Mayor de Blasio, Informed by His Family, Steps Into Debate on Race

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/13/nyregion/mayor-bill-de-blasio-race-police.html

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With racial issues roiling the nation, Mayor Bill de Blasio has stepped to the fore, appearing on national television, speaking at church services and holding forth at news conferences to deliver a nuanced message of reconciliation.

The protesters, Mr. de Blasio said, have a valid point in expressing their anger over police killings of black men; the police, too, must be supported, especially in the wake of the shooting of five officers in Dallas. At the same time, the New York City mayor continues to push for changes in police tactics meant to bridge the gap between law enforcement and minorities.

In doing so, Mr. de Blasio has underscored his unique perspective: He is not only the mayor of the nation’s largest city, but also a white man married to a black woman, and the father of two black children.

Mr. de Blasio has, at times, stumbled in prior attempts to make himself into a national figure championing liberal policies, but his appearances this week have made it clear that on matters of race, he speaks from a firmer, more familiar ground.

On Monday, Mr. de Blasio said that the Black Lives Matter movement had “hit the right note.”

“The very phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’ is a necessary part of the national discussion,” he said. “It has helped us to recognize that sadly our history over and over again did not value African-Americans.”

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, has not framed the discussion in terms of politics, but if race-related issues continue to fester in the city and elsewhere, it could play to his advantage as he faces re-election in 2017. He could then speak directly to some of the central concerns of black New Yorkers, a key constituency that helped him get elected, while also potentially reassuring other groups anxious about the city’s direction.

“He’s got to watch that he’s on the early stages of his re-election, and I think that he knows that his strongest base remains in the African-American community,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has been a supporter of the mayor. “And if he’s going to maintain that base, he’s got to speak to the issues that concern that base.

But he also said that Mr. de Blasio might have more immediate concerns, since Sunday will be the second anniversary of Eric Garner’s death (Mr. Garner died after being held in a chokehold by a police officer on Staten Island, one of the earliest videotaped episodes that helped prompt the Black Lives Matter movement). Mr. Sharpton said the mayor was undoubtedly bracing for more protests.

“I think that he knows he’s got to get in front of this weekend,” Mr. Sharpton said.

Mr. de Blasio won the Democratic primary in 2013 with strong support from black voters, partly because he promoted the image of his interracial family. While polls show that his approval among whites has slipped considerably since he took office, they also show that black voters continue to back him strongly — even though there, too, he has seen some erosion in support.

“The goal was to be very out front in talking about these issues in a very visible way,” Phil Walzak, a senior adviser to the mayor, said in an interview on Tuesday, referring to the mayor’s response to the events last week.

Mr. Walzak said there was no effort to capitalize on the moment for political advantage.

“What the mayor is trying to do,” he said, “is demonstrate real responsible leadership that doesn’t cater or kowtow to fringes but shows real understanding and a commitment to bring the city together.”

New York became an early focus of protests over fatal police treatment of blacks in July 2014, with the death of Mr. Garner. The following month, Michael Brown was shot to death by a policeman in Ferguson, Mo., leading to widespread protests.

At the time, Mr. de Blasio spoke sympathetically of the demonstrators — much as he has today — and said that he had talked to his son, Dante, as many fathers of black children do, about how to act when confronted by the police so as not to escalate the encounter, comments that brought sharp criticism from police union officials.

That December, a man shot and killed two officers in Brooklyn, after posting on social media about his anger over the deaths of Mr. Garner and Mr. Brown — a case that presaged the killings in Dallas. That was a low point of Mr. de Blasio’s term in office, as officers turned their backs on him while he was at the hospital where the fallen officers were taken.

Since then, Mr. de Blasio has tried to mend relations with the police, while also projecting a message that will resonate with black voters.

In an appearance on CNN with his wife, Chirlane McCray, the mayor said that “all of us in white America have to understand better that young men of color live in fear all the time.”

“When I talk to Dante, it’s come to the point that he assumes that this is a part of life and a part of the reality,” the mayor continued. “It doesn’t mean he’s hopeless. If you have white children, you don’t need to give them that particular warning.”

Nonetheless, some say that the mayor’s message does not always ring true.

Vaughn Grey, 58, a nurse technician who is black, said during his lunch break in Brooklyn that the children of a powerful politician like Mr. de Blasio would not necessarily share the experiences of most people.

“Does he really understand what it’s like to have a black son?” Mr. Grey said of the mayor. “He maybe feels a twinge of what it is like. When the phone rings at night he doesn’t have to worry about someone saying the police killed his son.”

But Eric L. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, who is black and a former police officer, said the mayor was, in fact, well positioned to speak out.

“I believe that sometimes life circumstances produce the right person to have the conversation,” Mr. Adams said. “The issues that we are wrestling with around police and race, he can do it because, when he sits down in the morning and has cereal, he’s looking at someone that looks like my son, but his person is of the predominant white group that really sets many of these policies that we are dealing with.”

He added: “These are uncomfortable conversations and these are uncomfortable problems. And instead of Bill shying away from it, he’s meeting it head on.”