Boston Mayor Michelle Wu speaks at Northeastern University on Oct. 16, 2023. | Source: MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images / Getty
Here’s a thing white conservatives will never understand: Black people and people of color need their own spaces.
We live in a country that is anywhere from 60% to more than 70% white in any given year. It’s a country where white people dominate every important entity in Western society — from the corporate world to state and federal governments to all aspects of the justice system — and are the only overwhelmingly represented racial group in popular culture (TV, film, broadcasting, advertising, etc.). It’s also a country that is historically and still to this day the home of plenty of exclusive establishments that haven’t seen a non-white face since their inception.
None of these facts stop white people from getting in their fragile feelings whenever they find out about POC-exclusive spaces of any kind.
On Wednesday, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu defended a holiday party for elected officials of color after an invitation was accidentally sent to the entire City Council, according to NBC News.
“We’ve had individual conversations with everyone, so people understand that it was truly just an honest mistake that went out in typing the email field,” she said in an interview. “I look forward to celebrating with everyone at the holiday parties we will have besides this one, as well.”
From NBC:
The email invite for an “Electeds of Color Holiday Party” was sent out by a city employee, asking for RSVPs and dietary restrictions from council members who planned to attend the event. It’s just one of many parties that will be held for Boston elected officials during this holiday season, Wu said, but this one was only intended to go to the six minority council members.
“I think we all have been in a position at one point where an email went out and there was a mistake in the recipients, so there was truly just an honest mistake that happened in issuing the invitation,” Wu, who is the first woman and person of color elected mayor of Boston, told the media Wednesday ahead of the event, NBC Boston reported.
So, basically, white people accidentally found out a thing was happening that they weren’t included in, and some of them got predictably upset. Then it became a news story. Then more white people got upset at the “racism” of the first woman of color to be elected mayor in Boston’s 200-year history of having mayors. (Don’t hold your breath waiting on white people to acknowledge the irony though.)
“It’s my intention that we can again be a city that lives our values and creates space for all kinds of communities to come together,” Wu said in defense of the holiday party. But God forbid POC have spaces where they can socialize and network that aren’t dominated by white people.
Other non-white council members also spoke up in defense of the event.
“It is not at all divisive, it is creating spaces for people and communities and identities with shared experiences to come together,” said Ruthzee Louijeune, a Boston city councilor at-large. “We are still breaking barriers and it is so important for us to carve out and create that space.”
Again, where are these angry white voices against discrimination when virtually all-white country clubs fail to have a single Black name on their membership lists? They seem to understand perfectly that different demographics need their own spaces when men-only golf clubs are still operating out in the open in the 21st century. Hell, for that matter, where were all of these angry, post-racial whites when Dilbert creator Scott Adams was telling white people to “get the hell away from Black people”? (Hint: Many of them agreed and used any instance of perceived anti-whiteness they could get their hands on to justify it.)
https://twitter.com/IrishAmerican27/status/1734905122579247151
https://twitter.com/norhoc1/status/1735704149369516091
https://twitter.com/BWH097/status/1734025248121471337
It’s worth mentioning that white people minding non-white people’s business doesn’t stop at POC holiday parties. Black people can’t even create and manage funds to help other Black people without the Caucasian affirmative action police wrecking everything in a flood of white tears.
Maybe it’s because white people simply don’t understand how much they force us to code-switch and shrink ourselves in order to exist in a world where whiteness represents the default for cultural normalcy. Maybe it’s because they’re in denial about how many exclusively white spaces still exist in America. (They sure throw a hissy fit whenever there are efforts to diversify them.) But what they don’t understand shouldn’t be our problem.
SEE ALSO:
Boston Approves Creation Of Reparations Task Force
The post ‘Whites Only’: Boston Mayor Defends ‘Electeds Of Color Holiday Party’ In City With Racist Reputation appeared first on NewsOne.
‘Whites Only’: Boston Mayor Defends ‘Electeds Of Color Holiday Party’ In City With Racist Reputation was originally published on newsone.com
