Boston Mayor Michelle Wu Invited People to a Holiday Party. Then in the Spirit of the Season, Disinvited All the White People.

Eric Canha. Shutterstock Images.

You know, being the mayor of a major city is not all it's cracked up to be. I remember a Political Science course I took in college where the first lesson we went over was what a career-killing, dead end job it is. And it's true. Think about the last time any big city mayor got elected to any higher office. I can't name one. To run a city government means getting down and dirty on a daily basis. Cutting deals with the worst sorts of people. It's about dealing in favors and nepotism and outright payoffs if you're going to get anything done.

All that getting down in the mud leaves a permanent stink on your career. And if you don't make those deals, you won't last a week in the job. The best any of them can hope for is some phony baloney cabinet post in DC or getting named an ambassador to someplace. Your days of getting elected to any other office are over once you win the mayoralty.

Which is why that particular line of work doesn't exactly attract the most competent leaders:

Well, rest of America's urban areas, I see your mayors and I raise you Boston's. From Ray Flynn, who was no stranger to closing time at certain area pubs. To Tom Menino, who wasn't exactly Pericles of Athens when it came to public speaking or remembering names:

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To the current Mayor Michelle Wu, who is taking this time in the Season of Giving, to deliver on her campaign promise to unite the city and the people she leads:

Well OK. To be fair, when she said "everyone," she didn't mean, you know, everyone. In case she wasn't being clear, she meant Boston was only for certain everyones:

Source - Boston mayor Michelle Wu may have broken anti-segregation laws by hosting a no-whites 'electeds of color' holiday party at a city-owned building on Wednesday night.

Veteran Boston Herald columnist Joe Battenfeld called out Wu, 38, for hosting the event, saying her choice shows 'questionable optics and judgment for someone who is supposed to be uniting the city.'

The party violated 'at least the spirit of the Massachusetts Public Accommodations law,' Battenfeld added, referencing a state law that bans 'making any distinction, discrimination, or restriction in admission to or treatment in a place of public accommodation based on race.'

The mayor's office has insisted they did not use taxpayer money for the event. However, the party did use city resources, because it was held at the city-owned Parkman House.

Wu, the city's first nonwhite mayor, was unapologetic outside the event last night, defending it as she claimed 'some of the folks who are concerned might also just not have all the information.' …

News of the party emerged when a city hall employee sent out the invite to all 13 city councilors by mistake - as the event was not supposed to include any of the white elected officials.

To be fair to Her Honor, her office did, in fact, issue an apology. For accidentally inviting the white people in the first place:

I want to make this clear as crystal. In no way is this pale Boston Irishman offended in the least by the Mayor disinviting her white colleagues. Nor would I be if I was one of them. There are Work Holiday Parties and then there are WORK Holiday Parties. And if I had to put a number on it, I'd guess the latter outnumber the former about 10-to-1. Those are the ones where you have to dress up. Be on your best behavior. Talk shop. Suck up to the bosses, which in this case would be whatever campaign donors, city officials and connected insiders you owe your allegiance to. There isn't a lick of fun to be had at one of those things in any line of work. A political work party has to be a thousand times worse. If I was one of the city councilors who got the follow up email telling me I wasn't actually welcome, I'd consider that to be my White Privilege.

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Look, it's a bold move to exclude people from a public accommodation based solely on their skin color in 2023. I'm no legal scholar, but I'm fairly certain there have been court cases that ruled that's totally against the law. But can we really blame the mayor's office? 

I mean, the holidays are, to coin a phrase, the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Who wants to spend it with whitey? Standing around listening to Christmas songs from Paul McCartney, Hall & Oates, Michael Buble' and whoever. Or God forbid, "Do They Know it's Christmas?" again. Eating little those mini sandwiches with the thin slice of cucumber on top. Talking about how good the Frasier reboot is. Sipping Pinot Grigio. It'd be like Angela's "A Nutcracker Christmas" party on Human Growth Hormones. We suck to be around. Especially during holiday time. And anyone who got to avoid that got the best gift they'll receive this year. 

To repeat, I'm not offended. I've always made it my policy that whenever I'm not invited to an event, I get my revenge by not showing up. That's how I teach people a lesson about what happens when they snub me. 

All I ask is that if this is going to be the way things are going forward, where you get to exclude anyone from anything based solely on their identity, just let us know what those criteria are, so the rest of us know which groups it's OK to discriminate against. 

Mainly though, if I could request that list includes older, Caucasian, Irish, Catholic, heterosexual, male Massholes, please sign me up for that. So I never have to get invited to another shitty holiday party ever again. I wouldn't go to any party that would have someone like me on the guest list.