New York governor apologizes for ‘black kids’ comment

Kathy Hochul said she “misspoke” when she claimed that black children in the Bronx had never heard of computers

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has expressed remorse for claiming that black children in the inner city “don’t even know what the word computer is.” Hochul was slated for her comment and accused of bigotry.

She made the remark at a conference in California on Monday, when she was discussing how politicians could expand access to tech jobs for disadvantaged communities. 

“Right now, we have young black kids growing up in the Bronx who don’t even know what the word computer is. They don’t know, they don’t know these things,” she said.

Her remark went unquestioned by her interviewer, but was soon being mocked online. Several prominent conservatives accused her of displaying “the soft bigotry of low expectations,” while State Assemblywoman Amanda Septimo, a fellow Democrat who represents the Bronx, called the comment “harmful, deeply misinformed, and genuinely appalling.”

This is what Kathy Hochul the Governor of NY thinks of Black peoplepic.twitter.com/7C8M9VeBFk

— Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10) May 8, 2024

“B***h, not only do we know what a computer is, we all got one in our pockets!” Florida Congressional candidate Lavern Spicer wrote on X. “You sound just as racist as S****y Joe Biden did when he said ‘poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.’”

“I misspoke and I regret it,” Hochul said in a statement later on Monday. “Of course black children in the Bronx know what computers are – the problem is that they too often lack access to the technology needed to get on track to high-paying jobs in emerging industries like AI.” 

The Democratic Party’s efforts to court the black vote are often condemned by Republicans as racist. Most notably, President Joe Biden’s criticism of voter ID laws as “Jim Crow 2.0” was slated by conservative politicians and pundits, who argued it implied that blacks and other minorities are somehow incapable of obtaining photo identification.