It has been frustrating to watch longtime Black political leaders – especially members of the clergy – line up to endorse Andrew Cuomo of all people for mayor of New York City.
Fewer politicians on the planet are less deserving of a political comeback than Cuomo. Not only is he currently leading in polling, but community leaders representing areas more likely to suffer from a Cuomo mayorship than benefit are trying to help engineer it for him.
It’s a pathetic, albeit predictable outcome given Cuomo’s history of running to the Black community when politically expedient and select leaders from it are embracing him regardless of how little he plans to do for the community in return.
Years ago, when Cuomo’s governorship became ensnarled in scandal over allegations of sexual harassment, he ran to a Black church in Harlem to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, and while present, was lavished with praise by various Black ministers and political figures in attendance.
So, as Cuomo was engulfed in controversy following several women, including former and current aides, accusing him of making inappropriate remarks and behavior like unwanted touching and unwelcome sexual advances, they were singing the devil’s high praises to heaven.
The New York Times quoted one of those people, Hazel N. Dukes, president of the NY chapter of the NAACP, referring to Cuomo as her “son” during her remarks, insisting that “he ain’t white.”
With all due respect to Ms. Dukes, Cuomo might have been her play son, but that man ain’t no damn honorary Negro.
Thankfully, there were others like New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who protested Cuomo’s actions at the time and reminded others of the harm he brought to Black communities.
“Gov. Cuomo is not a victim, and he is not a casualty. He’s a powerful person who has caused victims and has caused casualties,” Williams said at a protest outside of Cuomo’s office in 2021.
Others, like the public education advocacy organization Alliance for Quality Education, argued: “Governor Cuomo’s policies have deepened inequality in public schools, and reinforced the structures of educational racism in New York.”
Yet, only a few weeks ago, 30 Black faith leaders released a statement claiming that “Andrew Cuomo’s leadership reflects the values we hold close: uplifting the marginalized, fighting for equity, and building a city where every person has the chance to thrive.”
The man who empowered Republicans in NY to help him stave off a more progressive agenda, who reportedly governed like a tyrant and a creep, is the best person to do all that?
This does not even include his administration’s abysmal handling of nursing homes in the state during the pandemic and all the pain, suffering, and loss of life it caused.
There is also the matter of Cuomo’s longtime knack for casual displays of racism.
Cuomo is the same person who, in 2008, as a supporter of Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, said of Barack Obama’s loss in the New Hampshire primary: “It’s not a TV-crazed race. Frankly, you can’t buy your way into it. You can’t shuck and jive at a press conference. You can’t just put off reporters, because you have real people looking at you saying answer the question, you know, and all those moves you can make with the press don’t work when you’re in someone’s living room.”
Then, a decade later, in 2019, he used “the N-word” during a live radio interview with WAMC.
His racism in the 1990s was no better.
While running against Carl McCall in the Democratic primary for governor of NY, Cuomo dismissed McCall as little more than “a racial contract” between Black and Latino New Yorkers that should not prevail.
Cuomo lost that race, but at least successfully pulled off the role of spoiler for the Black gubernatorial hopeful – a role repeated years later when, as New York’s attorney general, he was accused of using his office to run an orchestrated campaign to push Governor David Paterson out of the race.
This is the man a state chapter president of the NAACP claims “ain’t white.”
He sounds mighty white to me and of a familiar sort.
In her book, Confidence Man, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman wrote that “the only two politicians I ever heard publicly use the phrase ‘The Blacks’ were Donald Trump and Andrew Cuomo.”
And, like Trump, Cuomo is not the type to admit fault.
In fact, to this day, when it comes to acknowledging his bullying and abusive behavior that led him to resign, he and his supporters continue to attack Attorney General Letitia James and her purported “incompetence.” Yes, that is a mighty racist and very Trumpian assertion of him to make. The same can be said of him wanting to use tax-payer funds to sue James in retaliation.
Years ago, despite his known rocky history, Cuomo became governor with ample Black support. History could repeat itself now, but it’s not too late to turn this around before the June Democratic mayoral primary in NYC and remind Black voters what sort of politician they’re potentially returning to prominence.
It was clownish enough when some of these same Black pastors and political operatives continued to support the current scandal-prone mayor of NYC, Eric Adams.
It’s unforgivable to advocate for Black voters to replace one corrupt politician with another.
As Bertha Lewis, founder and president of Black Leadership and Action Coalition, put it in an op-ed for the New York Daily News: “Cuomo’s father, Mario, was a champion for our communities. His son’s actions now threaten that legacy.”
The Black pastors and politicians telling Black New Yorkers otherwise are wrong and in desperate need of their conscience.
Michael Arceneaux is a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent book, “I Finally Bought Some Jordans,” was published last March.
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