For more than four decades, I fought on the front lines for working class Black and Latino communities. As a founder of the New York Working Families Party and the Black Institute, my life’s work has been rooted in a clear set of values: building independent, multiracial power, lifting up those marginalized by the political establishment, and speaking unapologetic truth to that same power.
Through these battles, I’ve learned Maya Angelou’s lesson: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
Today, as New York State Assemblymember Micah Lasher seeks to position himself as a progressive and inclusive leader, we must remember that this is a man who built his career on the art of racial division.
As a staffer on Mark Green’s 2001 mayoral campaign, I believed we were engaged in a tough but fair fight against “Freddy” Ferrer. I was at the table for nearly every major decision, which made the truth so painful: A calculated, divisive strategy was operating in the shadows of our own campaign, and I only discovered it after the fact.
At the center of those racially divisive tactics was Micah Lasher.
It is now a matter of public record that Lasher was the operative responsible for flooding wealthy white neighborhoods with one of the most racist political cartoons in the city’s history. The image depicted a diminutive Ferrer with big lips kissing Rev. Al Sharpton as a bloated figure with an inflated backside.
Lasher didn’t just print it; he ensured it was flooded into white wealthy neighborhoods through mailers in the final days of the campaign. The goal was to weaponize fear and make white New Yorkers resent their Black and Latino neighbors. Rev. Sharpton didn’t mince words about it then or later, labeling Lasher a “bigoted consultant” for his role in that ugly campaign.
The hurt and humiliation I faced as one of the few advisors of color was profound. Realizing my own side used such political gamesmanship was a devastating reality check. To this day, I continue to share rooms with Micah Lasher in various spaces, but knowing what he did, I still could never look him in the eyes again.
Lasher eventually admitted to his role in disseminating those fliers, but a small act of damage control years later does not erase the damage done to the fabric of our city. It also forces a critical question about the kind of leaders we empower. Donald Trump has shown us the devastating cost of a New York politician who builds his brand on racial division. We cannot claim to stand against that kind of bigotry nationally without questioning Micah Lasher — a man who wrote the playbook for it here at home.
If it were a one-time “mistake” of a young operative, perhaps there would be room for grace, but for Lasher, targeting communities of color became a professional hallmark.
Years later, Lasher emerged as a chief architect and defender of “stop-and-frisk.” Hundreds of thousands of innocent Black and Brown men were being harassed, humiliated, and detained on street corners for the “crime” of walking while Lasher was in the halls of power defending the practice. He called it a “proven crime deterrence” method. He chose to ignore the trauma inflicted on our youth in favor of a policy that turned our neighborhoods into occupied zones.
Perhaps most dangerously, Lasher has stood on the record as defending the NYPD’s “Gang Database” — a secretive, racially biased list that the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and other civil rights groups have fought to abolish. This isn’t just a local issue; it is a direct pipeline to deportation. Federal immigration agencies like ICE frequently use these types of local databases to target immigrants. Lasher is defending the very machinery that tears families apart today. You cannot claim to protect our immigrant neighbors while simultaneously championing the tools ICE uses to hunt them down.
From racist mailers to stop-and-frisk and deportation-enabling databases, Micah Lasher’s career is defined by marginalizing Black and Brown New Yorkers. For Micah Lasher, our communities weren’t constituencies to be served; they were collateral damage for his ambition.
New York City has a long memory. We know the kind of guy Micah Lasher is because he has spent his entire professional life showing us. It is time we finally believe him.
Bertha Lewis is the founder and president of the Black Institute and worked for Public Advocate Mark Green’s mayoral campaign in 2001.
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