Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s racial recklessness

To the editor: Earlier this month, The Times reported that seven Latino gang members were charged with the 2014 fire bombing of the homes of black families in a Boyle Heights housing project. The prosecutors allege that the gang members wanted to drive African Americans out of the neighborhood.

Where was Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Orange) when this kind of terrorism was being perpetrated against black people? Are we to accuse her of “tacit” approval of these horrific actions because she is a Latina?

Of course not. Yet she has the audacity to accuse President Obama of endorsing her opponent for one of California’s U.S. Senate seats, California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, because both of them are black. This is a president who has tried to get Congress to act on immigration reform. (“Rep. Loretta Sanchez implies Obama endorsed Senate rival because they are both black,” July 22)

That kind of rhetoric creates more divisiveness and distrust between black and brown people when these two groups should be united in the fight against mindless and destructive racism. Sanchez should be ashamed.

Rodney K. Boswell, Thousand Oaks

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To the editor: Being a daughter of Mexican immigrants does not grant Sanchez automatic entitlement to the Hispanic vote, but now she might get some Republican support for her Senate candidacy. Criticizing the president for endorsing Harris allegedly because they are both black shows a lack of integrity.

This daughter of Mexican immigrants will donate, work for and vote for the best candidate to represent me in the Senate: Kamala Harris.

Helen Aragón, San Fernando

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