The indictment of New York City mayor Eric Adams is the latest example of moribund Black politics. Rich donors and corporate media decide who will be elected to office, while the people’s needs go unaddressed.
“Your policies are anti-Black, you’re a disgrace for all Black people in this city. The things that you have done are unconscionable. Our children are harassed by police. This is ridiculous, this is ridiculous.”
Protester at Eric Adams press conference
We at Black Agenda Report were always skeptical that Black people would make any progress under the administration of New York City mayor Eric Adams. In our 2021 article, Elections and the Illusion of Black Political Power, this columnist wrote, “Adams speaks favorably of the business community, hence the campaign haul, and real estate developers and other wealthy New Yorkers made clear he was their choice. Fundraising prowess is always an indication that the people’s needs will not be met.”
Two and one half years later, Adams not only proved BAR’s analysis of his politics to be correct, but his administration is dangling by a thread. The mayor is under indictment, his police and education commissioners have resigned in a cloud of scandal, and top aides face indictments or have had their phones seized by federal prosecutors . Adams faces calls to resign and could possibly be removed from office by New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul.
It was bad enough that Adams was the willing face of the right wing of the Democratic Party, but if the charges are true, he is also an incompetent petty crook who violated the most basic understanding of conflicts of interest rules. He accepted free trips on behalf of the Turkish government, and created fake campaign donors to increase his city matching funds. The five count indictment includes charges of wire fraud, soliciting campaign contributions from a foreign national, and bribery.
But the petty corruption is not even the worst of the Adams administration. Eric Adams is mayor because of his right wing rhetoric about crime and support from Rupert Murdoch’s flagship U.S. newspaper, the New York Post. He didn’t disappoint his patron as he violated a court order to close the notorious Rikers Island jail, and blocked a bill to ban solitary confinement. He joined the governor in attacking modest bail reform that kept poor people from being unfairly incarcerated. Adams is a retired policeman and often referred to himself as a cop, not as the mayor of all the people, but a member of the force that violently occupies Black communities.
Eric Adams brought back the stop and frisk policies which terrorized Black New Yorkers with arbitrary and often dangerous encounters with police. He has followed the orders of wealthy zionists in ordering attacks on student encampments at Columbia University and City College. He created an NYPD propaganda unit, headed by a white policeman who killed a Black man.
As Black Agenda Report has often noted, Black politics is on life support. By Black politics we mean politics that unapologetically advocates for the needs of Black people. The presence of Black politicians is not necessarily evidence that Black politics are being asserted.
When Black mayors were first elected in major cities like New York, Newark, Chicago, Cleveland and elsewhere, the elections were the culmination of old fashioned political coalitions. These political machines did not necessarily do the people’s business, but there was a kind of order in the process and there was some sort of representation for the masses. Eric Adams came to power because rich conservatives chose him for the job and because there was no consensus for a more progressive candidate.
It is prudent to ask why Adams was targeted by federal prosecutors. After all, that is the history of Black people, being targeted simply for being Black. He is certainly not the first crooked mayor of New York City, but the first to be indicted while in office. But he has retreated into the worst kind of buffoonish politics, dragging ministers before the camera and pleading for support that falls on deaf or uninterested ears.
His press conference the day after his indictment was announced was a sad spectacle as protesters showed up along with a small group of Adams supporters. “Your policies are anti-Black. You are a disgrace for all Black people in this city,” yelled Hawk Newsome , co-founder of the Black Lives Matter-Greater New York chapter.
Adams attempts to go through his regular routine, which is difficult as top aides and deputy mayors depart. He does have time for prayer circles, laying on of hands and the like. The spectacle inspired one commentator to muse , “Once a prayer circle is formed around a jive turkey, he’s going to jail.”
New York is full of Black politicians in high positions leading both houses of the state legislature, the New York City Council, and two of five borough presidencies in New York City. Yet they reach these heights not because they speak for the people, but because real estate developers and corporate media give them a stamp of approval.
The people were certainly not enthusiastic about voting for Adams, who won election in 2021 with only 21% of registered voters casting ballots, a record low. How can there be excitement when the leading Black candidate constantly stokes a crime panic and brags about having been a police officer. New York does not have Black political leadership that represents the needs of people who are being displaced by high housing prices and gentrification. More than 200,000 Black residents have left the city in the last 20 years. Neighborhoods such as Harlem are no longer majority Black while Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn has seen the departure of 22,000 Black people and the arrival of 30,000 whites. Inevitably Black politics is weakened even more with a smaller population.
The crisis has been brewing for some time but now there is no pretense of allegiance to Black people. Rupert Murdoch and real estate billionaires decide who will be mayor, and a return to stop and frisk is the end result. In the week before Adams was indicted police in Brooklyn shot a would be fare beater, two bystanders, and one of their own officers.
Adams may serve out his term but even if he does, it will be his last. The question is whether Black politics will end when Adams’ political career ends. For now, the future is not very promising, regardless of who occupies city hall. The trajectory of political life does not look good for Black people in New York or other big cities. The people will have to mobilize and save themselves.
Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents . You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on the Twitter , Bluesky , and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at margaret dot kimberley at blackagendareport dot com.