As I watched the Nevada Democratic debate last week, like millions of other Americans, I noticed the smug look on Michael Bloomberg’s face when Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others challenged him about his treatment of women, stop-and-frisk and other racist policies that he has championed. Eleven years ago, I personally had that exact same look directed at me.

On Feb. 3, 2009, as New York City was reeling from a financial crisis fueled by Wall Street greed, I helped organize a peaceful protest of then-Mayor Bloomberg. More than 100 low-income New Yorkers, most of whom were people of color, entered the ballroom at the Grand Hyatt hotel in midtown Manhattan and surprised Bloomberg in the middle of his keynote address at the “Future of NYC” conference. Other participants attending the $249-per-plate luncheon included the CEOs of some of New York’s largest corporations, such as Jamie Dimon, CEO and chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase. This group of New York’s political and business elite had charged themselves with developing “recommendations on how to strengthen the city’s economy.”

The protest was organized by the Right to the City, an alliance of some of the largest grassroots organizations in New York, representing low-income, people of color, homeless and LGBTQ youth, fighting against gentrification and displacement. Our goal was to deliver a letter to the mayor, requesting he meet with a delegation from our network to hear about our ideas for fixing the city’s economy. The group had been requesting a meeting with the mayor for months, to no avail.

We peacefully walked through the front door of the Grand Hyatt and entered the conference just as Bloomberg was beginning his speech. We chanted, “Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!” in response to the mayor’s continued dismissal of the voices of low-income people of color who lived and worked in New York City.