By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large
“My name is Zohran Kwame Mamdani, my father named me after Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana.”
Central Brooklynites came out on Tuesday to hear from the Democratic-line Democratic Socialist of America candidate at the Crown Heights’ Major Owens Health and Wellness Center, organized by the Coalition for a Democratic and Just New York.
Former Brooklyn Assemblyman Roger Green asked the questions in front of a couple of hundred intergenerational listeners.
Charismatic with a New York edge, the naturalized frontrunner Mamdani spoke of his background from Uganda in East Africa, where he transferred with his family to Cape Town, South Africa, and then to New York when he was seven.
“The city where I got my citizenship, where I fell in love, where I met my wife, the city that I call home.”
As mayor, he stated that his administration would reflect the city’s demographic makeup.
Of all my critiques of Eric Adams, which I have many, one thing I think he did well is that his administration looked a lot like New York City. That is something that I hope to have.”
In the last two decades, he noted that there was the “reverse migration of Black folk, almost 200,000 Black people have left the city.”
So, he said, “The mission of this campaign is to try and transform the most expensive city in the United States of America, into one that is truly affordable.”
Plus “the representation of your struggles is the focus of the work that we do, because Black New Yorkers continue to face disproportionate rates–whether we are speaking about gun violence…maternal mortality…” And then there is his housing agenda, “freezing the rent for more than 2 million rent-stabilized apartments…and a housing policy that speaks to the eight and half million.”
He has spoken a lot he said to, “Black Brookynites learning about the crisis of deed theft…and that’s why I will be creating an office of Deed Theft Prevention with $10 million in funding for lawyers and legal services permanently provided to Black and Brown homeowners across this city, so that if someone knocks on their door with promises of helping them resolve their questions about inheritance, or their will, or how to refinance their home,” his administration will have a solution he said. Additionally, he would seek to abolish the property tax system and establish land trusts for tenants and businesses.
Regarding education, Green inquired about the bias surrounding specialized high schools and the disproportionately low numbers of Black students admitted.
Medgar Evers Prep, where the early college high school students graduate with an associate’s degree after four years, the co-founder of the school said the community is urging “the Department of Education to put an emphasis on those types of schools so that way more students can have the rigorous education they receive at Bronx High School of Science.”
Mamdani, an alumnus of the famed Bronx school, agreed, “Absolutely. We have to ensure that excellence is not only for a select few. We are the largest school system in this country, and…
We have the most segregated school system in America.”
With a “school system in crisis,” Mamdani said he would address class sizes, reading and test scores, and the teacher-class size ratio. “The Department of Education has the largest budget of any city agency…we spend about 10 billion dollars on contracts and consultants,” that has to end. And the procurement issue must be addressed, he said, where too many teachers are spending their own money to bring in supplies.”
Brooklyn teacher Kayla Thompson told Our Time Press, “I was actually pleased about what Zohran Mamdani said about teachers having to spend their own money to procure supplies for students, and how we could change that dynamic. So I’m really looking forward to when he says he’s going to start the work on January 1st.”
As for women and Black-owned businesses in New York getting the least of the procurements, Mamdani replied to Green’s question, “To me, the mission of MWBEs is to ensure that we see the same representation of our city’s population when we [give out] our city contracts. But we are seeing that Black women are getting less than 3% of the contracts issued.
This is amidst a moment when the Trump administration has fired 300,000 Black women across this country….the same administration that has weaponized the justice system to go after one of the most prominent Black women in this state – Attorney General Letitia James…and the fact that these letters DEI are being used to attack the entire city.”
With trickle down or up…economics he added that his “rent freeze will bring back close to $7 million back to the local economy,” and with his spending bill, in a time where “neighborhoods are starving for resources.”
It was a packed audience, with Brooklyn notables such as Attorney Esmeralda Simmons, Chancellor Lester Young, Restoration Corporation President Blondel Pinnock, December 12th Movement’s Roger Wareham, and Assemblymembers Monique Chandler-Waterman and Stefani Zinnerman.
Green said, “All this intellectual capital, brothers and sisters in here are prepared to work with you…Listen to us, come back to us, work with us. These are the progressives in the Black community that you will need…to govern.”
Mamdani said he would return.
Present in the room, but with no opportunity to speak to him, members of the Black media, such as WBAI “Education at the Crossroads” host Bashir Mchawi, told Our Time Press, “It’s just so bad in regard to communicating with the Black press. His staff is not responsive. I don’t know if it’s him, but it’s definitely the staff.
I’m in touch with the Deputy Communications Director. At first, it was like ‘Oh, this is a priority, we have to do that.’ I know that some [Black journalists] have just given up trying to do anything with the campaign.
But, in The Bronx, as an example, he lost by double digits to Cuomo. It’s time to talk to the Black press, to talk to Black people, to talk to working-class Black and Latino people. I think that his staff is looking at the poll numbers and thinking that they don’t need us to go ahead and win, and I don’t know if that’s true. I’m clear that his staff is going to be composed of the gentrifiers.”
Teacher and activist Professor Sam Anderson agreed, “Out of the 50,000 volunteers, I would say 10% maybe are Black.
“One of the Achilles’ heels of the Democratic Socialists of America is that they don’t see race as a central component to class. They don’t see race and class as being inexplicably linked.
But in this country, particularly in New York City, you cannot separate race and class. When you’re running for office, you have to deal with the issue of race and racism in the city.
“What is essential, so critical when he becomes mayor, is who he’s going to surround himself with. It’s not the mayor, it’s those commissioners, it’s those rank-and-file people that are out there communicating to the public. That’s when the political rubber hits the road.”
