But can you pronounce "hegemony"?

From today's LA Times:

"There's still a large racial component in the politics of any large city, and Los Angeles is no different," said Jaime Regalado of Cal State L.A. "It's still harder for minorities to win."

. . .

Having a pronounceable name might help, and Villaraigosa used to have one.

He was born Antonio Villar. But when he and Corina Raigosa tied the knot in 1987, they also married their names.

"I remember saying to him, 'You just violated one of the major tenets of politics,'" Guerra says.

He took a perfectly good name, slapped on three syllables and made it impossible to remember, let alone pronounce. You can barely get it on a political button.

"Villar was not only simple, but while it sounds Latino, it could also be Italian," Guerra says. "Is it Latino? It might be, but maybe not. Then you go to Villaraigosa, which is clearly Latino."

This would be depressing to me regardless of the city, but here in LA it's even more depressing. Why? Well, let's look at the statement above: "It's still harder for minorities to win." Here are the 2000 Census population results for the city of Los Angeles:

Total: 3,503,532
White: 1,734,036
Black or African American: 415,195
American Indian and Alaska Native: 29,412
Asian: 369,254
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 5,915
Some other race: 949,720
Two or more races: 191,288
Hispanic or Latino(of any race): 1,719,073

You'll note that there is no "majority" population listed here. In the five years since that census, one has been established--Hispanic. Sigh. So really, if you want to get technical, whites are, in fact, the minority.