NYT columnist worries 'white supremacy' could be replaced by 'lite supremacy' after racist remarks out of LA

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Fox News contributor Caitlyn Jenner reacts to outrage after L.A. city council member Nury Martinez made racist comments about a colleague's Black son on 'America Reports.'

New York Times columnist Charles Blow wrote Sunday that he was worried "white supremacy" would be replaced by "lite supremacy" after leaked audio revealed Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez making racist remarks. 

"It is a theory that worries me and that I have written about: that with the browning of America, white supremacy could simply be replaced by — or buffeted by — a form of "lite" supremacy, in which fairer-skin people perpetuate a modified anti-Blackness rather than eliminating it," Blow wrote in his column for the New York Times. 

Martinez resigned on Oct. 10 after leaked audio revealed she made racist remarks about Councilmember Mike Bonin's Black son. 

"I take responsibility for what I said and there are no excuses for those comments. I am so sorry," she said in a statement. 

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Los Angeles Councilman Kevin de León, left, and then-Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez confer at an Oct. 4 city council meeting. Martinez, de Leon and Councilman Gil Cedillo are being pressured to resign after they were caught on an audio recording making racist and offensive remarks.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Blow criticized Martinez' comments and said what was most concerning was "the racial, ethnic tribalism of her political calculations," because the meeting concerned redistricting. 

"The problem this recording poses is that the people on the call seem to see power among the city’s constituents as a zero-sum game, and in that game, they openly disparaged other groups because of their identities," Blow wrote. 

Blow also said Martinez "perpetuated" racism in private but supported an end to racism in public, citing a motion she filed in 2020 that cut police funding after the murder of George Floyd. 

"Today we [introduced] a motion to cut funding to the LAPD, as we reset our priorities in the wake of the murder of #GeorgeFloyd & the #BlackLivesMatter call that we all support to end racism," Martinez said in 2020. 

Then-Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez at podium, and Mayor Eric Garcetti, standing to her right, are seen during a news conference at Los Angeles City Hall.  (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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"The unfortunate reality is that anti-Black white supremacy is not confined to white people or to Republicans, even though they court it and coddle it. Martinez is a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Democratic city," Blow wrote. 

Blow's column was criticized by some on Twitter. 

"I don’t think it’s a matter of "anti-Blackness" as much as it’s just a matter of being an identity-politics-obsessed midwit Democrat politician," Christina Pushaw, Rapid Response Director for Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., said. 

The California Attorney General announced on Oct. 12 that his office was launching a probe into the Los Angeles redistricting process. 

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a probe into the re-districting process in Los Angeles after leaked recordings caught some council members discussing how to create districts to benefit themselves. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

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"My office will conduct an investigation into the City of LA's redistricting process," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. "We're going to gather the facts. We're going to work to determine the truth. It's clear an investigation is sorely needed to help restore confidence in the redistricting process for the people of L.A."