Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Appoints Afua Atta-Mensah as Chief Equity Officer and Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Equity & Racial Justice
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
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Good afternoon, everyone. More than three years ago, New Yorkers did something that comes easy to us. We made our voices heard. In November of 2022, New Yorkers went to the polls and overwhelmingly supported a change to our City Charter, creating a new Mayor's Office of Equity and Racial Justice. The people of this city held a belief that City Hall holds as well, that New York should do everything in its power to build a city where racial disparities are identified and eroded, one where every person who calls the city home is treated fairly and equally. It is no small thing to create a new Mayor's Office. It is a statement of intent, a mandate, and a mission delivered by the people, a purpose that demands fulfillment. And yet we know that that purpose has not been fulfilled in recent years. A key component of that charter change was the requirement that a racial equity plan be produced every two years and that the Mayor's Office cooperated closely with the Commission on Racial Equality, or CORE, in this work. All those present alongside me and in front of me know that cooperation is not the first word many would use to characterize the past administration's approach to this vital work. We will chart a new course from City Hall, one where racial equity is pursued with seriousness and intent, where agencies and offices will work collaboratively, and where deadlines will be met as opposed to ignored. To lead that work, I have turned to one of my most trusted advisors, a friend, someone who immediately inspires trust in the hearts of the many civic leaders who have been fortunate enough to work alongside her. Afua Atta-Mensah has dedicated her adult life to serving the people of this city and to working on behalf of the New Yorkers so often forgotten in the corridors of power. Long before she served as my senior political director during our general election campaign, Afua began her career at the Legal Aid Society, where she fought on behalf of indigent tenants and to preserve low-income housing. As a staff attorney at the Brooklyn Family Defense Project, she protected the Black and Hispanic families who are often the targets of unfounded allegations of neglect. Many New Yorkers know her from her more recent work as the executive director of Community Voices Heard, where she managed the efforts of our state's largest Black-led organizing institution, fighting back against HUD cuts and working daily to empower Black women who call this city home. Afua is above all else an organizer. She organizes those she works alongside, she organizes with discipline and determination, and she organizes relentlessly on behalf of New Yorkers who often think of government as something that could only ignore them at best. As the newest chief equity officer and commissioner, I will turn to Afua to organize this office into a force of genuine political change. And I want to thank Commissioner Sideya Sherman and her team for their work in building this office to where it is today. There are many New Yorkers still awaiting the racial equity plan that was promised to them and the incredibly important information that it would contain. Under Afua's leadership, I am proud to announce that a preliminary citywide racial equity plan will be crafted and published within the first 100 days of our administration. I will close with this. For many years, New Yorkers have known race and identity only as a tool used to divide or to minimize our daily experiences across these five boroughs. We reckon with it in our schools, where Black and brown children contend with larger class sizes and worse outcomes, in housing where discrimination runs rampant, and in pay that is anything but equitable. We need not accept the challenges or, frankly, the inertia and inaction of the past as if it is a blueprint of our future. We can do not only what voters have asked us to do, not only what the law requires us to do, but also that which we know to be right. We can create a New York that embraces every person who lives here, that works to knock down the walls of prejudice wherever they appear, and that celebrates the diverse fabric of our city. That will be the work that Afua leads, and let it be a daily endeavor that every New Yorker engages in as well. Thank you so much. And now, Afua Atta-Mensah. Afua Atta-Mensah, Chief Equity Officer and Commissioner, Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I am excited to stand once again in this very justice center where I practiced years ago, where I suited up each day to fight on behalf of New Yorkers facing eviction and displacement. Then the battle was in courtrooms. Today I return to this space to take on a new battle, one that seeks citywide accountability on behalf of all New Yorkers. I am both honored and deeply humbled by the responsibility before us: to meet the charter's mandate by developing and implementing a comprehensive citywide racial equity plan. This work is ambitious by design. Reshaping systems that for far too long have erected barriers instead of building on-ramps for opportunity will not be easy. But as the mayor has made clear, this administration is committed to doing big things — and to doing them boldly. I look forward to partnering with community leaders and working alongside the teams at the Office of Equity and Racial Justice and CORE to make this commitment real. Thank you.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThis appointment speaks to the excellence in Afua Atta-Mensah's record and in her vision for what it can look like to fulfill not just the statutory requirements of this Mayor's Office, but frankly, the need across this city to advance an agenda of racial equity and justice. And I will tell you that it is essential that my administration doesn't just fight for New Yorkers, but also looks like the city that it seeks to represent. And I am proud of the team that we have assembled. I am proud of not only its focus on working class New Yorkers, but also its embodiment of that very focus in its own personnel. And I see — in an appointment process that is only going to continue — the need to showcase that reason to believe in city government every single day to New Yorkers across the city. I have nothing but respect and admiration for Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez. And I will always continue to appreciate the relationship that we have and the shared vision in making this a city that we not only live in, but are also proud of.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWe are deeply troubled by the conditions at Rikers Island. And we will work with the monitor to improve them. We are going through the report and we will also be going through the plan to not only come into compliance, but also to end solitary confinement at Rikers.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI would say that Congresswoman Velázquez and I are both proud progressives in New York City. And I am very excited in my support, not only for Diana Moreno, who is running to be the assemblymember in the former seat that I held, as well as Claire Valdez in NY-7, and Brad Lander, who is also running for congress. These are candidates that I'm excited by, and I'm confident New Yorkers will also be excited by [them].
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, I say this also standing alongside my former colleague in the state legislature, where we have seen time and time again the intent of something we passed does not necessitate its actual implementation. And when it comes to solitary confinement, we have seen the absence of its implementation here — the absence of the eradication of it, rather — here at Rikers Island. And I absolutely will go to Rikers Island. I went to Rikers Island as an assemblymember a number of times. And what I can tell you is that when you go to Rikers Island, you understand the scale of devastation that we are talking about. The last time I went to Rikers Island, an incarcerated New Yorker tried to take their own life in front of a former colleague of mine. That is what we are talking about. And I have to say also that the importance of a chief equity officer, the importance of a commissioner such as Afua Atta-Mensah, is someone who can take that which is often simply written about on a page or read in an article and make it the focus of the work that we do. And I have seen Afua do that time and time again in the work that we have done together in the past. And frankly, I am excited at the prospect of everything that we can do in city government. Thank you all. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Appoints Afua Atta-Mensah as Chief Equity Officer and Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Equity & Racial Justice.