Summary of the controversy surrounding Mayor Michelle Wu’s segregated holiday party and BAN’s involvement in this breaking story
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At approximately 4:30pm on December 12, 2023, BAN released evidence via Twitter/X that Boston’s Mayor Michelle Wu was hosting a segregated holiday party using public resources. As many of you are aware, this has since made international headlines and the Boston Mayor is facing intense backlash for not only hosting the event, but also for remaining unapologetic.
Following our release, Gayla Cawley of the Boston Herald wrote an excellent article summarizing our findings. Both have since been picked up by the popular social media account “Libs of TikTok,” as well as several national and international media outlets. BAN would like to formally thank Chaya Raichik and all others at “Libs of TikTok” for helping to highlight this story; their support alone has reached an audience of over 4,000,000 people.
In the unlikely event that you may be unfamiliar with these developments, BAN’s original coverage is as follows:
For a Boston City Council that is often criticized for being divided along racial lines, perhaps it is time to address the elephant in the room:
Is Mayor Michelle Wu fanning the flames of racial division amongst the Council?
The following exchange would certainly appear so.
This is an invitation from “Director of Council Relations” Denise DosSantos, sent on behalf of Mayor Michelle Wu, for an “Electeds of Color” party to be held at the Parkman House.
For some reason, Mayor Wu decided to host this “Electeds of Color” event the same day and time as the Boston City Council’s own holiday party.
Unfortunately (or opportunistically) for Mayor Michelle Wu, her appointee Denise DosSantos “accidentally” sent this invitation to the wrong email list, thus informing all of the “electeds” and staffers not of color that they were excluded from this holiday party:
In response, BAN formally submits the following questions to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu:
Was holding your “Electeds of Color” holiday party concurrently with the Boston City Council’s own party intentional or an oversight?
Do you think it is appropriate to host work-related events that intentionally exclude based on race?
How do you think your actions will help/hinder Council relations?
How do you think that two segregated holiday parties will be viewed by the public?
Since this initial coverage, BAN has sent several emails to Mayor Michelle Wu and each member of the Boston City Council. We also reached out to State Representative Samantha Montano, who attended and subsequently defended the segregated holiday party on Twitter.
BAN also released the following video in an attempt to urge both the elected and appointed officials involved in Mayor Wu’s segregated holiday party to provide the public with the accountability and transparency it deserves.
Although none of the individuals involved have responded to BAN, we are fully committed to serving the public interest and will continue our pursuit for accountability and transparency from the administration.
If you would like to assist in our efforts, please send an email to Mayor Michelle Wu urging her cooperation in this matter at: michelle.wu@boston.gov or mayor@boston.gov.
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