RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR.: The vicious circle of identity politics, again on display

In America, the continuum of identity politics isn’t a straight line. It’s a circle. What goes around, comes around. That’s why critics should avoid being too sanctimonious. Sooner or later, every group gets a turn on the hot seat.

In Los Angeles, the scandal involving an explosive recording of racist and other crass comments by three Latino members of the City Council and a local Latino labor leader hasn’t quite run its course. This story — which broke on Oct. 9, when the leaked audio was released by the Los Angeles Times — should have cooled off by now.

After all, the remarks, many of which were anti-Black, were universally condemned, especially by Latinos, who want better leaders. And there has been a housecleaning — at least a partial one. Council President Nury Martinez and Los Angeles labor leader Ron Herrera have resigned, and Councilman Gil Cedillo is a lame duck who lost a primary election.

Only Councilman Kevin de León remains. He has stubbornly refused to step down despite calls for him to do so that stretch from City Hall to the California governor’s office to the White House. A crafty politician, de León has tried to create a narrative that he was an innocent bystander and that most of the racist remarks were uttered by Martinez. De León claims that his mistake was in not interrupting the council president’s attacks on various groups — from Koreans and Armenians to Jews and Indigenous Mexicans — when he should have spoken up or walked out.

Nonsense. On the recording, de León mocks Black political power in Los Angeles as a mirage. At protests, he says, African Americans are perceived as having a greater presence than they really do.

“Twenty-five or so (protesters) are Black,” Cedillo said. “And the 25 Blacks are shouting.” At which point de León interjected, “But they shout like they’re 250.”

It’s ironic — given the premium that Latinos put on respect — that these Latino leaders would be so disrespectful to Black Angelenos.

Meanwhile, a six-hour drive up Interstate 5, there is a new racial scandal brewing around San Francisco Mayor London Breed. The first Black woman elected to that office, Breed — during an interview with a public radio station at a live event on Oct. 5 — casually made a racist comment tying Honduran immigrants to a proclivity to commit crimes that sounded as if it were lifted from a speech by Donald Trump. Breed, a Democrat, was defending the San Francisco Police Department against accusations that officers are racially profiling Latinos. Focusing on that group just makes sense, she said.

“There are unfortunately a lot of people who come from a particular country — come from Honduras — and a lot of the people who are dealing drugs happen to be of that ethnicity,” Breed asserted in comments that were overlooked at the time, even while the L.A. City Council scandal was blowing up. “It’s nothing ‘racial profile’ about this. We all know it. It’s the reality. It’s what you see. It’s what’s out there.”

That resembles the distorted version of “reality” that Trump saw when he kicked off his presidential campaign in June 2015 by glibly accusing Mexican migrants of “bringing drugs … bringing crime.”

It’s a bad idea to equate an entire ethnic or racial group with a tendency to commit crimes. The question of who breaks the law, and under what circumstances, is complex and best separated from race and ethnicity.

In a written apology, Breed said that she “failed to accurately and comprehensively discuss what is an incredibly complex situation in our city and in Central America.”

It’s a mistake Americans can’t stop making. When it comes to crime and race or ethnicity, we’re always projecting or deflecting. The American way is for each group that gets tagged as predisposed to criminal activity to pass that cloak to the next group that comes along. We always do unto others what was done to us.

Immigrants in particular are often slandered as deviant or dangerous. In the late 1700s, the English settlers slapped the label of “criminal” on German immigrants, who then transferred it to the Irish in the mid-1800s. The Irish then passed it to the Italians in the early 1900s, and the Italians passed it on to Black Americans in the mid-1900s.

Now, there are Black leaders eager to pin the label on Latinos. This is the California story: Latinos bash Blacks, and Blacks bash Latinos. Rinse and repeat.

Ruben Navarrette’s email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, “Navarrette Nation,” is available through every podcast app.