From an outsider’s perspective, Long Beach is a beacon for progress. Its diversity is constantly touted as an asset, while public officials often speak highly of the city’s values.
But for many Black residents, this isn’t their experience. And the data backs them up.
Black workers make up roughly 11% of the City workforce across all departments, yet they are overrepresented in the lowest-paying jobs and make up only about 6% of higher-paying positions, according to the City of Long Beach Employee Dashboard.
For Anthony Holmes, these are more than numbers. It speaks to the last 12 years of his life working within the City’s refuse collection services. Over the last few years he has filed formal complaints through human resources alleging discrimination, waited through numerous internal investigations, spoken about his experience at city council meetings and during it all, has faced retaliation at his workplace.
Last year, he founded the Coalition Against Anti-Blackness to empower others experiencing similar circumstances.
“The system is a complete failure,” Holmes said of Long Beach’s internal reporting systems. “It’s there just to be there.” He also points to leadership — councilmembers, the Equal Employment Opportunity Department and Mayor Rex Richardson, specifically — for allowing these ineffective systems to thrive with no consequence.
In early April, the Coalition Against Anti-Blackness, supported by the Long Beach Black Workers Center and Black Lives Matter Grassroots Long Beach, announced the Dignity, Not Delay: Justice for Black Workers in Long Beach campaign. The goal is to advance racial equity and economic opportunity for Black workers by dismantling the systemic racist practices they say has allowed these disparities to continue.
The issue is far-reaching, they say, from hiring and pay to promotions and everyday workplace conditions. As are their solutions, which include establishing an independent reporting system and accountability commission, creating pathways to promote Black workers, strengthening anti-retalition protections and more.
The City of Long Beach has taken multiple actions that are similar to these demands, such as the Framework for Reconciliation, the Racial Equity and Reconciliation Initiative and the Equity Toolkit for City Leaders and Staff, all passed in 2020 following national unrest due to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. Most recently, the city council requested a workforce analysis on Feb. 10, which is expected to become public in early June. The City’s most recently available Workforce Diversity Report was published in 2020.
However, Black community leaders say these policies have created empty promises and resulted in very little change.
A System that Fails its Black Employees
When the Long Beach chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in the 1940s, discriminatory practices in employment was one of their first targets they tried to address.
Nearly a century later, Black workers are still fighting the same fight in Long Beach.
In Long Beach’s first-ever Black Community Health Needs Assessment published last year, 35% of respondents said they had to work multiple jobs to afford living in the city. Black men were also found to live on average 10 years less than white men in Long Beach. At the time, Councilmember Tunua Thrash-Ntuk called it the “paradox of economic opportunity.”
“This suggests that employment alone is not a sufficient cure for poverty and health disparities in our city,” she said. “It’s clear that health equity is also tied to economic equity and the quality of the job matters.”
“A lack of consistency has brought us together,” said Dr. Lydia Hollie, who co-authored the 2013 “State of Black Long Beach: A Call to Action” with Dr. Alex Norman. The report was funded by the California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities Initiative, and offered a snapshot of the Black experience in Long Beach, from infant mortality rates, unemployment rates, graduation rates, life expectancy and more.
The “State of Black Long Beach” found that Black City government workers were often afraid to speak up at work in fear of repercussions.
“We thought the City would look at it and see where to improve and that didn’t happen,” Hollie said.
Black workers have seen some success in recent years suing the City of Long Beach for discrimination in the workplace. Caprice McDonald worked in the Civic Service Department and within the City of Long Beach for 19 years.
She brought forward allegations of racial discrimination during her time working in that department, stating the former director criticized the way Black people talk and told her she “should focus on being more ‘white’” if she wanted a promotion. The City of Long Beach later agreed to pay $701,000 to settle the case.
“Every worker deserves fair pay, safe conditions, and the opportunity to advance. When the basics of fairness and equity in a hiring system are not met, it is not just an individual problem.
It is a systemic failure,” McDonald said in the Dignity, Not Delay press release.
Holmes said he began experiencing discrimination in the Public Works Department in 2017, when his supervisor began telling him to clean up entire alleys not regularly a part of his route. According to Holmes, he was the only worker being asked to do so, even though this type of work falls under the Long Beach Go app services. He was also told multiple times to clean up items that his coworkers had left behind for weeks in a row.
When he brought this to his superintendent’s attention, Holmes was told to “just do what he [his supervisor] said.” He began asking his coworkers if they were being told to do the same tasks, but they were not. Afterwards, Holmes then began receiving derogatory marks on his evaluations he said were unjustified, such as not knowing how to use a tablet that wasn’t installed in his truck, and being told to be more efficient on his routes even though he completed them everyday.
Holmes has filed multiple discrimination complaints with Long Beach’s Equal Employment Opportunity Office (EEO), and said each report returned months later marked as “unsubstantiated.”
After trying and failing through the City’s internal systems multiple times, Holmes began going down to city council meetings a couple of years ago to talk about the treatment he’s facing. He said this hasn’t helped either. What it has done though, is encourage other Black workers from other City departments to reach out to Holmes, both offering and needing support.
“I don’t know how they get my number,” Holmes said. “They just call me and let me know what’s going on. I try to guide them. I try to encourage them. But I also have to keep it real with them. Like when they file a complaint with the EEO. I just let them know off top that the EEO is not going to do nothing.”
He tells workers to file the complaints anyway in order to make a paper trail as soon as possible, knowing their case will likely be unsubstantiated. It will help in court, if it gets to that, he tells them.
“I’ve heard the stories, and I haven’t heard successes. And that’s not because the individuals aren’t doing what they can to speak up for their own rights,” said Dana Nickerson, who has worked at the nonprofit Long Beach Black Worker Center since 2023. Her job consists of doing intakes on individuals who are facing discrimination in their workplace and need support on how to fight back.
One aspect both Holmes and Nickerson point to is the lack of accountability from the EEO Office, which handles complaints from workers through their respective department.
“It’s very concerning to me that our Equal Employment Opportunity department is a City department, governed by the City, because how could it really be effective?” Nickerson said.
The Demands of Dignity, Not Delay
Community leaders with the Dignity, Not Delay campaign plan to continue publicly advocating for better treatment of Black workers. Most recently, they spoke at the Equity and Human Relations Commission on May 6.
The Dignity, Not Delay campaign calls for the City of Long Beach to:
- Deliver a 120-day workforce analysis and release transparent, public data on hiring, pay, discipline, reclassification and promotions by race.
- Release ongoing workforce data through transparent, publicly accessible reporting so progress can be tracked over time
- Adopt and enforce a Workplace Equity Policy that clearly defines discrimination, anti-Blackness, harassment and retaliation, with required timelines and consequences for violations
- Establish an independent Truth, Reconciliation and Accountability Commission separate from HR, EEO and internal City systems to investigate systemic inequities, document findings and monitor implementation
- Reform hiring, classification and promotion systems to eliminate documented barriers, including biased exams, informal selection practices, and denial of out-of-class compensation
- Conduct wage equity audits across all departments and implement corrective actions
- Strengthen anti-retaliation protections and create safe, independent reporting systems for workers.
- Strengthen protections for workers by creating independent, accessible and trauma-informed complaint systems, with clear anti-retaliation safeguards and public accountability for outcomes
- Invest in Black worker advancement through targeted hiring, leadership development, career pathways and partnerships with community-based organizations
- Fully fund and support the City’s Office of Equity and the Health Department’s health equity work, including the implementation of the Racial Equity and Reconciliation Initiative
- Require union representatives to uphold their responsibility to advocate for workers’ rights and ensure equitable representation in addressing complaints and workplace conditions
What You Can Do
The Dignity, Not Delay campaign is currently gathering signatures as a sign of support for Black workers. You can sign the petition here.
Black workers dealing with discrimination of any kind in their workplace can get support to organize from the Coalition Against Anti-Blackness, or can join the coalition to support other Black workers. Learn more about the coalition at @coalitionagainstantiblack on Instagram or by emailing jackie@jackieraetv.com or ant.holmes80@yahoo.com
The Black Worker Center can assist with filing a claim, education on workplace rights as well as other resources. You can also get in touch with the National Black Worker Center’s Working While Black hotline by texting BLACK to 628292.
Samantha Diaz
Managing Editor
Samantha is an award-winning journalist, sports fanatic and mother. She’s worked for the Signal Tribune for over three years and is passionate about covering environmental news, small businesses, mutual aid efforts and resources.
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