LA celebs imply LA Mayor Karen Bass backlash is over race not drastic cuts to fire department, being out of US during wildfires
Two LA-based actresses claimed embattled Mayor Karen Bass is only facing backlash because of her race — instead of forcing drastic cuts to the fire department and being out of the US when the historic deadly wildfires started.“Act Your Age” co-stars Yvette Nicole Brown and Kym Whitley defended Bass as calls for her removal from office skyrocketed Saturday.“She’s got a spine of steel, and she’s been a black woman in America for a really long time,” Brown told TMZ.“None of this is new.”Brown, 53, has lived in the City of Angels for nearly three decades but couldn’t recall another mayor facing the same scrutiny as Bass, suggesting the criticism stemmed from racism.
“We have fires every year, and I don’t remember in the almost 30 years that I’ve lived in LA, I’ve never seen everybody react like this to the mayor and blame one person for a natural disaster,” Brown said.“Now what’s different this time?” she questioned.The enraged “Community” alum says she was standing up for Bass because she was “tired” of watching the 71-year-old mayor be the lone scapegoat for the deadly blazes despite the fires decimating several cities in the area.“She is also not the mayor of every municipality in California, there are people mad because she didn’t fix the fires in Malibu,” Brown said.“She’s not the mayor of Malibu.
What is she supposed to do in a city she’s not the mayor of?”Whitley was forced to evacuate her Tarzana home with her son when the fire threatened her neighborhood.The actresses insisted Bass was heartbroken to watch a city “she loves” get destroyed by the fires, and the citizens of the city call her out for the response.“Stand behind her, support her, because you can see it in her face she stays calm,” Whitley said.“Think about this, she has the city to take care of, she doesn’t have time to hear what these reports are saying.“This is not the time to blame, it’s time to get some resources, she h...