{"id":102436,"date":"2026-01-16T18:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T18:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/102436\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T18:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T18:01:09","slug":"nyc-mayor-zohran-mamdani-faces-criticisms-for-having-no-black-deputy-mayors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/102436\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani faces criticisms for having no Black deputy mayors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zohran Mamdani,<\/a> the new mayor of New York City, is facing criticisms from Black community leaders just weeks into his administration. As the Big Apple\u2019s 34-year-old, first Muslim and South Asian mayor assembles his team to execute his ambitious affordability agenda, some are troubled that he has not appointed a single Black person as a deputy mayor.<\/p>\n

According to The New York Times<\/a>, critics are side-eying Mamdani\u2019s rollout of five deputy mayors thus far; one was Latino, but none were Black.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care whether the mayor\u2019s Black, white, Asian or Latino, you need a leadership team that mirrors the city,\u201d said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, told the Times. <\/p>\n

More than half of New York City\u2019s resident population is Black and Latino.<\/p>\n

The early criticism of the still-developing Mamdani administration comes after Black voters played a key role in the new mayor\u2019s historic victory <\/a>last November. After losing the Black vote to Andrew Cuomo in the 2024 primary election, Mamdani worked to improve his engagement with Black New Yorkers. In the end, Mamdani turned things around with 61% of the Black vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear from the lack of conversation and engagement that there doesn\u2019t seem to be a lot of focus and attention on the needs of Black New Yorkers in the city,\u201d L. Joy Williams, the head of the New York State NAACP, told the New York Times.<\/p>\n

Tyquana Henderson-Rivers, a Black political consultant, told the newspaper that not having a Black deputy mayor was \u201cdamaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe already doesn\u2019t have the best relationship with the Black community. And it seems like he\u2019s not interested in us because there\u2019s no representation in his kitchen cabinet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"ZohranNEW YORK, NEW YORK \u2013 JANUARY 06: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attends a news conference at the headquarters of the NYPD on January 06, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Mayor Mamdani pushed back against some of the criticisms of his lack of Black appointments, noting to the Times that, among overall appointees throughout the administration, including commissioner and director positions, several were Black and Latino. <\/p>\n

But deputy mayors hold considerably more power in City Hall. The appointed offices oversee major executive branch offices, and a majority of agency commissioners and department heads report to a deputy mayor.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Mamdani announced Afua Atta-Mensah as the new chief equity officer and commissioner of the Mayor\u2019s Office of Equity and Racial Justice. Atta-Mensah led Mamdani\u2019s mayoral campaign outreach to Black voters. The new mayor also tapped other Black appointees in high-level positions, like Kamar Samuels as the city\u2019s school chancellor and Jahmila Edwards as director of intergovernmental affairs.<\/p>\n

Mamdani has made commitments to Black communities to address persistent racial disparities in New York City. The mayor said his administration will release a plan to address those racial disparities in vowing within his first 100 days in office.<\/p>\n

During a Thursday news conference in East Harlem, while introducing Atta-Mensah, Mamdani addressed the diversity of his administration, telling New Yorkers, \u201cIt is essential that my administration doesn\u2019t just fight for New Yorkers, but also looks like the city that it seeks to represent.\u201d He added, \u201cI am proud of the team that we have assembled.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor of New York City, is facing criticisms from Black community leaders just weeks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-102436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}