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Wow, Boston hasn't had a mayor who hates white people this much since, um, Marty Walsh
By adamg on Fri, 12/15/2023 - 9:55pm
No doubt you've heard about all the racists jumping on Michelle Wu because somebody in her office goofed and sent out an invitation to an Electeds of Color Christmas party to white councilors, instead of just the Black and Latino ones. It's been in all the papers.
Outrage, the racists raged! Wu hates white people!
Except, as the Globe reports, the group has been around for 13 years, founded by local elected officials who represent areas such as Mattapan, Roxbury and Hyde Park, really isn't any different from any other legislative caucuses devoted to specific groups and has been having get-togethers for a long time.
Besides, if Wu hates white people, then what to make of Marty Walsh, who in 2020 specifically endorsed a policy on systemic racism proposed by the Electeds of Color? From a 2020 request he sent to the City Council for a hearing on increasing police accountability to the public:
WHEREAS: Mayor Walsh announced his endorsement of the Massachusetts Electeds of Color’s 10-Point Plan for Dismantling Systemic Racism, policies put forth by the 8 Can’t Wait Campaign, and the Obama Foundation’s Mayor’s Pledge, as well as the BPD’s adoption of the Ethical Policing is Courageous (EPIC) training program, and a commitment that the BPD would no longer utilize the “hair test” for drug testing ...
The nerve of that guy!
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Comments
These people…
These people clutching their pearls at this old news will NEVER get over the fact that they lost the last Mayoral Election and now Wu runs this city. Thus they seize any and all opportunity to attempt to dump on her with their Fox News based disgusting propaganda.
Blame the Herald
Seriously.
The article made it appear Wu was organizing a Christmas party where even snow wasn't welcome because it was white. It gets at the fact that her city council liaison sent the email because Wu is the host this year only at the end. Brian Worrell, councilor for Mattapan, makes the point well.
As Mike McCormack noted in that same article (former city councilor, and someone I respect,) "This is Boston." Michelle and her representatives should pay attention, especially given the miserable state of relations among councilors.
Herald link
This is the article I was referring to:
https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/12/12/boston-city-hall-roiled-by-email...
And "Electeds of Color" is the organization that Wu hosted at the Parkman House. Fine with me.
Doesn't matter who created
Doesn't matter who created the event, nor that it's been perpetuated for 13 years. It excludes one class of people for the benefit of other classes. This event is discrimination and promoted by a public/government institution! Why not call it out as such, Adam? Instead, you justify it because White Knight Marty sanctioned it?
I'm sure some racists will use it to further their racist agenda against Wu. And for what it's worth, I like Wu, but she should have known better and made it an inclusive event. She should have held it IN HONOR of Electeds of Color and invited all (including white people) to celebrate. But she didn't.
Your citation is not relevant. It simply notes that there is an Electeds of Color group. Does that include white people? Because unless you meant that white people are part of this group, then holding a government sanctioned event that excludes one race is discriminatory and has been for 13 yrs.
I'd recommend clarifying if white people are part of the group, if that's what your whole point is. Individuals of color have been oppressed for much more than 13 years, so without that clarification you have no point other than "blame Marty that our city government practices discrimination".
What are you on about?
What "benefit"? A holiday party?
Did you get my company's invitation to our holiday party? We held it for "the benefit" of one class of people (employees of my company) by excluding you (not an employee of my company). We look forwards to our Herald article now.
So you were excluded from neighborhood birthday parties as a kid
And now the resentment you've been carrying all these years is just bubbling over...
.
.
Small point of contention
Who the fuck wants flaherty, murphy, flynn or baker at their party? Can’t have a party without inviting those replacement-level slugs? What kind of shitty affirmative action is that.
Holding a segregated holiday party is not a good look
No matter the intentions.
I guess saying so makes me racist according to this site?
Electeds of color? Wow
Does the party break Massachusetts public accommodations law? I suppose if your intentions are good that doesn't matter?
Have you ever heard of the
Have you ever heard of the congressional black caucus? Thus isn’t a particularly extreme concept.
This was a holiday party
Not a political caucus for black democrats who share political goals.
There is no comparison, they had a party and the invitation was based on skin color.
Watching people defend it is baffling
get over yourself
get over yourself
I'll count you in
Another supporter of non-gendered bathrooms - good to see it.
Just imagine it
Just imagine it. Adults getting pissy because they weren't invited to a party. Honestly, it's people like you who are the biggest challenge that white people in this country face, with your constant need to be outraged on our behalf. It's embarrassing to watch.
Im not white or outraged
Just making an observation on a segregated holiday party Mayor Wu decided to have.
You are free to defend it.
Im a lifelong Bostonian and immune from outrage by the actions of local politicians, but I will comment on them whenever I like.
Please pick your pants up
Your ass is showing and no one wants to see that
lol
Pot calling the kettle black. Go get a job.
Down with this sort of thing!
The Knights of Columbus! The Ancient Order of Hibernians! Disgrace upon disgrace!
Not a symmetrical situation
I think everyone understands, whether they admit it or not, that there's a huge difference between "whites only" and "non-whites only".
(Hint: It has to do with... history.)
Say Adam
I just glanced at the article you referenced and I have a few questions-
Which Hyde Park elected official was it that helped found the group? Scaccia? Consalvo? McCarthy? Wait, McCarthy wouldn't be around at the time. Perhaps Menino?
When did Marty Walsh start hosting a Christmas Party for the group? That didn't come through to me while reading the article, but I might just have missed it.
I mean, the whole story is a nothingburger, but if we are going to go for inferences, didn't the Herald do that already, only in a different way?
To answer your question
One of the founders was the state rep who was thrown out of the legislature (and jailed) for an unsanctioned MMA fight with his then-girlfriend.
Another was "Associate 1" who shook down the Andelmans for $75K for DEI training run by his friend Monica Cannon-Grant (who used to be this site's designated resource for urban violence).
Bigger Picture
I think there is a bigger point being missed here. Taken individually, the Wu party for a handful of individuals that has actually been going on for years may not be the biggest deal in the world, but it has become part and parcel of the bigger movement of things like separate graduations for students of color at universities. For example, Harvard holds separate graduations for Black students and Latinx students, should they care to participate in such events. It may have a whole new progressive coat of paint on it, but it still smacks of "separate but equal" to me however hip you try to portray it. It's like going backwards under the guise of moving forward.
You're going to have to do better than that
Most colleges have separate ceremonies for different departments before the main graduation. As a political-science major, should I feel offended at not being invited to the sociology ceremony?
U know better than that
categories like academic departments are neutral innocuous organizations under the law
categories of race, sex, sexual preference, ethnicity, religion are suspect and can be literally "invidious" under the law.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/invidious_discrimination
Oh good
So glad that you are on board with mandatory non-gendered bathrooms now.
Hate to see discrimination based on gender.
as long as they have urinals, I don't care
saves time
also, many guys in public restrooms don't lift the seat in stalls, they piss all over them.
FTFY
Lol - the "any gender" or "family" restrooms, or places with just "restrooms" tend to be cleanest because the pigs of all genders behave.
I once pointed out a special sprinkle princess job in an airline restroom to the flight attendant sitting next and they made the woman come back to clean it all up.
Ever travelled Europe? Not unusual to have to scooch past the backside of a urinal user in a corridor to get to the one toilet stall.
yes, i've heard that
why I like urinals.
women get a bad deal on public bathrooms, look at the lines. They need more stalls.
sadly public bathroom situation in Boston is getting worse, many have closed
Where the power lies
Do you not understand that when the government, the group we give the power to, enforces a policy of "separate but equal" that this is a problem. But if a group of people, on their own, choose to congregate with each other exclusively, then that is not a problem.
Because that's a fundamental. Like the-right-to-peaceably-assemble-is-right-there-in-the-First-Amendment-of-the-Constitution fundamental.
The problem is that people who aren't white want the "equal" part and history has shown it seems to work a lot better when they come together to state that. Maybe they wouldn't feel the need to create a local group that is for them and not white people too and have such holiday parties if they felt they had reached equality. But on pretty much every metric, it can be shown that still isn't the case (no matter how much I'm sure you'd like to think it is).
You're right
First Amendment freedom of association likely controls this situation.
But since that it's public officials on public property and by necessity using public funds at least on the level of heating, lighting and BPD security salaries at the Parkman House during the event it's certainly politically questionable and racially polarizing.
The St. Patrick's Day parade case is the closest legal analogy and nobody was upset by that, were they?
what public funds were used?
what public funds were used?
A complicated situation
Lol, Adam, You couldn't just let her lay in the stink she created?
Not Breaking News (uHub) Division
Adam and the Globe sat on this story like two hens on nests trying to hide they weren’t producing eggs.
It was the opposite in terms of time of channel 4 running a Patriots story within the first 7 minutes of a newscast.
There are others trying to deflect as in “Billy Bulger blah blah blah” overlooking that POCs did go to the South Boston breakfast for years when it was run by a private group in a private hall.
This was an event for public officials in a city owned building. It was against state laws regarding discrimination. That’s the issue. That’s it. Nothing else.
It shows poor form that the paper of record for the City and the website of record for this area trying to wait out the clock on reporting open malfeasance.
Poor form.
somebody in her office goofed
If the kettle is going call a black spade a spade, the real faux pas was not that the invitation went to white councilors but that they were subsequently uninvited. If Wu had accidentally invited the whole council to an Elected of Colors holiday party, it wouldn't be news, and even if some of of them showed up to the party then nobody would care anyway.
So stupid
I accidentally invited the wrong coworker to an online meeting the other day. I explained and he got an hour of his life back that he thought was for a meeting he had no idea what was going on in.
I probably should have invited the whole company though...and just left them to waste the hour in the call to avoid any improprieties...
Yeah but
Your colleague isn’t Erin Murphy.
I wonder how Kendra Lara got to the party?
Imagine thinking - do I go to the party and potentially risk getting run over, or do I stay home?
Could be worse
You could have the highly ethical Ricardo Arroyo defending your position.
Rapey Ricardo posted this on Twitter last night:
"As best as I can tell it seems someone recieved the invitation mistakenly and anonymously ran to the press to posture as if they were uninvited. "
Is he sure it was anonymous, or was it 'for background' or 'not for attribution' like his good friend Rachael Rollins did trying to push stories about Kevin Hayden before the Suffolk DA election?
Wow
Adam loves the Wu so much he has to produce "news" so he can feed his editorial opinion that the Wu is being unfairly vilified. How Victorian. Are you going to follow her so you can come to her rescue from the great unwashed if she feels faint in the moment?
What a guy. If it wasn't so progressive it would seem paternalistic.
look, i’m sorry but it’s quite simple
nobody wants to eat potato salad with raisins
Magoo just loves potato salad
Magoo just loves potato salad with raisins!
Charming but wrong
Adam has the admirable quality of allowing free discussion here, but unfortunately likes to pose with the "progressives" on occasion by applying labels to ideas and people.
The point isn't that there is an Electeds of Color group, or that they propose policies of any kind.
The point is the inept exclusion of other electeds from a social gathering organized/sponsored by a race-based group and the implicit double standard. It's segregation. At the Parkman House - public property.
It would have been possible to have an Electeds of Color holiday party and invite the pale and pink Electeds, too. That would have been gracious, inclusive, and unifying.
It would also be possible to group according to ideology and be exclusive. But we've had a long march towards disfavoring racial segregation, legally and socially.
Back in the 70s the argument against men's clubs and bars was that important deals and decisions were made in those clubs, and the exclusion of women disadvantaged them in business, politics etc. That argument among others led to the Massachusetts Anti-discrimination in Public Accommodations Law.
Here we have politicians on public property who presumably will be talking politics and public policy but the members of one racial group are expressly excluded.
This is like woman in Bio events that men attend
My industry hosts woman in bio events on a weekly basis. Most events have a few guys attend but are mostly woman. Does anyone care, no. Why is this getting people upset? I am upset at this councils performance recently but not at who attends a Holiday party.
You're making my point
this is not like women in Bio events that men attend.
this is like a women in Bio event that men are barred from attending, where one of your woman bosses is lobbied by your women co-workers to get promoted before you.
That doesn't happen because the corporate sponsors of "women in Bio" events are concerned about employment discrimination lawsuits.
Same thing in public policy - the in-group mayor is lobbied by other in-group members for public policies favoring the in-group. It's just that "in-groups" in government defined by race, sex, sexual preference etc are expressly disfavored as a means for formulating public policy.
yeah, no
"disinvited" and "barred" are not interchangeable
you know that
nice feint to pedantic semantics
but on the planet I live on, people go to parties they're "disinvited" from at a risk of an ugly confrontation.
for sure, it’s semantics
but i’m not the one throwing words like segregated around carelessly.
in this case, the 500 tortured words you’ve written thus far are entirely predicated on the meaning of the word “disinvited”
again, i know you know that
it doesn't make any legal difference, chief
in an employment or public accommodations setting, "disinvited" is still discrimination.
i wish you the best of luck in court
insanity lol
not sure if illegal, but questionable
The First Amendment rights of free association have some play here, so maybe not actionable.
Ironically, if it's not illegal, its legality partly rests on Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston, 515 U.S. 557 (1995), the St. Patrick's Day parade case.
I don't think every act of discrimination can or should be sued about, but that doesn't mean that an act of racial discrimination shouldn't be criticized and noted in politics.
Thanks
I'll check this out.
evidently, you and i have very different views on what rises to the level of objectionable discrimination
i look around and see the existence of workplace associations for various minority groups, the various gatherings that happen year round on company or state grounds, and just how unbelievably unremarkable it is that they exist. until now, that is.
so i question the motives of anyone who would deliberately use barred to mean disinvited. there is absolutely no reason to assume that a white person would have been denied entry to the event had they showed up un(dis)invited. i spent part of my Halloween at the Polish club near my house because they invited me and my family in as we walked by. i didn't receive an invitation beforehand. and had i received one in error, i would have deleted the email.
i understand that it isn't an apples to apples comparison. but in the world i live in, it was a fucking christmas party. chill out.
totally inapposite analogy
The Polish Club on Boston St. is legally a public accomodation and long has been open to all.
The reason being the rules of the Licensing Board prevents any establishment selling alcohol and food at scale from discriminating. That is why the Tavern Club is no longer all male membership.
I guess it is true that
I guess it is true that Boston is the most racist city. Wow, over a decade of this function and still going strong? Of course this racist Wu gang gets support of racist Uhub followers too. Pearl clutching whites, right Adam? Do better Adam. You turned your once decent site into a club for nasty hate filled fans.
Boston as racist city
It's so true...it's flipped all the way around and now whites are feeling the heat! Woe be to the Irish and Italian and other European whites who want to live and work in Boston, the most racist city around forever and always because elected people of color have a party committee!
"racist Wu gang"
Wow, dude. Leave yourself alone.
Butthurt white people is not a good look.
Who’s paying for this party?
Private funding? Sure, no problem. Not a good look, but have at it.
Publicly funded? That’s not legal.
National big deal
Last night Bill Maher ranted about this on HBO, and like any other national observer he missed half the story, which is well-explained here. But with all the explaining and excusing, Wu has seriously damaged her image and this unfortunately is the kind of story that sticks. I don’t think there would have been any problem with the gathering itself if the invitations had gone out correctly, but I wish Wu had followed up the error by saying any city councillor was welcome to attend in honor of this growing and influential group. It’s unlikely the gathering would have changed but it wouldn’t have been a right wing talking point for years to come.
Bill Maher
By the way, I think Maher is becoming the new Dennis Miller. I’m a former fan who still watches his show, but when they announced his next Boston appearance recently, I didn’t even think of buying tickets.
"National big deal"
Translation: some talking head with national reach has decided to make much ado about this. Forgive me for not seeing that as a "national big deal".
With whom, exactly? With grievance-manufacturing resentful white folks who spend their every waking minute watching her like hawks so they can pounce?
Mixed metaphor, I know, but you get the idea.
Discrimination
Two kinds of people. One type gets big mad about discrimination against white folks. The other type understands the centuries-long systemic discrimination against non-white people and isn’t that upset about a holiday party. Pray to god I’m never in the former category.
If you want an even better local political story
Check out Lori Kauffman, candidate for GOP committeeperson Boston ward 22. Bringing the high-level cray-cray
https://twitter.com/Jews4Ye24/status/1731418079345741934
Predictable
Oh how I do love a "what about them" defense
who said anything about "what about them"
the people filling their diapers about this are just opportunists, thats all