Boston scored a twofer this year when it elected Michelle Wu as mayor. She is not only the first woman in the city’s history elected to the office, but she will also be Boston’s first nonwhite mayor.
And that’s not good enough, say “anti-racist” activists quoted this week by NPR. Real racial equality won’t be achieved until a black person takes the job — because Asians apparently don’t count.
Indeed, for the race-obsessed Left, Asians apparently come with a big, fat asterisk when it comes to racial diversity and equality.
“Michelle Wu, an Asian American, is the first woman and first person of color elected to lead the city,” NPR reported Wednesday. “While many are hailing it as a turning point, others see it as more of a disappointment that the three black candidates couldn’t even come close.”
The article claimed many Bostonians had hoped “in this time of racial reckoning” — yikes, can we please drop the “racial reckoning” cliche? — the city would at long last elect a black mayor. There was good reason this year to have hope. After all, there were three black candidates on the ballot.
However, voters in Boston decided to give the office to Wu, who took 33.4% of the vote, rather than to runner-up Annissa Essaibi George, who clocked in at only 22.5%.
“I got home, and I cried,” self-described artist and civil rights activist Danny Rivera told NPR. “I cried my eyes out because I don’t know the next time we’ll see a black mayor in our city.”
He added elsewhere, “I believe that it is lived experience that matters most and what separated [former acting Mayor Kim Janey, who is black,] from every other candidate. That’s all super powerful, and I thought we missed the moment.”
NPR then quoted a 20-year-old student who said she’s not surprised the people of Boston would pass over black candidates for an Asian, saying, “It’s just one of those things where it feels like, ‘What else is new?'”
“I mean the data speaks for itself, and it’s troubling,” former Democratic Massachusetts state Rep. Marie St. Fleur said. “For those of us born or raised in Boston and who lived through some of the darker days, the fact that we blinked at this moment is sadness. At what point in the city of Boston will we be able to vote, and I’m going to be very clear here, for a black person in that corner office?”
“There’s a lot more work to do when it comes to all our isms,” Janey said.
Just so we’re all on the same page: The men and women quoted by NPR believe Boston “missed” its moment in this time of racial reckoning because it elected an Asian American woman, not an African American, as mayor.
What, exactly, are you all trying to tell us about how you view Asian Americans? Why do Asians keep getting sidelined by the “anti-racist” Left when we talk about diversity and inclusivity? And does the answer have anything to do with the rash of attacks on Asians that was reported earlier this year?
