New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani gave an unequivocal defense of the diversity, equity and inclusion policies, also known as DEI, that President Donald Trump has targeted for elimination on Nov. 12.
Speaking at the ribbon cutting for the National Urban League’s new headquarters in New York, the 34-year-old political phenom hailed the civil rights organization’s mixed-use project as “befitting of the legacy greatness that so many Black New Yorkers have built here in Harlem.”
“It is Black-owned in a time when we are being taught as if the words DEI are that of a slur, when in fact what they are is a representation of the fulfillment of the ideals that make so many proud to be New Yorkers,” Mamdani said to cheers and claps from the majority-Black crowd.
While Trump has assailed DEI as “tyranny,” Mamdani was not the only speaker at the event to unapologetically defend the concept.
“In this political climate where civil rights protections are under attack and being rolled back and programs to promote diversity, equity and inclusion by some are being dismantled, let this stand as a beacon,” National Urban League President Marc Morial said, referring to the new building.
In addition to affordable housing, the 17-story building will include the offices for the Studio Museum of Harlem, which showcases Black artists; UNCF, which provides scholarships for Black college students, and the Urban Civil Rights Museum Experience, which Morial said will be the “first-ever museum dedicated to the northern component of the Civil Rights Movement.”
“We will not relent, we will not back up, we will not turn around in our commitment to equal opportunity − and, yes, diversity, equity and inclusion in America today,” Morial, the former mayor of New Orleans, added.
“Now in this day, and this time, when they’re stripping DEI… we could not have needed an empowerment center more,” Rev. Al Sharpton, a veteran civil rights activist, said in his address immediately after Mamdani.
The sentiment stands in stark contrast to the Trump administration, which has set about punishing organizations that practice affirmative action, such as universities that seek diversity in their student bodies and law firms that try to recruit employees from a wide array of backgrounds.
“Either DEI will end on its own, or we will kill it” Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, told the Senate Judiciary Committee in July.
Mamdani quotes from the Bible
The event was infused with religion. Pastor Reverend Orsella Hughes, Pastor of St. Luke African Methodist Episcopal Church Harlem gave an opening convocation, in which she noted “equity is not charity but divine justice.”
“I feel like saying, this is the day the Lord has made,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is not typically given to religious references, said. “I’m feeling a church feeling.”
Mamdani came in clearly knowing his audience.
“As the governor reminds us of church, I remember also the words of Scripture,” said Mamdani, the first Muslim person to be elected mayor of the largest U.S. city. “Because what has been demanded from so many in this room, in this city, this country is faith: faith that life could be more than this, faith that we could dream of something more than simply struggle.”
“And as James 2:14 reminds us: faith without works is death,” he continued. “And so to be here at the unveiling of those works, it is to remind us that that faith was not in vain. It is to remind us of the responsibility on delivering on that faith.”
Mamdani receives warm reception
While Mamdani lost most majority-Black precincts to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the June Democratic primary, he courted Black voters and won a majority of them in the general election.
That growing bond with the Black community was evident in the enthusiastic response he received on Nov. 12.
Other speakers alluded to Mamdani as well. Hughes made passing, approving reference to “the change we are now seeing in our city,” during her convocation. And Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who declined to endorse Mamdani in the general election, included him in her reference to Trump’s threats to penalize New York for electing a democratic socialist.
“We will fight any assault on this city,” she said. “We will fight any assault on our new mayor, who ran an amazing campaign.”
One attendee spoke positively of Mamdani, even though she didn’t vote for him because she does not support all of his policies, which include free buses, a rent freeze in rent-stabilized apartments and universal childcare.
“I hope that he can deliver on his promises,” said Tremaine Rochfort, who works for Virginia Union University, which will also have a campus in the building. It’s the first historically Black university to have a presence in New York City. “I love his spirit.”
“I think, right now, the approach for many people is kind of wait-and-see,” Rochfort said. “I’m rooting for him.”
Leave a Reply