With Eyes East

I’ve always meant to dedicate space on this blog to the exploits, the travails, of Michelle Wu, mayor of Boston since 2021. Immediately following her election, I subscribed to the Boston Globe to follow her policies, and opened a couple of Google Docs for notes and scratch thoughts on, say, Mass and Cass. How indeed would she fulfill one of her major campaign promises and solve the city’s homeless problem? Well, as I discovered, the answer was “slowly.” I ended up not writing about Mayor Wu simply because there wasn’t really anything [for me] to write about, and also because this is a blog about Asians, not their scurrilous Western counterparts. So it looks like this blog’s actual introduction to Mayor Wu is gonna come in response to something that happened on The Daily Show. That’s about as much as my brain can output.

I’ll tell you, she’s had a hell of a reelection campaign, despite still being a few days out from her formal announcement. Earlier this month, she was summoned before the House Oversight Committee alongside other Democratic mayors — you know, like Eric Adams — to serve as a straw man for typical Republican anti-immigration theatrics. She did so with her seven-week-old daughter in tow and an Ash Wednesday cross on her forehead, standing out as especially durable under the withering remarks. I mean, she knew she had to make an impression, and somewhat controversially spent, like, half a million dollars to prepare (controversial in that her opponent Josh Kraft questioned the taxpayer expense).

“The false narrative is that immigrants in general are criminals, or immigrants in general cause all sorts of danger and harm that is actually what is undermining safety in our communities. If you want to make us safe, pass gun reforms, stop cutting Medicaid, stop cutting cancer research, stop cutting funds for veterans. That is what will make our city safe.”
– The Hon. Mayor Michelle Wu (source)

This week, she appeared on The Daily Show prompting this Globe headline the next morning: “Hey, ‘Daily Show’: Stop calling Boston the most racist city in America. It’s not funny.” Articlist Shirley Leung sums it up at the top:

Race was a recurring theme Tuesday night during Mayor Michelle Wu’s first appearance on “The Daily Show.” About five different times during her 15-minute segment, in one way or another, guest host Ronny Chieng asked Wu how could Irish-bro Boston elect a young Asian American woman as mayor:

“I don’t usually make demographics such a big deal. But like, how did you become mayor … of Boston?”

“How did you get those guys to vote for you … how did you convince them to put you in charge?

“I think you won your last election at 64 percent of the vote … so you’re incredibly popular in Boston, and they trust you to run the city. How did you convince these Boston people?”

I’ve never lived in Boston, so I can only speak for the rest of America who watched The Departed — name-checked by Chieng in the third or fourth reiteration of this bit. That movie opens with a Boston-accented monologue that spits out two ethnic slurs — one of them the N-word — and the recitation of a Black stereotype. Now, lots to talk about here, as is always the case with The Departed. First of all, the movie won Best Picture. Lots of people saw it. But this monologue works, inasmuch as anything in the movie works, because it proposes a philosophy that’s ultimately deconstructed. The character is racist, and he’s proven to be wrong about a whole lot of things in the end.

Leung’s response to the show was also my kneejerk reaction. But I don’t want to discount the experiences of racial minorities in Boston, nor do I find it especially useful to argue against the title of “most racist” in favor of “just as racist as everyone else.” Growing up in Massachusetts, I only knew two Indian Americans, and one of them was murdered in a hate crime in Boston. I’m much more sympathetic to Leung’s point that this is merely a tired exercise. A few years ago, Trevor Noah did a standup set in Atlanta, where he expressed being chuffed by the city’s friendly culture and racial makeup. He called it “the anti-Boston,” which I remember because it was the first time (in a while, at least) I’d heard the city characterized on a somewhat national stage. Mostly the talk is just “Tom Brady.”

And then he moved on, to my recollection. The problem with Ronny Chieng’s performance opposite Mayor Michelle Wu is the not insignificant gulf between himself and Noah as confident, funny comedians. It could be the format, as Noah was pretty stilted on The Daily Show where he’s a natural on stage, but I’ve also seen Chieng’s standup and it’s the same loud, “repeat one thing a dozen times” shtick. I wondered if he was just having trouble pivoting from one bit to the next, but by the end of fifteen minutes, the conversation never went anywhere. I really think he went in with one question.

The problem, from the perspective of Mayor Michelle Wu’s collating reelection team, is that she has to ride the thin line between defending the honor of her city and not looking like a stick in the mud on Comedy Central. It’s also unfortunate that she didn’t get much of a platform to discuss anything of substance. But who knows if it’ll make a difference in her eventual campaign? I mean, I’ve been wondering lately about the efficacy of comedy in political discourse generally, with episodes of recent history captured by the garish, uncanny snapshots of Saturday Night Live. Like, why is that our reflex? Why are things set up to make it so? Whatever. Stay strong, Mayor Michelle Wu! We won’t fail you next time!