Get the latest from Erika D. Smith
Commentary on people, politics and the quest for a more equitable California.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Latest From This Author
The longtime Oakland lawmaker was defeated in the primary by Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey, disappointing a close-knit California sisterhood. But all is not lost.
No longer is it just “vote for the best person.” Our most basic civic duty has become complicated and tiring. The Senate primary is but one example.
Can we really trace the problems of Black homelessness and poverty back to slavery? A UC San Francisco study says yes, and it’s time we listen.
As the flooding of a tiny home village demonstrates, climate change puts new pressures on efforts to quickly bring people indoors and keep them safe.
Forget the politics of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. The politics being debated in the California city lately are more conservative than progressive.
Instead of a cohesive strategy to compensate Black people for slavery, lawmakers are pushing a confusing list of bills on which they don’t all agree.
Tied up in court, SB 2 bans concealed carry almost everywhere — a blow to domestic violence victims failed by the state and worried about self-defense.
With the climate crisis, people of color have to do more than just fight the same old fights for racial justice. A new campaign is trying to help.
In the coming days, the narrative will be that Mayor Bass ousted Moore because she crossed him. But there were more important reasons he needed to go.
The Republican presidential candidate’s cowardly revisionist history of slavery has prompted a surprising wave of bipartisan scorn. Is this progress?
