NPR received backlash for a tweet it sent on the day Boston inaugurated its first woman of color as mayor.
In a since-deleted tweet on Tuesday, the outlet shared a story with a caption about the inauguration of Michelle Wu, an Asian American, who is the first woman and person of color to win the Boston mayoral race.
In a caption, it wrote, “Michelle Wu, an Asian American, is the first woman of color elected to lead the city. While many are hailing it as a turning point, others see it as a more of a disappointment that the three Black candidates couldn’t even come close.”
The headline of the story read, “Cheers and some letdown as 1st elected woman and person of color becomes Boston Mayor.”
Check out some of the reactions below:
Ponder this deleted tweet by @NPR. Imagine the kind of worldview one has to think this way—hyper race consciousness, obsession with racial hierarchies, and merit & fairness inversion. Now imagine an entire channel devoted to promulgating this ideology. That is what NPR has become pic.twitter.com/Y9MEXTIXvs
— Peter Boghossian (@peterboghossian) November 16, 2021
So it's a "disappointment" to have an Asian, rather than Black, mayor
— Lauren Chen (@TheLaurenChen) November 16, 2021
Whatever happened to #StopAsianHate?
https://twitter.com/kristie_valerie/status/1460632476225708037
NPR appears to be having a struggle session because the wrong type of female minority won the Boston mayoral election. pic.twitter.com/FPwKHbEB0a
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) November 16, 2021
Kim Janey became Boston's first black, first female mayor, but she finished 4th in the preliminary among 5 mayoral candidates of color. (Janey even endorsed Michelle Wu.)
— Mia Cathell (@MiaCathell) November 16, 2021
NPR had applauded the diversity of the contenders. What changed? Why downplay an Asian American woman's win? pic.twitter.com/FizBISLYxN
Michelle Wu, an Asian American, is the first woman first person of color elected to lead the city of #Boston. But woke @NPR thinks Wu's win is a let down. https://t.co/zLXgKbC4k8
— Helen Raleigh (@HRaleighspeaks) November 16, 2021
Hours later, the outlet shared a tweet addressing backlash, it read, “We realize we don’t always get things right the first time, and our previous tweet/headline misrepresented the story.”
“We deleted the previous tweet, which was causing harm, and have updated the story,” the outlet added.
We realize we don't always get things right the first time, and our previous tweet/headline misrepresented the story.
— NPR (@NPR) November 16, 2021
We deleted the previous tweet, which was causing harm, and have updated the story
The headline for the story was changed to, “Why Boston will need to wait longer for its 1st elected Black mayor.”
The story featured interviews from residents of the city who expressed disappointment that a Black candidate did not win the race. One artist told the oulet, “I cried my eyes out because I don’t know the next time we’ll see a Black mayor in our city.”
The story continued:
“In the preliminary election, the three Black candidates combined got about three quarters of the vote in areas of the city with the highest concentrations of people of color. But in the whitest areas, they won only about one quarter of the votes, according to an analysis of election results and Census data conducted by The MassINC Polling Group.”
However, it added, “Black leaders are already talking about taking lessons from incoming Mayor Wu’s successful campaign to improve their own political organizing and messaging, and to increase Black turnout in future races. Some are also calling for a more coordinated strategy to coalesce behind a single black candidate, to avoid splitting the vote as happened this year.”