A pair of actresses are claiming that criticisms of how Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) is handling the ongoing wildfires in the city are stemming from her being a “black woman in America.”
Longtime actresses Yvette Nicole Brown and Kym Whitley, who recently co-starred in the series Act Your Age, took to TMZ on Saturday to denounce the flack that Bass has caught, including a recall petition that has received more than 100,000 signatures:
Yvette Nicole Brown and Kym Whitley shared their thoughts on Mayor Karen Bass, and they hit the nail on the head. Folks are too comfortable. ❤️🩹 pic.twitter.com/T9FPQjOLQ6
— SHEA FROM THE BAY (@SheaFromTheBay) January 12, 2025
“She’s got a spine of steel, and she’s been a black woman in America for a really long time,” Brown, 53, told the outlet as Whitley, 63, stood beside her. “None of this is new.”
As a resident of Los Angeles for nearly three decades, Brown said she could not recall another time in which the mayor has received as much backlash as Bass, and implied that it could be because of her race and gender.
“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, who is best known for her role on the NBC sitcom Community, claimed. “Now what’s different this time?”
WATCH — Breitbart News Reports on Devastating Los Angeles Fire in the Pacific Palisades:
Whitley, a comedian with several well-known credits including The Boondocks, Young & Hungry, The Parkers, The Cleveland Show, and Black Dynamite, chimed in to say that Los Angeles residents need to “stand behind” Bass as multiple devastating fires rage on.
“Stand behind her, support her, because you can see it in her face she stays calm,” she 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 has reached out far. We have planes coming in from other countries to help us,” Whitley, who had to evacuate her Tarzana home after the Pacific Palisades fire grew to 23,654 acres on Saturday, added.
The TMZ video came soon after reality television star Khloe Kardashian took to her Instagram Stories on Friday evening to call Bass a “joke”:
Khloe Kardashian (who evacuated from Calabasas) goes in hard against Mayor Bass: “You are a joke!!!!”
— Elizabeth Wagmeister (@EWagmeister) January 11, 2025
The Kardashians typically stay neutral on anything involving politics. But Khloe has been very passionate about her community & has been profusely thankful for the firefighters. pic.twitter.com/3uhmsqkLQT
Sharing an interview clip in which Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) Chief Kristin Crowley said budget cuts under Bass’s administration limited her agency’s ability to fight the devastating fires, Kardashian wrote, “I stand by YOU Chief Crowley!!!! You spoke the truth and you had tears in your eyes because I can tell you didn’t even want to say that but it was THE TRUTH!!!!”
“Thank you for being honest,” she added. “Mayor Bass you are a joke!!!!”
The Kardashian-Jenner clan — Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, Kylie, Kendall, Kris, and Rob — have all evacuated their Los Angeles homes as of Thursday night, TMZ reported.
