{"id":385932,"date":"2026-10-28T22:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T22:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/385932\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T22:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T22:46:09","slug":"mamdani-tries-to-oust-black-female-leader-of-nycs-racial-equity-commission-after-she-publicly-criticized-the-admin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/385932\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani tries to oust black female leader of NYC’s racial equity commission after she publicly criticized the admin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani tried to replace the black female head of the city\u2019s Commission on Racial Equity after she publicly criticized him for removing any mention of DEI from its \u201cracial equity plan\u201d released earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Hizzoner sent a letter to the City Council this week asking lawmakers to sign off on replacing Linda Tigani with Christopher Alexander, the executive director of New York\u2019s NAACP.<\/p>\n

The request, which was first reported by The New York Times, was quickly met with fierce backlash from the council and others in the black community who argued that removing Tigani appeared retaliatory and came during a critical time for the independent commission.<\/p>\n

\"ChairChair and Executive Director of the NYC Commission on Racial Equity Linda Tigani criticized the admin during a rally for the Racial Equity Plan in April. Derek French\/Zuma \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to put it under his thumb, because she criticized him,\u201d one insider said. \u201cYou can\u2019t retaliate against someone because they are criticizing their administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one commission that is supposed to deal with issues in the black community, and he tries to fire her,\u201d they continued.<\/p>\n

Mamdani and Tigani clashed early on in his tenure after the administration edited her commission\u2019s draft report to eliminate racial inequity and removed all references to \u201cdiversity, equity and inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cuts were to avoid drawing the ire of the Trump administration, which had been cracking down on DEI policies across the country.<\/p>\n

The commission was formed in 2022 in response to a ballot measure that tasked it with studying reparations, addressing inequality in the city and issuing a formal report on the findings.<\/p>\n

Tigani fumed on City Hall steps Wednesday afternoon as she led a rally of lawmakers and others in the community who are fighting to keep her on.<\/p>\n

\"LindaMamdani attempt to remove her failed this week. NYC Commission on Racial Equity<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only people that are holding the line in this decision are the black and Latino Asian Caucus and Speaker Julie Menin,\u201d she said. \u201cSpeaker Menin understands that a removal of me in this moment is actually undermining the independence of the commission.\u201d<\/p>\n

The demonstrators slammed Mamdani for simply putting up token \u201cblack bodies\u201d during his campaign, but falling far short of delivering for the community.<\/p>\n

The mayor had been criticized early on for not appointing any black deputy mayors.<\/p>\n

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Council member Farah Louis said replacing Tigani \u201crisks delaying and derailing a process that black New Yorkers have waited generations to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s proposed pick, Alexander, previously had to resign after leading the botched rollout of New York legal weed program under Gov. Kathy Hochul.<\/p>\n

The council has now struck tentative deal with the mayor to keep Tigani until next July but is open to vetting Alexander.<\/p>\n

Mamdani was asked about the behind-the-schemes turmoil at a news conference on Wednesday, saying she served a full three-year term that has now come to an end. He said \u201cwe all owe her a debt of gratitude\u201d for advancing racial equity in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlongside the City Council, we have agreed to extend her term to next summer, and we\u2019re excited to work with that same council to put forward Christopher Alexander as the next Commissioner,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Hannah Fierick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani tried to replace the black female head of the city\u2019s Commission on Racial Equity after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[57,9,56,63,65,64,47162,15797,58,82],"class_list":["post-385932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-racial-discrimination","tag-reparations","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385932","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=385932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}