So I hear there was yet another racial fight at Jefferson High School in LA recently. I always find it surprising how very few people know about the significant amount of racial tension that exists in LA. I guess after having lived there most of my life and knowing that everybody around me is aware of it, you just assume other people know as well. So, since I am finding out that very few people know what is going on, I thought I'd blog about it and give the readers of my blog a leg up on the status of LA. However, given that I am Mexican/American, I will primarily give the Mexican perspective on things, since that is primarily the side that I was most privy too.
First, some background. Gangs in Los Angeles (and by Los Angeles, I mean pretty much all of the LA area, like Compton, Watts, Harbor Area and valley) are 'segregated' along racial lines: the Crips and the Bloods (and there's also Piru, but they are considered bloods by most standards) are overall Black gangs, and the '13' are overall Latino (predominantly Mexican) gangs; all Latino gangs in Los Angeles are 13s, whether or not they get along. It basically refers to "Sur 13", meaning the 'south' of California, so all Latino gangs, south of say, Bakersfield, are considered 13s. Latino gangs in the broader California are further broken up between the 14s that control most of northern California and the 13s that control all of southern California. This split between the Latinos started a long, long time ago in prison, and since every Latino gangster in Los Angeles (except for one Latino gang, but they are by far the exception) belongs to the 13s, the 13s vs. 14s fights are usually handled in the prisons, when Latinos are mixed from the northern and southern parts of the state together.
Before the mid-90s, there was the occasional Black person that belonged to a Latino gang and there was the occasional Latino that belonged to a Black gang. Some gangs, or so I've heard, even started out united as Black and Latino. Now, don't jump to the conclusion that I am saying that racial tension did not exist between Blacks and Latinos before the mid-90s, there was definitely racial tension, and a significant amount at that. It's just that it escalated after the early 90s.
Up until the mid 90s, gangs tended to kill ‘their own,’ meaning that Latino gangs fought amongst themselves and the same went for Black gangs. Yes, there was the occasional fighting that crossed racial lines, but that was more the exception than the rule. Black gangs were the same way, they were composed of Crips and Bloods/Pirus, blue and red, and tended to primarily fight each other. All Bloods and Pirus tend to get along with each other and unite to fight the Crips. Crips, on the other hand, fight against Bloods, Pirus and other Crips. So, even though there was a lot of fighting between Black gangs, they all tended to kill each other and there was limited fighting with Latino gangs.
In areas where the two groups are highly represented, such as South Central LA, Compton and Watts, the territory claimed by the two groups of gangs greatly overlapped, with each identifying almost the same particular area as their own, and both respecting each other. In several areas, the Latino and Black gangs intermingled a lot, with several Black and Mexicans speaking with the same accent and doing several of the same activities together (cock fighting, pit bull fighting, etc). Everybody just understood that each territory was their own with respect to their specific race. It was a weird system, but overall it worked and allowed the two races, usually neighbors to each other, to live together.
Also, prisons in California are extremely racial. In other words, all Latino gangsters hang out together, even if they were rival gangsters in the streets, and all Black gangsters hang out together, even if they too were rival gangsters in the streets. The Latino group is referred to as "La Eme," also known as the Mexican Mafia and 'Sur 13', and is composed of Latino gangsters from the streets, this is where the 13 comes from. To elaborate further, all Latino gangs in California are composed of two parts. The first, and some would say primary, is the fact that they are all 13s (the ones in southern California at least, the ones up north would be 14s), the second is their unique gang. So say you had Latino gang A and Latino gang B fighting each other on the streets, absolutely hating each other. When the members of these gangs go to prison, they are no longer gang A and gang B, they all become what they have in common, the 13 part of their gang. Their enemy now is not other rival gangsters, but other races. So say, for example, that you were Mexican and had a really close Black friend growing up, if you two were to meet in prison, you could not eat together, work out together, or associate with one another at all. Why? Because of your races, it's that simple.
However, in the early to mid 90s, La Eme started dictating orders from the inside. They would send representatives to hold meetings with the heads of the Latino gangs and order them to stop killing ‘their own’ and direct their anger to those of other races, namely Black people. Those who violated these rules and were sent to prison would be killed. And since La Eme controls the Latino side of the prisons, and all Latino gangsters that enter prison would by default become part of their ranks, thereby needing their protection and association, this was a threat taken very seriously.
Many people thought (myself included) that it would never work. How could two gangs that had hated each other for generations, that had spilled so much blood, all of the sudden act as if nothing has happened, simply because of racial ‘unity’ and ‘fear’. Sure, they've been doing it in prison, but in prison everything is more compact, more orderly, but not so on the streets. More importantly, some thought, how could Black and Latino gangs that had grown up together in overall peace now all of the sudden become arch enemies, just out of a call for unity and threats from Latinos in prison? At the time, I thought it extremely unlikely to take effect.
Well, with time, I realized that I was wrong. Soon after, the Latino gangs that for the past generations had been rivals, started communicating and socializing. It was an odd thing to see. On the other hand, racial tension between Blacks and Latinos started to mount. First, you would hear of a Latino gang that had already been fighting with a Black gang make the fight more racial, escalating the anger between the two. Then you would hear a different Latino gang start a new fight with a Crip or Blood gang, and other gangs do the same. The ones who bore most of the brunt of this change were those few Blacks that were in Latino gangs, and those few Latinos in Black gangs. If they entered prison, they would be killed for sure. For example, I knew a Black guy from a Latino gang that told me that when he entered prison, he would say that he was Puerto Rican, because the Blacks wouldn't take him, and without the Latinos to back him up, he would be defenseless.
Killings between the two races escalated so much that there was a point where just being Mexican, or just being Black, was reason enough to get killed by the other group.
In Compton, my hometown, Black vs. Latino type atmosphere created several killings between the two, where as the two had lived overall somewhat peacefully before - did drive by’s together, overall lived in the same neighborhoods with a live and let live philosophy - Blacks in Crips and Bloods, Mexicans in 13 gangs, the escalation afterwards was huge. I'm not saying that all Latino gangs started to fight all Black gangs. There were certain areas where the friendships remained, but it is undeniable that what La Eme did escalated the racial tensions to very high levels.
Some areas, especially the Latino areas that have fewer Black people, have prided themselves of riding as many Blacks as possible. It's almost an unspoken test of what Latino gang is tougher, the one that rids more Blacks being the tougher gang. Also, after a few couple years, Latino gangs started to fight each other again, with La Eme unable to control the hatred they always had towards one another, but the racial tensions between Blacks and Latinos remained, never returning to the previous levels. In addition to this, this racial tension has spread into general areas of life and is not restricted to gangsters. If you were to go to Jefferson High school, for example, and witness the fighting, you would definitely see Latino/Black gangsters being the primary fighters, but you would also see a significant number of non-gangster Latino/Black people fighting. It has become an overall strong dislike between the two at the fundamental level.
Moreover, everything I have said here is all pretty much common knowledge in LA, you don't have to be a gangster, or in many cases, even a teenager to know this. From the kids in middle school to the adults, everybody knows a good portion of what I have said here.
With that said, I don't want to give the impression that all Latinos or all Blacks in LA dislike each other. Certainly there are many many Latinos/Blacks that are perfectly fine with one another. In fact, things are actually better now than they were in the mid to late 90s, but I would attribute most of that improvement connected with the overall fall in gang activity. Nor do I want to give the impression that all Black gangs hate all Latino gangs, or that all gangsters are like this. This is just to give a general overview of the way gangs are, and how this has affected the culture at large.
Before I end, I want to give a few words on what I am always asked after I explain the LA situation, how do you go about solving the problem? I'll be the first to admit that I don't know. There are too many historical and cultural factors at play here for any one solution to solve the problem. I could give you a stronger list of things that I believe make the problem worse, than a list that will make the problem better. And, as one of the things on the list that makes the problem worse, I would put the media's inability to classify the situation as it is. This was not a fight between 'some students and other students', or between 'one gang and another,' this was a race riot, pure and simple. It is proof of the larger race-related problem that LA has, both historically and culturally, and to deny the obvious and hide it under the rug as if it's not, does nobody any good. (Originally Published: 05/04/2005)
Can cultural factors make things worse?
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