Baker ripped for Pressley ‘rant’ remark at MLK event
Many rally to support Pressley’s MLK talk
Gov. Charlie Baker clumsily stepped into controversy again — and is taking heat from top elected officials for calling U. S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s identity politics speech a “rant” in a cringeworthy moment that drew groans and gasps at Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast.
Pressley, speaking at at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center event, said hate and white supremacy “codified through legislation” are a bigger problem than the left’s identity politics.
“If we could celebrate the identity of a veteran, if we can celebrate the identity of a survivor of domestic violence, if we could celebrate the identity of someone in the recovery community, and say why we need them at the table,” said Pressley, a nationally known member of the so-called “squad” — four hard-left women of color in the U. S. House of Representatives.
“To make sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to another person again, the solution is representation and there is nothing wrong with identity,” Pressley said, drawing a standing ovation. Then Baker made an awkward joke about having to follow her.
“The only thing I can add to that rant is this,” Baker said, drawing an audible groan from the nearly 1,500 attendees at the breakfast honoring the civil rights icon.
Baker, with a track record of awkward utterances, is a centrist so moderate and even left-leaning that conservative critics call him a RINO — Republican In Name Only. And while so-called identity politics are seen as divisive and exclusionary on the right, Baker went on to call Pressley’s comments “spot-on.”
Baker spokeswoman Lizzy Guyton said later, “The governor agreed with Congresswoman Pressley’s remarks today and believes her speech was moving. Governor Baker reached out to Congresswoman Pressley after the breakfast to apologize for using the word ‘ rant.’ ”
Pressley didn’t respond to requests for comment — but other Boston politicians said the governor was playing on harmful stereotypes.
“Language is important,” said City Council President Kim Janey. “Words matter. To use such a word as ‘ rant’ smacks of the ‘angry black women’ as a stereotype. And if she is in fact angry, like so many like many of us are as black women — we have a right to be. It’s a righteous anger.”
City Councilor Michelle Wu said, “It was very jarring this morning, because the congresswoman had been giving a deeply personal set of comments. And when the governor said that — just dismissed it as a quote unquote ‘rant’ … It felt extremely disrespectful in the moment.”
Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins tweeted, “Here is a rant for you. Not a single Black Secretary in your Cabinet; Meetings w/the Black & Latino Caucus & your Black ‘Advisory’ Committee do NADA; Only 3 Black Superior Ct. Judges in MA out of 80+ We deserve representation & real power.”
Attorney General Maura Healey tweeted that Pressley “spoke the truth about racial injustice and the disparities faced by Black women and people of color at the MLK breakfast. It was thoughtful, personal, and anything but a rant. Language like that is dismissive and perpetuates the very harm we seek to end.”