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began her journalistic career in the 1980s writing for Accent L.A., an independent monthly newsmagazine covering the Black community in Los Angeles. In 1992 she began writing for the Los Angeles Times, for a new section called City Times that launched following the historic civil unrest. She worked briefly as a staff writer for New Times Los Angeles before going to LA Weekly in 1997, where she spent the next nine years as staff writer. Erin then went back to the L.A. Times as a regular opinion columnist—the first Black person to hold the position. Throughout her career she has contributed to many publications, including The New York Times, Politico, HuffPost, Red Canary Magazine and Truthdig, where she is currently a regular contributor. She is the author of two books (Black Talk, Blue Thoughts and Walking the Color Line: Dispatches from a Black Journalista and I Heart Obama) and her essays have been anthologized in many more.