Transcript: Mayor Adams Hosts Reception Celebrating Caribbean-American Heritage

June 27, 2024

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Chief Advisor to the Mayor: …of me and many of you. I cannot go over all of your voices as my mother would say. I'm pleased to be here tonight as a member of the Caribbean community of Barbadian and Panamanian extract. I'm humbled. It's always a pleasure to be here amongst my own people. It's always an honor to be amongst my own people.

Before we start with the program, I want to take the opportunity to thank Hazra. Hazra, come on. Every year and for years, before our team became the Borough Hall team, City Hall team, the City Hall team, Hazra Ali has been working in partnership with many people to make this event happen. I want to give you a round of applause and thank you for all the work that you do. I also want to thank a number of our team members who are here and they work all the time. Our MOSPCE team, Trey Moynihan. Where's Trey at? I don't know if she's around, but Trey Moynihan, Marcy Isaacson, Eleesia Hernandez. You know Lamona. Come on, Lamona. Lamona Worrell. She's been holding down the fort with the mayor for many years. She was a police officer. Then she joined our team when he was running to become a senator and also the board president and the mayor.

Famod Konneh. Did I say your name properly? I hope so. Michael is here, Appleton. DJ, I don't know where DJ is, but DJ should have been on this stage because he too is of Caribbean descent and he's Eric's number one. He's always with the mayor. Also, we want to thank our press team, Brad Weekes and our IGA, Alfonso Lopez. Of course, tonight's musical engineer, DJ Suave Luciano is my son. I want to thank you. I don't know where you are, but thank you. He always volunteers. They try to write us up in the papers, but he doesn't take any money. He's a volunteer. Just saying that.

Tonight, we came here to celebrate with a purpose. We have three distinguished honorees, which is my pleasure to do the presentation on behalf of the mayor, who will be here shortly. He will be here. You will get to hear his phenomenal speech as you always do. Without any further ado, I would like to present to you our first honoree, Dr. Melony Samuels. I happen to know Dr. Samuels personally, and I know of her work. She handles food insecurities throughout Brooklyn, throughout Brooklyn. She is all over the place. It doesn't matter what your race is, what your nationality is, what your religious affiliation is. She will ensure that you have good, healthy, and quality food. Dr. Samuels, we salute you, and we thank you.

Dr. Melony Samuels, Founder and CEO, The Campaign Against Hunger: Good evening, everyone. Is there any Jamaican in the house? It's good to be home. Just want to say thank you on behalf of the family of the Campaign Against Hunger and 14,000 families that we serve every week. We appreciate Mayor Adams and Ingrid for this wonderful award. God bless you.

Lewis-Martin: Our second honoree, many of you in this room may know him because he is the former ambassador of Grenada, Eugene Pursoo. Please come forward.

Eugene Pursoo, Former Permanent Representative of Grenada to the United Nations: Folks, may I have your attention for a while? As I look at the beautiful words that are inscribed in this citation, I couldn't help but think that there are many people perhaps more deserving of this than me. But their names are never called, and so it's on behalf of those people that I accept this with gratitude. I accept this for the many women out there raising families, the cornerstone of our societies. I accept this on behalf of the many women in the world that are doing all they can for our children and our society.

Lewis-Martin: Our third and final honoree this evening is a professor, and we know how important education is, especially in the Caribbean community. We know that every mother and every father wants their child to excel and to do better than what they've done. It's indeed an honor for me to present this citation to Dr. Dhanpaul Narine. Dr. Dhanpaul Narine, come on, give him some love.

Dr. Dhanpaul Narine, Founder, Queens Book Fair and Literary Festival: Thank you very much. Is there any Guyanese here? I'm deaf in my right ear. I can't hear you well. Any Guyanese? Thank you. Not only Guyanese, but Trinidadians, Jamaicans, we are a commonwealth of nations. We want to thank you.

Now, this award is not only for me, it is for the education system in New York City. All the educators in New York City, this is for you. The principals, the assistant principals, the teachers, related service personnel, assistant teachers, this award is for you. We have in our mayor, Mayor Eric Adams, an education mayor. He is committed to education, so give him a big round of applause, please. He will do wonders for education. Once more, thank you very much. This is a great honor for me personally and my family and everyone else, but also for the power of education. You can only change a society, according to Nelson Mandela, if you do so through education. Education is the greatest weapon we all have. Let us treasure it. Thank you very much.

[...]

Lewis-Martin: Listen, you are, as my mother would say, one that don't want me to start singing. I would advise you to be nice. Again, we were here for a purpose. We were here for a purpose, and we had a wonderful cadre of honorees. There is someone who is responsible for this entire event. There is someone who has been a friend to the Caribbean community when he was a police officer and rose to the rank of a police captain, when he became a New York state senator, when he was the Brooklyn borough president, and he is now our 110th mayor, the second Black man to be the mayor in New York City, and in a large part because of the Caribbean community. It is indeed my pleasure and my honor to present to you, because I know I am not introducing him to anyone in this room, our 110th mayor, our Caribbean brother for tonight, Eric Adams. Let's show the mayor some love.

Mayor Eric Adams: Oh man, look at this, look at this. I feel like, feel like I'm back in Brooklyn. Amazing. Hazra, she, back when we were borough president, she was able to just bring the entire Caribbean diaspora together and to celebrate at Brooklyn Borough Hall all of the wonderful things that the community represents. Give it up, give it up for Hazra for doing this every year, every year, holding it down.

Think about it for a moment, because this is our opportunity for you to really lift up what we have done as a city. Because I know that every day you read the worst things that can happen in a city of 8.3 million people. You read it and you begin to internalize it. Let me share this with you. January 1st, 2022, when I became the second Black mayor of the city of New York, we inherited a city where there was a 40 percent increase in violence, where there were no jobs coming to the city, small businesses were hurting. No one wanted to be on our subway system. Our children were not reading and writing and math at the capacity that they deserve. NYCHA did not have high speed broadband. Our foster care children were not getting the support that they deserve. Tourism was decimated. No one thought the city was going to recover.

Two years into the job, two years into the job, two years, we have more jobs in the history of New York City. In two years, in two years, we cut Black unemployment in half. It was four times the rate of whites. We cut it in half, and it is less than 8 percent for the first time since 2019. We have 4.1 million people riding our subway every day, with only six felonies out of that 4.1 million. We're going to get rid of the six, but let's understand we have one of the safest systems, one of the safest cities. We invested into foster care children. We are now paying their college tuition, giving them a stipend, giving them a life coach until they're 21, giving them the support they deserve. We outpace, we outpace the state in reading and in math. Our children are doing better than the entire state. Bond ratings have increased our bond rating because of how well we're doing. 64 million tourists, one of the largest, the fourth-largest in the history of the city. Decrease in homicide, decrease in shooters, decrease in the five out of seven major crime. Removing 40,000 illegal dirt bikes off our street from creating havoc on our streets.

Let me tell you something, folks. High-speed broadband for every NYCHA tenant. Local hiring, so that those who get multi-billion dollar contracts in our city must now hire locally from communities that look like our community. Billions of dollars into M/WBE, and we did it and turned this city around in two years. What do we, what do we have to address? We cycled through COVID, we thought that we could breathe easier, and then what happened? 200,000 migrants and asylum seekers came to the city. I have no authority to stop the buses from coming in. It's against federal law. I have no authority to say that you can't get three meals a day and educate 38,000 children and make sure you have a place to sleep. It's the law here in the city. Guess this, I cannot even give you the authorization to work, and I can't even give you the authorization to volunteer and give you a stipend for volunteering. That's against federal law. 200,000 people in the city, unlike other cities, they're not sleeping on the streets, they're not sleeping in the parks, they're not sleeping on the highways.

This city is functioning. Don't let anyone tell you that the Black man that came after David Dinkins cannot manage a city of this level of complexity. We are managing the hell out of this city. We have to be clear on that. Don't let anyone break your spirit. New York is not coming back. New York is back. We're bigger, better, and stronger than ever. How did we do it? Think about it. You tell me, who am I describing? Came to the country, may have left family members home, did any job to provide for the family, moved up and got your education, decided that you will open a small business or you will work somewhere and continue to grow and love the country and your mother country. You can't tell me who I'm talking about because every ethnic group that came to this country has the same description.

We've all come from somewhere. When anyone tells you to go back to where you come from, say you will go back when they go back to where they come from, because everybody came from somewhere. If we didn't learn anything else, my Caribbean brothers and sisters, we learned how much you contributed to this city. Go through the pandemic, walk inside the hospitals, and you will see who were there. From all parts of the Caribbean, go look at the small businesses that did not close and stayed open to continue to feed this city. Go look at who were doing the healthcare workers. Go look at who made sure the city continued to thrive. This country, you don't owe this country anything. This country owes you something because of what you have given back to this country.

That's why I'm proud to lift up the Caribbean Heritage Day here at Gracie Mansion. You grace us with your presence. You have done so much, not only for the city, but what you have done has cascaded throughout the entire country. America is what it is because of your contribution, your dedication, and your commitment. The beauty of it all, this is a country that tells you don't abandon your homeland as you adopt your newfound land. It tells you to embrace it. You bring your music, your sound, your dedication, your academic achievement. You bring your energy. We're side by side. You believe in family. You believe in faith. You believe in business. You believe in public safety.

When I move through the Caribbean community in this city, I see eye to eye because we want the same thing. I am you. I am you. I'm perfectly imperfect, but I'm dedicated. We were ready to run this city in the right direction. We've been left out too long. Don't allow them to write our narrative. This is what they did with David Dinkins. They started talking about him when he turned the city around. He dressed too well. He hangs out too late. He's not smart enough. Those are the same things they're saying. Go look at the articles. Then when we lost Dinkins, who did we get? Giuliani. Don't let them play us. You have an urban, bald-headed, earring-wearing mayor that enjoys every part of being a mayor helping people in this city. We got this, folks.

I thank you, my Caribbean brothers and sisters, for what you have done for this great city. Let's continue to lift each other up. Let's continue to build allies and build coalitions, not only from the Caribbean diaspora, but let's reach out to our brothers and sisters from India, from South America, from Central America, from Nepal, from Bangladesh. Let's build a coalition of those who believe in the things that we need to raise healthy children and families. I'm happy to be the mayor, 110th mayor, second mayor of color after Mayor David Dinkins. We're going to do this together. Thank you so much.

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