The Massachusetts attorney general's office has fielded four complaints about Boston Mayor Michelle Wu's highly criticized "electeds of color" holiday party -- a bash that included an email uninviting white city councilors.
The Dec. 13 party, however, did not appear to violate the public accommodation law "since it was not open to the public," state Attorney General Andrea Campbell's office told the Boston Herald in an email.
Three of the complaints were from out of state and the other did not contain an address, the attorney general's office added. A spokesperson would not confirm or deny whether any investigation was launched as a result of the complaints.
Under Massachusetts law, the attorney general enforces the public accommodation law, which "prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodation" based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, deafness, blindness, any other physical or mental disability, or ancestry.
Campbell is a former city councilor. Her office did not elaborate on why Wu's party was not in violation. The Parkman House is listed as the mayor's official reception hall.
The Rev. Eugene Rivers III, a Dorchester pastor and leading Black voice in the city, disagrees -- adding the party was "clumsy politics, generational politics," that does little to heal any lingering racial tensions.
"Number one. Had any white politicians said they were having some St. Patty's Day event and it was only for the Irish, that would have been called racist by every politician of color in the city council and possibly in the state," Rivers said.
"You can't have two sets of moral political books," he added. "It's simply hypocritical. And there's just no reason for that."
Rivers said if Wu was attempting to build her "street cred," it should have not come at the "expense of white people."
The Parkman party, first reported by the Herald, caught international attention after a Wu administration official, on behalf of the mayor, mistakenly sent all Boston city councilors an email inviting them to a holiday party that was meant exclusively for "electeds of color," prompting an apology and mixed reactions.
Fifteen minutes after the mayor's director of City Council relations sent out the email, inviting each councilor and a guest, the employee sent a follow-up email to councilors, apologizing for the prior email, which was apparently only meant for those who were invited.
The party was quickly criticized by some for being "divisive," while others, including the mayor, defended the event for creating space for specific groups in city government.
Wu, who went ahead with the "electeds of color" party, did hold another one a day later for everyone where the attendance has come under question.
City Councilor Erin Murphy, who is white and was not invited to the first party, took issue with the mayor's version of events.
"I don't care who leaked the email invite," Murphy told the Herald last week. "It was sent to over 40 people so it could have been anyone. In a world that seems increasingly intolerable and unaccepting, I pray daily that we find a common ground, a path to togetherness. I hope that those of us in power find ways to bring people closer, not further apart."