By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.
Today across the United States of America in some of the largest urban cities, Black Americans are having renewed nightmares about being taken for granted, ignored and being erase in history and in the public square.
Ethnic cleansing is an insidious form of systematic racism. In response to the increasing “Browing of America,” concerns are raised about the unfulfillment of prior commitments that were supposed to ensure racial equality in municipal politics, economics, and urban revitalization.
New York City is the nation’s largest city. The presence and contributions of African Americans to the centuries-long development and evolution of the city are rarely highlighted and saluted. The election of Zohran Mamdani would not have been possible without the huge turnout of African American and Latino voters. Yet the interests of Black America in the nation’s largest metropolis appear to be triage routinely by the Mamdani Administration.
We are the Black Press of America. For the past 199 years, since the first publication of Freedom’s Journal in New York City in 1827, we have had to call out those who pretended to be our political allies. Accountability from those we help to elect is A fair and just demand.
Voters of color – both Black and Latino New Yorkers – backed Andrew Cuomo heavily in the primary, but then ultimately decided to give Zohran Mamdani a chance: https://manhattan.institute/article/how-mamdani-flipped-the-black-and-hispanic-vote overcoming their skepticism on housing, transit, and public safety, and reportedly moved by his affordability agenda,
This trust, on the part of Black voters in particular, may have been misplaced. Why? Several troubling early signs that the new mayor is disregarding New Yorkers of color, and treating them like Ralph Ellison’s iconic Invisible Man.
Thus far Mayor Mamdani has appointed no Black deputy mayors. This is a glaring signal to Black voters who voted for Mamdani on the promise of racial equity in the city’s administration. Dose Mamdani value our insights, lived experiences, or our voices in crafting critical policies in City Hall? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/nyregion/mamdani-black-latino-diversity.html
Mamdani was forced to apologize to Black New Yorkers for overlooking the historical contributions of enslaved and indigenous people to building the city when he talked about a city “built by immigrants” in his inauguration speech. https://www.blackenterprise.com/zohran-mamdani-apologies-to-black-new-yorkers/
The Mamdani administration is holding a series of “Rental Ripoff” hearings, spearheaded by Cea Weaver, the director of his Office to Protect Tenants, who called homeownership a form of white supremacy. The mayor is reaching out to help private landlords instead of prioritizing fixing public housing (NYCHA) which has a dismal track record of terrible conditions (no heat, year-plus waits for repairs, rampant pests and mold).
90 percent of the more than 511,000 NYCHA residents are Black and Latino, which is part of a larger trend in which 95 percent of Black households in New York State live in highly segregated buildings and/or neighborhoods. NYCHA is the largest landlord in NYC, so the Mamdani administration telling residents to wait even longer for a solution to their long-standing sub-standard living conditions has to be challenged.
The unfolding case study of Mayor Mamdani in New York City reveals that we have to keep voting with record voter turnouts. But after the elections, we must hold mayors and other elected officials accountable. Mamdani still has time to ensure greater equity in NYC. But will he do the right thing at the right time?
Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and can be reached at dr.bchavis@nnpa.org
