It was sometime during the mid-1970s — an era when only a handful of female reporters had earned what was considered a plum post reporting politics from the Massachusetts State House.
It was also a time when the political power structure on Beacon Hill was all male — in every sense of that word. And so the tiny band of maybe three or four women reporters weren’t invited to then-Senate President Kevin Harrington’s all-male sail along the scenic North Shore coast.
Exclusion stings — even after all these years.
“You wouldn’t have much fun, anyway,” we females were told. And, after all, the event was a State House tradition — had been going on for years. Why do away with such a fine tradition?
Ah, yes, the more things change …
So now Mayor Michelle Wu is defending her decision to go ahead with her “Electeds of Color Holiday Party” at the city-owned Parkman House after disinviting City Council members who, well, didn’t fit that description. The party is, after all, an annual tradition, she explained.
“I’ve been a part of a group that gathers, representing elected officials of color across all different levels of government in Massachusetts,” Wu said, according to WCVB. “A group that has been in place for more than a decade, and the opportunity to create a space for people to celebrate and rotate who hosts.”
In an interview with NBC 10, the mayor said, “There are many, many events that are private events for all different sorts of groups, and so we’ve clarified that and look forward to seeing everyone at one of the other dozens of opportunities to celebrate the holidays together.”
The only apologizing that has been done is by the poor staffer who inadvertently sent the invitations to the entire membership of the City Council, not just those who fit the description on the invitation.
“I did send that to everyone by accident,” Wu’s director of council relations Denise DosSantos wrote in a second email sent 15 minutes after the first. “Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.”
Without the errant email, presumably the event would have attracted little or no attention — just another holiday party in a mansion that has been the scene of many a party over the past several decades.
City Councilor Frank Baker, who did not seek re-election this year, called the move “unfortunate and divisive” but added, “I don’t get offended. You don’t want me at a party, I’m not going to come to a party.”
In a year where the dividing lines on the council were sharp and rancorous, what wasn’t needed was one more way to point out that sad fact of life.
And so the year ends — pretty much as it began. It’s not a good look for Wu, who has certainly expressed the hope that she could be a uniter in a city that is too often at odds over race. And yes, there’s arguably a difference between a party reserved for people who’ve traditionally been marginalized and a party reserved for those who’ve traditionally had all the power. But exclusion is exclusion. And “tradition” is a sorry excuse.
In the coming year this city will mark the 50th anniversary of the landmark school busing decision — a time marked by trauma and divisions that have left indelible scars on Boston. It was then long-standing tradition that white kids went to Southie High and Black kids didn’t. They got the dredges — of schools, of equipment, of books.
Some “traditions” needed to be abandoned — in the ’70s. Certainly the kind of traditions that segregated schools.
And, yes, even the kind of traditions that left “girl” reporters back in the pressroom, while the “boys” got to go for a summer sail.
Rachelle G. Cohen is a Globe opinion writer. She can be reached at rachelle.cohen@globe.com.