On Wednesday, March 22, the Mayor’s Office of Ethnic and Community Media (MOECM) hosted a round table with First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright for women publishers of ethnic media. As previously covered by LittleAfrica News, Wright is both the first black person and black woman to assume the role of First Deputy Mayor. Wright faced questions regarding a variety of relevant topics.
Throughout the roundtable Deputy Mayor Wright emphasized the point that the Adams Administration is data and statistics driven. The first question she was asked was one regarding the use of technology by children, the effect it has on them, and how mothers should deal with such an impactful issue. “This is an area of concern for the administration,” the deputy mayor said as she pointed out the various challenges spawned on Tik-Tok, such as surfing on trains that can lead to serious injury and death. She also said the negative impact social media standards have on women and girls was noted. “There is a large percentage [of young girls] that are experiencing depression and suicidal ideation,” she said.
Deputy Mayor Wright pointed out how the challenge with technology is how it advances rapidly while rules and regulations lag behind. She further pointed out that on a city level it is difficult to enforce change as this was easier done at a federal level. Wright insisted that the city, instead, would do what it can. “Some of the things we have been putting in place to mitigate some of these impacts…we are launching a mental health effort across our schools,” she said as she spoke of mental health services that would be provided digitally. Wright accepted that while the issue of technology and its effect on children is a complicated matter, it is one City Hall prioritizes.
The matter of ethnic women in the city was brought to the fore and Deputy Mayor Wright addressed it by pointing out how the Adams Administration has women in several prominent positions. “This is an administration that has a historic number of women in leadership roles,” she said. She pointed out how there was a deputy mayor of Filipino descent and as well as one that is a practicing Muslim.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell and FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh were also given as further examples of diverse women who are playing a significant role in the functioning of the city. “This mayor really believes in women’s leadership and that women should absolutely have a seat at the table,” Wright said. “We bring that diverse experience, of gender, of our ethnicity, of our lived experiences.”
The issue of gun violence amongst New York City school children was brought up at the round table. The deputy mayor was quizzed on the city’s efforts to deal with the problem. Deputy Mayor Wright spoke of the Gun Violence Prevention Task force, which she co-chairs. One of the ideas the task force spread across all city departments was that it was everyone’s responsibility to lessen the violence. “We need to look at two things. One is interventions and the other are preventions,” she said. Wright pointed out that the shootings in the city were concentrated in a limited number of communities. The aforementioned task force works in those communities to lessen gun violence.
She further claimed that she was willing to work with all demographics in the city to solve the matter. This includes the African diaspora community in the city that is affected by the violence but is seemingly forgotten at times.
A question was raised regarding the provision of mental health services for women of New York City who can only communicate in their native, foreign language. Deputy Mayor Wright pointed out how the Commissioner of Health, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, was a specialist in mental health which is one of the reasons why he was picked by Mayor Eric Adams for the role. There is the recognition from City Hall that mental health services are vital, especially as the city recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. She went on to talk about the mental health program launched last month by the city in an effort to assist residents in need.
The mental health resources available cater to all but mainly cover the youth, those who suffer from severe mental illness and those with drug dependency issues. Wright, however, mentioned that a woman’s health agenda would be launched in the very near future.
When the round table opened up to questions from the women publishers present, the topic of segregation in public schools was brought up and Deputy Mayor Wright emphasized the point that the administration’s goal was to ensure all schools offer adequate, quality education.
The movement of Black families out of New York was attributed to multiple factors by the deputy mayor. She did not point at a single reason why there was a migration. She however noted that more migrants would likely arrive in New York City and that too was due to multiple factors such as war, natural disasters and climate change.
