the booth in the Valley and has to decide between a white man and a Mexican. . . .”

He stops there, no need to state the obvious. Thirty-two years in a barbershop, you know the unknowable city, all of its secrets and the best of the dead.

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Steve Lopez’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at his e-mail address: steve.lopez@latimes.com.