Rather than communism, the rapid rise of a radical wing of the Democratic Party found an elected New York leader railing against an alleged sort of “smiling” racism.
Conservatives aren’t alone in raising alarm bells over the recent victories of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) backed candidates. However, while talking heads like James Carville and Van Jones sounded off on the “crazy ideas” gaining traction in their party, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. (D) leveled accusations of white supremacy.
“White supremacy comes in all forms,” wrote Richards Sunday evening in reaction to a post from Spectrum News’ Errol Louis. The “Inside City Hall” host shared an excerpt from The New York Times in which Jeffrey Mays gathered the opinions of black and Latino leaders on what socialist wins mean for Gotham.
The excerpt was prompted by DSA member New York Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest’s complaint about not being mentioned in the article, which found Louis stating, “He addressed your point,” with the quote, “The tension is not centered on the ethnicity or race of the candidates supported by the D.S.A. — many are Black and Latino. It is more about the group itself: A 2021 national survey of D.S.A. members found that the group was 85 percent white, a decrease from 2013 when 96 percent of members were white. About a third of the group identified as teachers, academics, white-collar workers or tech workers.”
White supremacy comes in all forms. https://t.co/w4qyN2Lip7
— Donovan Richards Jr. (@DRichardsQNS) July 20, 2026
As it happened, while many on the right saw cause for concern in the overlap of the DSA and Islamism, Richards went on to share a December 1963 quote from Muslim Mosque, Inc. founder Malcolm X who likened white liberals to conniving foxes.
The prominent figure of the civil rights movement said, “The white conservatives aren’t friends of the Negro either, but they at least don’t try to hide it. They are like wolves; they show their teeth in a snarl that keeps the Negro always aware of where he stands with them. But the white liberals are foxes, who also show their teeth to the Negro but pretend that they are smiling. The white liberals are more dangerous than the conservatives; they lure the Negro, and as the Negro runs from the growling wolf, he flees into the open jaws of the ‘smiling’ fox.”
https://t.co/Yk8kxtlljg pic.twitter.com/iqta5APlbs
— Donovan Richards Jr. (@DRichardsQNS) July 20, 2026
Though he offered an endorsement before the November 2025 election, Richards has publicly called out New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) on policy positions and how they impact non-white New Yorkers. This included calls for property tax hikes, which found the borough president digging at Hizzoner’s “inauguration of a new era” tagline, saying, “New Era shouldn’t price out black and brown New Yorkers.”
Of course, as previously reported, Mamdani’s own director of the Office to Protect Tenants, former Housing Justice for All Executive Director Cea Weaver, had spoken in the past more in line with Richards’ view, saying in a viral video, “I think the reality is, is that for centuries we’ve really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good.”
“And we are transitioning to treating it as a collective good and towards a model of shared equity,” she went on. “We’ll require that we think about it differently, and it will mean that families — especially white families, but some [person of color] families who are homeowners as well — are gonna have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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