Mayor david dinkins, In a new memoir, the city’s first black mayor says he lost his 1993 bid for reelection because of racism.
“When asked why I lost, I used to say, ‘Why do you think?’ ” David Dinkins writes. “I did not want to say it out loud, but it’s time. Now I say, ‘Racism, plain and simple.’ ”
Two decades have passed since Republican Rudy Giuliani edged out Dinkins, denying the Democrat a second term.
But the famously genteel former mayor pulls no punches in “A Mayor’s Life: Governing New York’s Gorgeous Mosaic,” due to hit bookshelves this fall.
When he and Giuliani faced off in 1989, when Dinkins just managed to eke out victory, Giuliani had “no polish” and was “the kind of man who went for the jugular,” Dinkins writes. “His underlying message was clear for all to see: The city is in terrible financial straits. Do you really want a black man presiding over it in this time of trouble?”
In 1992, a demonstration by NYPD rank and file included beer-swilling white cops calling Dinkins the N-word, he recalls. “Rudy Giuliani was out there all but inciting the police to riot,” Dinkins writes.
A spokesman for Giuliani declined comment.In the book, Dinkins addresses the Crown Heights race riots, admitting that “in many ways, the Police Department failed and the buck stopped with me.”
Yet the 1993 election, Dinkins writes, hinged not on Crown Heights, but on Staten Island.
Cuomo allowed a referendum on whether Staten Island should secede, boosting voter turnout in the mostly white borough.
“When asked why I lost, I used to say, ‘Why do you think?’ ” David Dinkins writes. “I did not want to say it out loud, but it’s time. Now I say, ‘Racism, plain and simple.’ ”
Two decades have passed since Republican Rudy Giuliani edged out Dinkins, denying the Democrat a second term.
But the famously genteel former mayor pulls no punches in “A Mayor’s Life: Governing New York’s Gorgeous Mosaic,” due to hit bookshelves this fall.
When he and Giuliani faced off in 1989, when Dinkins just managed to eke out victory, Giuliani had “no polish” and was “the kind of man who went for the jugular,” Dinkins writes. “His underlying message was clear for all to see: The city is in terrible financial straits. Do you really want a black man presiding over it in this time of trouble?”
In 1992, a demonstration by NYPD rank and file included beer-swilling white cops calling Dinkins the N-word, he recalls. “Rudy Giuliani was out there all but inciting the police to riot,” Dinkins writes.
A spokesman for Giuliani declined comment.In the book, Dinkins addresses the Crown Heights race riots, admitting that “in many ways, the Police Department failed and the buck stopped with me.”
Yet the 1993 election, Dinkins writes, hinged not on Crown Heights, but on Staten Island.
Cuomo allowed a referendum on whether Staten Island should secede, boosting voter turnout in the mostly white borough.
