Boston Mayor Wu shows up to 'Electeds of Color' holiday party for non-whites in city-owned building, backs segregated shindig



Boston Mayor Michelle Wu showed up Wednesday to the controversial "Electeds of Color" holiday party for non-white officials in a city-owned building and defended the segregated festivities.

"I can understand someone might be confused or worried if certain people weren’t being invited at all or were being left out of any type of celebration. But I assure you, everyone on the Boston City Council has got an invitation to multiple types of events and holiday parties," Wu said outside the city's Parkman House, according to the Daily Mail.

What is the background?

The party broadly came to light earlier Wednesday after an official in Wu's office mistakenly sent invitations to the party meant only for non-white officials to the entire city council, a number of whom are white.

Denise DosSatnos — director of city council relations in the mayor's administration — sent the errant email and then followed it up with an apology 15 minutes later, WFXT-TV reported: "I did send that to everyone by accident, I apologize if my email may have offended or came across as so. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.”

Here's a look at the 13-member city council:

Image source: City of Boston

Image source: City of Boston

The Daily Mail, citing the Boston Herald, said seven white council members ultimately were not invited to the party, and six people of color were invited.

White council member Frank Baker told WHDH-TV he sees the non-white gathering as "divisive, but what are you going to do about it? You don’t want me at a party, I’m not going to come to a party.”

'In place for many, many years'

Wu and Russell Holmes, a Massachusetts state representative, said outside the event that there are many examples of groups based on race, such as the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C., the Daily Mail said.

Earlier in the day, Wu noted that the "Electeds of Color" group "has been in place for many, many years. We celebrate all kinds of connection and identity and culture and heritage in the city. Just yesterday we hosted our official City Hall Hanukkah lighting. We have had tree lightings, and we want to be a city where everyone's identity is embraced, and that there are spaces and communities we can help support," the Daily Mail added.

Michael McCormack, an attorney and former five-term Boston city councilor, told the Daily Mail that Wu hosting an exclusive party is not typical of her office and said former mayors Tom Menino and Ray Flynn would have invited the entire city council.

"The problem is that Boston and race, unfortunately, are synonymous. I'm just hoping it was a mistake. It's not something that anyone in the mayor's office should be proud of," McCormack added to the outlet.

According to black city council member Brian Worrell, "We make space and spaces for all kinds of specific groups in the city and city government. This is no different, and the Elected Officials of Color has been around for more than a decade," the Daily Mail reported, citing the Boston Herald.

Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson said there are "no need for apologies at all" regarding the party, the Daily Mail said: "Just like there are groups that meet based on shared interests or cultural backgrounds, it's completely natural for elected officials of color to gather for a holiday celebration."

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'Electeds of Color': Boston mayor's office mistakenly sends invitations for non-white holiday party to entire city council



The office of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu mistakenly sent holiday party invitations — meant only for city council "Electeds of Color" — to the entire city council, prompting a white city council member to call the move "divisive."

What are the details?

Denise DosSatnos — director of city council relations in the mayor's administration — sent an email to the council’s “honorable members” that read, “On behalf of Mayor Michelle Wu, I cordially invite you and a guest to the Electeds of Color Holiday Party on Wednesday, December 13 at 5:30 p.m. at the Parkman House, 33 Beacon Street,” WFXT-TV reported.

— (@)

About 15 minutes later, DosSatnos sent a follow-up email to council members apologizing for the previous message, the station said: “I wanted to apologize for my previous email regarding the Holiday Party for tomorrow. I did send that to everyone by accident, I apologize if my email may have offended or came across as so. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.”

Councilor Frank Baker, who is white, called the decision to exclude some members “unfortunate and divisive" but said he wasn't offended, Boston Patch reported.

Here's a look at the 13-member council:

Image source: City of Boston

Image source: City of Boston

Wu on Wednesday afternoon told WFXT that the group has been in existence for many years and compared the holiday party to Boston’s various multi-faith holiday celebrations.

“I mean, again, this is a group that has been in place for many, many years. We celebrate all [kinds] of connection and identity and culture and heritage in the city. Just yesterday we hosted in the city our official Hannukah celebration, we have had tree lightings," Wu said, according to the station. “We want to be a city where everyone’s identity is embraced … and there are spaces and communities we can help support.”

How have folks been reacting?

Commenters under the Libs of TikTok post on X about the faux pas were incredulous.

"I guess segregation is good again," conservative social media figure Ian Miles Cheong wrote. "Nice."

Here's a sampling of similar reactions:

  • "If paid by the city, I'm pretty sure that's illegal," another commenter said.
  • "This is really outrageous — it’s discriminatory and morally offensive," another user noted. "Isn’t this illegal? Imagine if a politician did a whites-only Holiday Party. Democrat politicians like Wu are the people responsible for race tensions in America."
  • "The white ones should show up since they received an invitation," another commenter declared. "Make them ban them because of the color of their skin."
  • "Sheesh, I'm old enough to remember when segregation was a bad thing," another user noted.

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'Creepy technology': Zoom reportedly may develop AI tool that detects user emotions on video calls. Human rights groups call it invasion of privacy.



Video-conferencing outfit Zoom reportedly may develop an artificial intelligence tool that detects users' emotions by scanning facial expressions and examining vocal tones — but human rights groups are saying such technology would be invasion of privacy, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported.

The outlet said tech publication Protocol reported on the subject last month.

What are the details?

But more than 25 groups — including Access Now, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Muslim Justice League — on Wednesday sent a joint letter to Zoom chief executive Eric Yuan against the idea, the Thomson Reuters Foundation said.

"If Zoom advances with these plans, this feature will discriminate against people of certain ethnicities and people with disabilities, hardcoding stereotypes into millions of devices," Caitlin Seeley George — director of campaign and operations at Fight for the Future, a digital rights group — said, according to TRF. "Beyond mining users for profit and allowing businesses to capitalize on them, this technology could take on far more sinister and punitive uses."

The Thomson Reuters Foundation said Zoom didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

More from TRF:

Zoom Video Communications Inc emerged as a major video conferencing platform around the world during COVID-19 lockdowns as education and work shifted online, reporting more than 200 million daily users at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

The company has already built tools that purport to analyze the sentiment of meetings based on text transcripts of video calls, and according to Protocol it also plans to explore more advanced emotion reading tools across its products.

Zoom in a blog post said sentiment analysis technology can measure the "emotional tone of the conversations" to help salespeople do a better job, TRF reported.

However, the letter from the human rights groups said detection of users' emotions "is a violation of privacy and human rights" and that "Zoom needs to halt plans to advance this feature," TRF added.

'Creepy technology'

The outlet said emotional recognition tools are increasingly common even though critics compare it to facial recognition tools, which have high error rates on non-white faces and have resulted in wrongful arrests.

Esha Bhandari — deputy director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project — called emotion detection AI "junk science," TRF said.

"There is no good reason for Zoom to mine its users' facial expressions, vocal tones, and eye movements to develop this creepy technology," Bhandari told the outlet.