VIDEO: NY Gov. Kathy Hochul's Comment About 'Young Black Kids Growing Up in the Bronx' Likely Not Racism—Just Typical Modern Liberalism

New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul stepped in it on Monday while speaking at a conference in California. During her comments about an AI program, she made a disparaging comment about “black kids growing up in the Bronx.” While anger and accusations of racism ensued, I see this is a case of typical modern liberalism.

During an interview on stage at the Milken Institute Global Conference in California, Hochul discussed New York’s new “Empire AI,” proudly touting the initiative, which has been described as “a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence computing center in Upstate New York to be used by New York’s leading institutions to promote responsible research and development, create jobs, and unlock AI opportunities focused on public good.” The $400 million program will be funded both publicly and privately.

The Empire State governor made a cute remark that in New York “we like to be first,” but she then said that black children in the Bronx don’t know the word “computer.” She didn’t just say it once as if it slipped out of her mouth, like thoughts that slip out that we really don’t recognize we’re thinking until we hear ourselves say them, at which point we immediately clean it up. No, notice that she says it, then reiterates it, then reiterates it again:

So she makes the ridiculous, insulting, backwards remark. Then we get this: “They don’t know. They don’t know these things.” You’ve heard of doubling down, right? Well, this is tripling down. If she didn’t mean what she said, she would have caught it upon initially saying it. And if not right away, then somewhere between the follow-up of “They don’t know” and the encore of “They don’t know these things,” something should have dawned on her.

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The interviewer didn’t stop her, didn’t ask for clarification, didn’t correct her. But the fan got smelly when it got hit, as criticism descended upon her, so in a statement to the New York Post, she said, “I misspoke and I regret it.” The Post reported some of the comments hurled at her, but a simple Internet search will show more—from Black Lives Matter to Bronx elected officials to education activists to entertainers to media outlets and more.

It is not surprising that a comment such as hers would be deemed racist. But I’m not willing to go that far. I don’t know the governor, but I do know liberals. And liberal modus operandi is to parade around as those who have come to save those who are beneath them. It’s why they rail against voter ID laws—because those blacks can’t figure out how to get identification so that they can vote (and there’s the voter fraud thing, too, that they’re into, but that’s a different story). It’s why they set up their abortion clinics in black and brown neighborhoods—because those poor people can’t afford to keep their children. It’s why they use manipulation to get black people to automatically give their votes to Democrats—because those simple souls can’t decide for themselves based on their values. Liberals see themselves as the saviors of the poor “minorities.”

So what Hochul said is not something she doesn’t believe. She “misspoke” because she said what she actually does believe. The moral high ground that liberals believe they walk on explains why they, in their minds, are on the earth—to help those who don’t know much, can’t do much, and have never even seen a computer.

Not every politician has come down on Hochul, however. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, for one, said, “I am not the word police; I know the governor’s heart,” adding, “The people of the Bronx knew where her heart was. She’s sincere about uplifting the people.”

Leaving out the fact that liberals have not only made themselves the word police—they’re the word sheriff, the word detective, the word chief, the word commissioner—there’s certainly something virtuous about extending grace. We all need it. I wonder, though, if former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would have received such grace. 🤔 Even so, I still believe in grace.

What I don’t believe in is pretending that Hochul said something completely antithetical to what she internally believes. There is a good argument to be made—and I’ve made it before—that a lot of what masquerades as liberals doing good is, in fact, true racism, and many of them don’t even realize it. I’m not prepared to call the New York governor a racist, however, because, unlike the left, I don’t attach that term to people all willy-nilly. But I will say that I believe her words are the result of what George W. Bush coined “the soft bigotry of low expectations”—which, too, is standard modern liberalism.

In fairness to the governor, I will let her have the last word by sharing more of her statement following the backlash from her comment, which is worlds apart from what she said at the conference: “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. That’s why I’ve been focused on increasing economic opportunity since Day One of my Administration.”

Am I right? Wrong? Let us hear your thoughts: