Mayor Eric Adams is being questioned for using the term “Negroes” at Black History event.
At the reception, Adams called those who were against his reelection bid “Negroes” as he faces his ongoing corruption case.
“All these Negroes who were asking me to step down, God, forgive them,” Adams said. “Are you stupid? I’m running my race right now.”
During an in-person media session on Monday (March 3), Adams was asked why he used the term “Negroes” to describe those who are asking for his resignation.
Well, those Negroes knew they were wrong. You know, who are we kidding? And why are we trying to classify the term Negro as being a derogatory term? You got the Negro Improvement Lead Organization,” Adams argued. You got the United Negro College Fund. You have the National Council of Negro Women. That’s not a derogatory term. I call myself, I say to myself sometimes, Negro, you dropped the ball.
Adams also maintained his innocence of all federal charges,
“You know, what people should have been really insulted about is, here is a person that did nothing wrong, was not convicted of any criminal action, but heard the optics of people and starts saying we should usurp the power of the voters. That’s what everyone should have been angry about,” he added.
Many have called for Adams to step down after he allegedly entered into a “quid pro quo” agreement with the Trump administration.
During an appearance on Good Day New York last week, anchor Curt Menefee asked Adams about his choice of words.
“Are you implying that if you’re Black, you have to support you?” questioned Menefee during their broadcast the following day. Adams stated he wanted all New Yorkers to support him. Menefee followed up by asking who he meant by “Negroes.”
“If you look at that whole speech, the speech talked about the continuation of lighting your flame and continuing to light and shine, and that’s what we’ve done in this administration with our team,” Adams responded. “So those who have called for me to allow my flame to prematurely be extinguished, that’s who I’m talking about.”
Menefee sought more clarity asking, “So you’re saying all New Yorkers are Negroes?”
“I thought I was very clear,” Adams responded. “In my definition of what I said, all New Yorkers — we got 8.3 million New Yorkers, [and] 8.3 million people didn’t call for me to step down. I get just the opposite when I’m in the streets.”
The mayor then argued that calls for him to resign were undemocratic. He also shared that people should pray for his opponents.
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