I Finally Figured Out Why I Don’t Like Eric Adams
I lived in Brooklyn for almost exactly five years--from December, 2012 to December, 2017. Eric Adams, the likely winner of the 2021 New York City mayoral race, became Borough President shortly after I moved there.
I never liked Eric Adams. There was something about him I found deeply off-putting. However, as Borough President is largely a ceremonial position, I basically ignored the feeling (and Adams). And, after I went back to Manhattan, I never thought about Adams at all.
However, when Adams announced his run for mayor of New York City, I felt obligated to determine the source of my distaste for him; it was possible that this visceral dislike had more to do with implicit biases and more than a few minimal cues on my part than anything Adams said or did. On top of that, Adams could have been the most qualified candidate in the race. The last thing I wanted to do was get behind a non-starter simply because I “just didn’t like” the most suitable candidate.
So I did my research. I found out that Adams, during his stint in the New York State Senate, allegedly cursed at fellow lawmakers for voting to expel another lawmaker who had been credibly accused and later convicted of assaulting his girlfriend. Then I found out that he didn’t officially distance himself from this lawmaker until early this year. I…
