You should know that on Friday, September 10, 2021 the following statement was highlighted on the front page of the New York Daily News, “We all have a seat at the Table”.
It is important for you to know that on Thursday, September 9th, NYS Senator Brian Benjamin (an African American) was sworn in by Governor Kathy Hochul as her new Lieutenant Governor.
You should also know that at the swearing-in ceremony, our newly appointed Lt. Governor Mr. Brian Benjamin said in his speech that "We all have a seat at the table." I respectfully disagree with Mr. Benjamin’s statement. The Latino Community has NO seat at the table or at any other table. The Hispanic Community only has a seat when needed to protect the seats of others seated at the table.
Lieutenant-Governor Brian Benjamin said that with his appointment “Governor Hochul wants to make sure that we all have a seat at the table.” He continued saying that the governor wants to create a government where “upstate and downstate, every ethnicity, every culture to feel included. Mr. Benjamin went on to say that "for too long people have not felt included, that they have a seat at the table, and that their issue will be brought to the forefront.”
It is very important for Mr. Benjamin and Governor Hochul to know that Hispanics have not had a seat at the table. I must ask, who is this person that occupies the seat which represents the Hispanic community at this table which the Hon. Brian Benjamin speaks of? We can't say that We all have a seat at the table when most of the seats in the counties, in the city, and in the state are occupied by one single ethnic group.
Brian Benjamin should have said that the African American community has come to occupy and now controls most of the relevant seats at said table. Those seats are that of the Senate leader, Assembly Leader, State Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor and possibly Governor in the not-too-distant future. I congratulate Mr. Benjamin and his Community!! As a member of the Hispanic community, I have a duty, and the responsibility to ask, on behalf of my community, what is obvious. If “we all have a seat at the table”, according to Lt. Gov. Benjamin, where is our seat, and who occupies it?
In the trajectory of the Hispanics in New York City the Puerto Ricans, where the first Hispanic group that has struggled for decades to have a seat at the table. Now decades later the Hispanics are the largest minority in this state. The Hispanic Community with the huge migration of many diverse Hispanic groups from South America, the Caribbean and other Latin Countries, the Hispanic community has become the largest group and should therefore have a seat at the table. However, we have yet to see one of our own seated at the table that Mr. Brian Benjamin speaks of and has so boldly declared. No Mr. Benjamin this is not so.
I am Councilman Rev. Ruben Diaz, and this is What You Should Know.
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