On Thursday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams lost his cool during a community meeting in Washington Heights, where he hurled inflammatory comments at an elderly woman who said he was treating him like she owned a plantation.
Here is what Adams said:
“First, if you’re going to ask a question, don’t point at me, and don’t be disrespectful to me.”
“I’m the mayor of this city, and treat me with the respect that would deserve to be treated. I’m speaking to you as an adult,” he added.
“Don’t stand in front like you treated someone that’s on the plantation that you own,” Adams charged at the woman.
The racist comment by Adams whipped up a backlash on social media, especially after it was discovered the woman was not, in fact, a plantation owner, but instead, she and her family fled Germany to escape the Nazis in the 1940s.
The woman in question is 84-year-old Jeanie Dubnau, an assistant biology professor at Rutgers University.
If Adams had considered the woman’s fascinating life history, he probably would not have used such language.
As The Daily Mail reported:
After hiding out in the European country throughout World War II, Dubnau and her parents emigrated to America, and she has lived in the Big Apple ever since.
She became a volunteer tenant organizer in 1960 and now serves as the chairwoman of the Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood Association.
Speaking to the New York Post, Dubnau said she attended the meeting on Wednesday ‘because I thought we’d have the opportunity to speak, which we did not, because the meeting was completely controlled by [Adams’] people.
“And that’s why I had to stand up and spontaneously speak,” the assistant professor of biology at Rutgers University continued, claiming: “We weren’t being called on. It was a person chosen by his people who were going to speak.”
As Red State reported, Dubnau was born in Belgium shortly after her parents fled the terrors of the Nazi regime in Germany.
The outlet continues:
After hiding out in Belgium and France throughout World War II, she and her parents emigrated to New York City when she was eight years old and has resided in the Big Apple ever since.
[She’s] now a volunteer tenant organizer since 1960 and the current chairwoman of Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood Association…
My guess is she didn’t escape fascist Nazi Germany to be slurred by American political hacks.
Dubnau told the NY Post that Adams’ response to her was merely “to avoid accountability for his policies.” She went on to criticize him for supporting a proposal allowing landlords to hike rent on rent-stabilized apartments by up to 6 percent.
This article is not intended to be a discussion of the rent control issue in the Big Apple—it’s a complicated subject, and obviously, passions run high. Her positions might not align with the conservative viewpoint, but whatever Dubnau’s opinions are, she has the right to express them without being shamed in such a nasty way by a mayor who serves at the pleasure of voters. As Toldjah wrote:
If anything, here it was Adams, who was in a position of power, treating Dubnau like she was subhuman, beneath him, not the other way around. I mean, what is she supposed to do next, kiss his ring?
It was Adams himself who asked her to stand so he could hear her better. Although she was passionate about her views, she was not threatening or abusive in her language.
When Dubnau was asked if she thinks she’ll receive an apology, she said, “Oh, he’s not going to apologize.”
“I mean, you know the mayor. He thinks he’s the greatest and doesn’t want to be criticized,” she added.
Brooklyn Democrat Councilwoman Sandy Nurse thought Adams was out of line, saying, “That reaction was an overreaction, and it was very condescending. I just don’t think it was justified by any measure. I think he should apologize to her.”
READ: Mayor Eric Adams Officially Makes New York a Sanctuary City for Child Sex Changes
