/*Los Angeles Urban League*/ Chief Executive Officer Blair Taylor wants to see an end to racial tensions between African-Americans and Latinos.
The latest evidence of that violence is an attack on an African-American family in Duarte. The intruders broke into the home, newly rented by Chanisse Davy and her four children. They vandalized every room, spray-painting racial slurs on the floors and walls.
"We want a public campaign to ostracize those small groups of people that would try to draw a wedge between black and brown in this city," said Leon Jenkins, /*NAACP*/ president.
Jenkins, along with other local African-American leaders, is reaching out to Latino leaders with an invitation for both communities to work together to end "brown on black" and "black on brown" attacks.
"We're opening up a dialogue with our Hispanic brothers and sisters," said Jenkins. "Secondly, we will file a formal complaint with the /*FBI*/, and we will put the city of L.A., the district attorney's office, and the county sheriff's office, that we want vigorous re-enforcement and enforcement of the law against all hate crimes."
Leaders in both communities don't want to focus on the tension between the groups, saying there many more blacks and Latinos who get along than those who don't, but in a recent FBI raid, 147 gang members from a notorious Latino gang were arrested in /*Hawaiian Gardens*/. Among the allegations against them, was that they specifically targeted blacks.
"We have a problem, and that problem needs to be addressed," said Reverend Eric P. Lee, /*Southern Christian Leadership Conference*/ of Greater Los Angeles. "And so very briefly I'd like to make a call out again to our African-American, Latino brothers and sisters to come together, sit down with this coalition of organizations, because at the end of the day, we have more in common than we have apart from one another."
Channise Davy, who left the Duarte home after it was vandalized, is still looking for a permanent place to live. Donations she received Monday from the African-American leaders will help her secure a new home.
"We do need to come together as one so that we can make our community a stronger and safer environment for everyone," said Davy.
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