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Video still courtesy of Vote Hope

News: N-word Ban, Obamanovela

LA Follows NYC with N-word Ban, Obama Backers Make Bilingual YouTube Series

N-Word Officially Out of Bounds in LA

The Los Angeles city council on Nov. 9, 2007, unanimously passed a "symbolic moratorium" on the use of the N-word, a racial slur against African Americans. The measure calls for all parties to refrain from using the word, particularly "in the context of threats and violence in the City of Los Angeles." New York City passed a similar resolution in March. L.A. City Councilman Bernard Parks, who presented the resolution, said that "the N-word connotes a lazy person with no self respect or regard for family, a person who is ignorant, stupid, slow moving, does not speak proper English, and has childlike qualities." The measure notes the use of the modified term "Nigga" in Hip Hop culture but says that it carries connotations of hate "no matter how it is spelled." —Ariel Slaton

Pro-Obama Group Makes Mini-Telenovela

Vote Hope, a California group supporting Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) presidential campaign, and Los Angeles–based Amigos de Obama, produced a telenovela-style miniseries of three four-minute videos in Spanish and English, available on the YouTube video-sharing web site since November 12, 2007. The videos—one in Spanish with English subtitles and two in English with Spanish subtitles—follow the fictional Ortiz family's decision to back Obama in the Feb. 5, 2008, California primary vote. Issues addressed include immigration, the Dream Act (an immigration relief bill), tension between African Americans and Latinos, and the need for more Latinos to register and vote. As of December 5, 2007, YouTube had tabulated just 950 views of the three videos. —Janice Kim

Date Posted: 12/10/2007