…from the NY Times….
“People talk about how black lives matter,” said Charlie King, a longtime Democratic operative and a former senior campaign adviser to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. “Well, black leadership matters. If white progressives can’t respect that, they will be made to respect that.”
Since President Trump’s election in 2016, Democrats nationwide have grappled with whether a new wave of progressive energy — fueled in large part by young people and well-off white suburban women — represents black voters, the longtime pillars of the Democratic Party.
In New York, the debate has taken on particular weight. Black Democrats now lead both houses of the State Legislature, after years of Republican opposition. In the Assembly especially, black lawmakers have risen under Mr. Heastie’s leadership, as have those with ties to the Bronx County political machine that Mr. Heastie once led.
Some of those freshly cemented power brokers are now bristling at the suggestion by newly prominent activists and elected officials that they have not been progressive enough on issues like rent regulation, new taxes on the ultrawealthy and campaign finance reform.
They call such criticisms misplaced and racially charged, and they suggest that the activists do not represent the communities they claim to speak for.
“What the driving force of this movement cares about isn’t what communities of color care about,” said State Senator Brian Benjamin, a black Democrat who represents Harlem.
The issue came to a head outside Mr. Heastie’s fund-raiser last month, when progressive activist groups like Indivisible and Rise and Resist, which formed after the 2016 presidential election, organized a protest. Black leaders arrived to counterprotest….