Uh Oh: Some Liberal Writers Are Angered That Mamdani Has No Black Deputy Mayors

Matt Vespa | January 18, 2026 6:30 AM

Some at The New York Times are already attacking New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Is he not left-wing enough? What’s the deal? Oh, it’s an attack on his fledgling mayoralty because none of his deputies are black. I’m not kidding—the headline says it all: None of Mamdani’s Deputy Mayors Are Black. It Has Become a Problem.

After winning the Democratic mayoral primary last year, Zohran Mamdani acknowledged that his victory came without much support from Black voters, and he pledged to do better.
Mr. Mamdani spent the next few months working to improve his relationship with Black leaders in New York City and vowed, from Black church pulpits around the city, that he would have a diverse administration representative of the city.
But in his rollout as mayor, Mr. Mamdani has appointed five deputy mayors, none of them Black; one was Latino.
On Thursday, Mr. Mamdani announced Afua Atta-Mensah, who led his campaign outreach to Black voters, as the new chief equity officer and commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice. The mayor also reaffirmed his commitment to releasing a long overdue and mandated plan to address racial disparities in New York City, vowing to do so in his first 100 days in office.
The moves were welcomed by Black and Latino leaders, but they still questioned Mr. Mamdani’s commitment to racial equity.
Tyquana Henderson-Rivers, a well-known Black political consultant, said in an interview that she believed it was “damaging that there’s no Black deputy mayor.”
“He already doesn’t have the best relationship with the Black community,” she said. “And it seems like he’s not interested in us because there’s no representation in his kitchen cabinet.”

First, not that he’s going to do this regarding the uproar over the lack of a racial quota here, but Mamdani can hire whom he damn well pleases. The city needs to be run, security threats checked due to the city being a massive terror target, but let's get all worked up over the lack of some racial quotas in the administration.

Just unserious.