A prominent black Big Apple politician compared Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s comrades in the Democratic Socialists of America to white supremacists as a bitter rift between Democrats spilled onto social media.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards breathed new life into a longstanding complaint among minority lawmakers that the largely lily-white DSA ignores race in its crusade to grow its ranks and dismantle capitalism.
“White supremacy comes in all forms,” Richards posted on social media late Sunday.
White supremacy comes in all forms. https://t.co/w4qyN2Lip7
— Donovan Richards Jr. (@DRichardsQNS) July 20, 2026
The slap erupted from an debate online after a report in the New York Times that highlighted how the extreme left wing of the Democratic Party focuses on furthering the group’s agenda and largely has blinders on when it comes to black and Latino members and issues important to them in the five boroughs.
A DSA state Assemblymember, Phara Souffrant Forrest, attacked the Times reporter and whined that the story omitted that a black member of the group has repped one of the nabes mentioned — seemingly without fully reading the story.
Richards had responded after another journalist pointed out the article had already addressed her complaint.
He then doubled down on the accusation, sharing a famous Malcolm X quote that caustically labeled white liberals “dangerous 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,” the quote states.
The DSA’s recent rise as a viable force with the Democratic Party stoked chatter of an intraparty civil war between the far-left radicals and more moderate establishment figures sharply split on Israel and hiking taxes on the rich.
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And for all the DSA faction’s lip service on race and social justice, many minority voters in New York and beyond look askance at its actual policies and priorities – with the National Black Empowerment Action Fund, for one, contending their agenda is bad for African-Americans.
The DSA has backed candidates from minority backgrounds, including two of its most prominent members — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Latina, and Mamdani, who is Uganda-born — but the group’s makeup is overwhelmingly white.
A 2021 survey found 85% of the DSA is white.
The group also has faced accusations that it uses vulnerable districts to parachute in one of its own people instead of recruiting a candidate – often in opposition to seasoned black and Latino contenders.
Mamdani himself, during the June Democratic primaries, endorsed two DSA congressional candidates – Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez – over incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, pols with proven track records and minority backgrounds.
Chevalier and Valdez both won the contests, largely carrying areas flush with upper-income, young and white voters.
https://t.co/Yk8kxtlljg pic.twitter.com/iqta5APlbs
— Donovan Richards Jr. (@DRichardsQNS) July 20, 2026
Political operative Ryan Adams, who works as managing director at Actum, pointed out the DSA previously lost races in neighborhoods where the population is made up overwhelmingly with people of color before the generational political talent Mamdani became their standard bearer.
“While they are electing diverse candidates, the growth of DSA is coming in places that are seeing the most gentrification,” Adams said.
“Socialism has a long history with communities of color, but it’s hard to argue the recent activity has been deeply intertwined with the communities.”
Richards is a liberal Democrat who has represented Queens for more than 13 years after being elected borough president in 2020, following an eight-year stint on the City Council.
His and Mamdani’s beef has emphasized the growing chasm in the party as the mayor and his pals try to drag the party farther left while the progressive folks — once considered the left wing of the city’s Democratic Party — attempt to maintain city institutions and hold onto the reins of the party.
Richards endorsed Mamdani after he secured the Democratic nomination for mayor last year, but the fellow Queens lawmaker has not hesitated to take the young mayor to task in the days since.
The borough prez first went after Mamdani just weeks into his tenure when his admin cried poverty with city coffers running dry, claiming the only way New York City could survive was a whopping 9.5% property tax increase.
