Making it in New York: The Eric Adams Story

Notes from America with Kai Wright

WNYC Studios

News Commentary, Politics, History, News

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In just two weeks, New Yorkers could elect Eric Adams, making him the city’s second-ever Black mayor. What does his rise through civil service tell us about the ways race and power have evolved in the nation’s largest city? Hear from Errol Louis, one of New York's longest-serving political journalists, about how Adams's story is part of a much broader history of Black politics -- a story that began in a Brooklyn church, some 50 years ago. Companion listening for this episode: 'Community' Is a Verb. And It’s Hard (6/12/2020) To a lot of people, Eric Adams offers a sense of safety after a spike of violence in their communities. Revisit an episode about how people all over the country found ways to “do the work” in their communities in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement. But as they did, they faced challenges that went beyond Covid-19 and police violence. Two stories, from Chicago and New York City. “The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC. We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Do you think that New York is still a place that people can move to and access the American dream?
0:08.0	Well, if you work hard and you're lucky, right now it's a bit challenge yet. You got to obey and conform if you're not of that
0:17.6	persuasion it might be a bit difficult but you still got to try hard.
0:22.0	What do you think the number one issue is going into this Mayorial race?
0:26.0	There is a lot of people that need help the underclass
0:30.0	be a homeless situation.
0:32.0	But it seems like it's a lot of work that needs to be done.
0:35.3	I think it needs to be addressed by so-called leaders in society.
0:39.8	New York is in the process of potentially getting its second ever black mayor.
0:45.0	Does that mean anything to you?
0:47.0	Who knows, whoever wins, hopefully they'll do a good job turning this city around
0:52.0	and creating jobs for minorities and people that need help.
0:57.2	This is the United States of Anxiety. I'm Ky right and welcome to the show. New York City will choose its next mayor in a couple of weeks and it
1:05.2	will almost certainly be an historic outcome unless there is some dramatic development
1:10.8	between now and then and hey this is politics so you never know but
1:14.6	without a huge change in the shape of the race Democratic nominee Eric Adams
1:19.1	will surely defeat Republican nominee Curtis Sloew to become mayor. And if so, in the nation's largest city,
1:26.7	a place where a comfortable majority of residents are people of color, Adams will be just the second
1:32.1	person to hold that job who is not a white man.
1:35.0	Famously David Dinkins was our first black mayor back in the early 1990s.
1:41.0	Eric Adams is poised to be the second.
1:43.9	And yet Adams has thus far seemed like an awkward fit for the racial politics of this moment.
	...

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