Ex-to-be Gov. Cuomo Accused Of Racistly NOT Touching Black Women's Hair
08/11/2021
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From the New York Times news section:

New York Women Weigh Admiration for Cuomo Against Allegations

In a state still just teetering toward normalcy, women met the news of the resignation with sometimes warring impulses.

By Sarah Maslin Nir
Aug. 11, 2021

… Revered by many for his steady, if imperious, stewardship during the pandemic, his swift defenestration seemed to some unfair, an overreaction to behavior many women routinely feel they must brush off in the workplace. To other women, the governor’s denouement was a victory, proof of the durability of the Me Too era, driving home a point that no one — and no man — is beyond reproach.

… Via his televised pandemic addresses, the governor entered peoples’ homes at a time when they were most vulnerable, providing essential information about the virus (though the F.B.I. is investigating whether his administration hid the full number of deaths in nursing homes).

The appearances were interspersed with glimpses of his own vulnerability — he shared anecdotes about his mother and three daughters muddling through lockdown life — a humanizing element for a forceful leader that elevated Mr. Cuomo to a national name, and earned him a more than $5 million deal for a book on leadership.

Against that backdrop, the rapid fall of the three-term governor, for whom a fourth term until only recently seemed a sure bet, has been that much more upending — and perhaps nowhere more so than among the women of New York.

In a report from the state attorney general that was released last week, nearly a dozen women described Mr. Cuomo commenting on their appearance, touching their bodies and asking sexualized questions. One woman, a state trooper assigned to his protective detail, said he ran his finger down her neck, and another, an executive assistant, accused the governor of groping her in the Executive Mansion. …

Adrienne Tulet, 31, from Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, also said she identified with Mr. Cuomo’s accusers, via the everyday humiliations experienced by women in the workplace. At her former job, a male colleague routinely called female workers “sweetheart,” she said. At the food market where she works, she bristles at men who tell her to “smile more.”

“There’s been a change in what’s tolerated,” Ms. Tulet said. “You hear men say, ‘I’m afraid to go to work now.’ And I think, ‘Cool, watch “Mad Men,”— back then women had a real reason to be afraid at work.’”

Tyler Moses, 23, a tutor and law student from Park Slope in Brooklyn, said that while she felt Mr. Cuomo’s resignation was a victory, its fruits were unevenly distributed: those accusers of the governor who have been publicly identified are all white; Ms. Moses said she feels like the Me Too movement has in some cases left out Black women like her.

[Comment at Unz.com]

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