She’s a woman of color. People don’t believe her. – Politico

With help from Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz

POLITICO Illustration/Photo by Getty Images

What up Recast Family! The Senate skirts economic disaster by agreeing to a Band-Aid measure to stave off the debt ceiling debacle ... until December. Vaccines for kiddos may be available sometime after Halloween and comedy legend Dave Chappelle faces backlash. But first, lets kick things off with a look at the historic mayoral election in Boston.

Bostonians will make history in less than four weeks when voters head to the polls to select their next mayor. The candidates vying for the job are two women, marking the first time in the citys history the winner wont be a white man.

Race and identity are factors in this campaign too.

One of the candidates, Michelle Wu, Boston city councilor and a daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, has become something of a media darling. She amassed a broad, multicultural coalition, picking up big-name endorsements including acting Mayor Kim Janey, Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

The other candidate, Annissa Essaibi George, like Wu, is a Boston city councilor and the daughter of immigrants. Theyll go head-to-head in whats essentially a runoff in this nonpartisan election on Nov. 2.

Much of the media attention focuses on the historic nature of the campaign between two women of color. But Essaibi George, who identifies as Arab American, has had to spend time on the campaign trail defending her identity.

Take this headline from the NewBostonPost last month: Boston Mayoral Candidate Says Shes A Person Of Color; Is She? (Her father immigrated to the U.S. from Tunisia in the 1970s. Her mother was born in Germany in a displaced persons camp to Polish parents.)

We chop it up about her identity, her plans to invest in Bostons marginalized communities and the endorsement Wu picked up this week from Massachusetts other senator, Democrat Ed Markey, whom Essaibi George endorsed early in his Senate primary last year.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

THE RECAST: So much has been made of the history-making nature of this campaign and the fact its not going to be a white dude leading the city. How have you sat with this notion that you can be breaking the mold here?

ESSAIBI GEORGE: I haven't spent a whole lot of time sort of sitting with it. Theres a lot of work to do. [But] I'm excited about my experiences as a woman, as a mother, as a former teacher, as a small-business owner, as a city councilor, as a community member, as an Arab, as the daughter of immigrants. Certainly being a woman who would be the first woman elected to lead the city is a privilege and an honor for sure.

Every week, we sit down with diverse and influential characters who are shaking up politics.

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THE RECAST: During the primary, you had to keep reminding people that you were a person of color. Was that odd territory for you? Has this come up in your previous campaigns?

ESSAIBI GEORGE: I'd say that it is not unusual territory for me. As an Arab there is always and has always been a pretty long-lived experience of: How do we identify? How are we recognized?

It's one that in some places we count; in other places, we don't count. That's certainly a struggle that I've dealt with my entire life. Its a struggle that my father certainly experienced as an Arab, as a Muslim, especially as an immigrant to this country.

For me, it leads to a very specific appreciation for the ability I have and the privilege I have of being able to exist in lots of different rooms. ... With it also comes a certain level of maybe incompleteness and not having a room in which I fully exist.

Arabs ... we don't have a box to check [on the census]. It's something that we fought for over the course of the last census, as the former president did not appreciate or want to identify or count Arabs across this country.

I think that's important for us to be seen, to be counted, to be realized and recognized. When I first joined the council in 2016, I was welcomed by the electeds of color to join them in their work [focusing on] people of color. I was really excited. I felt included.

Mayoral candidate Annissa Essaibi George speaks to reporters as she casts her ballot in a polling place on Sept. 14 in the preliminary election. | AP Photo/Josh Reynolds

THE RECAST: I understand you did not check a census box for the reasons you just explained.

ESSAIBI GEORGE: No. I wrote in. I felt it was an effort that Arabs across the United States participated in.

THE RECAST: Your opponent is racking up a whole bunch of endorsements recently, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley, acting Mayor Kim Janey and of course Sen. Elizabeth Warren was an early supporter of Wu. But a lot is being made of Sen. Markeys endorsement after you supported him and his Senate campaign. Did he give you a heads-up that he was endorsing your opponent?

ESSAIBI GEORGE: He had called me the night before that went public.

Boston mayoral candidate Annissa Essaibi George speaks during a city council meeting in Boston on Sept. 15. | AP Photo/Josh Reynolds

THE RECAST: Do you feel like that endorsement will impact the campaign going forward?

ESSAIBI GEORGE: First, I don't think it impacts me at all. Each of these endorsements represents the endorsement of one person. I am proud to have had the endorsement of some significant and large unions and organizations here in the city.

Specific to Ed Markey, certainly disappointed to hear of that endorsement, especially considering that my opponent did not have the courage to stand and endorse him in his reelection last year. And you know, I don't know whether she was afraid of the Kennedy factor, or something like that, in that [2020 Senate] race.

So disappointed, but certainly not discouraged.

When Sen. Markey was endorsing Michelle, [while] they were rolling that announcement out, I was in Roxbury [a predominantly Black neighborhood] surrounded by a citywide coalition of supporters announcing our Equity Plan. That's who I am. I'm very proud of my reputation of being engaged, of being present, doing the work and showing up in Boston's neighborhoods to do the work with the community.

Mayoral candidate Annissa Essaibi George greets campaigners outside a polling place in Boston on Sept. 14 in the preliminary election. | AP Photo/Josh Reynolds

THE RECAST: You're pledging $100 million in investments would go towards marginalized communities. How specifically would that pledge impact these communities and close the staggering wealth gap that Boston has been trying to tackle for decades?

ESSAIBI GEORGE: Very simply the goal is to close the wealth gap, create opportunity, create opportunities for investments in our communities of color, particularly Black community here in the city of Boston.

We've seen the true impact that homeownership can have on any family, on any community, on any child. And I am very much focused on and investing in homeownership opportunities for our city's residents with a particular focus and concentration on our Black and brown communities with a finer focus point on supporting first generation homebuyers.

[Theres] very direct correlation between homeownership and family stability, homeownership and academic and educational achievement. It is also part of a larger effort to make sure that communities are able to build wealth and be very much forward thinking.

THE RECAST: How does your plans make inroads in this regard when real estate inside of Boston city proper is so astronomically high?

ESSAIBI GEORGE: The cost of living and being in this city is something that we always have to work to drive down, especially the cost of housing in this city. But that's a really difficult objective for me. And certainly as mayor, we'll work towards it every single day.

The answer to the cost of living in the city is really to be very intentional about helping families and helping our city's residents build wealth, access workforce and career opportunities and jobs that pay, making sure that they have access to programs that can retrain and uptrain individuals so that they can make much higher wages.

Boston mayoral candidate Annissa Essaibi George carries pizza she made at a campaign stop on Sept. 13. | Scott Eisen/Getty Images

THE RECAST: Another big policy difference between you and your opponent is policing. She seems to be much more willing to make cuts to the budget, the size of force. You have been public about not wanting to do this.

ESSAIBI GEORGE: I am opposed to the idea of divesting in public safety. It is so important that we are always thinking about the safety of our residents and working to end violence across our neighborhoods in every corner of our city.

Absolutely, we need to make sure that we are investing and fulfilling the promise of community policing in our city, that our force is reflective of the great diversity of the city, that those that are working in our Boston Police Department reflect the population that it serves.

I think it's also important that we are continuing to do the reforms and participate in greater accountability: that we are implementing the change that we need to around our own internal affairs department; that we are doing the work that we need to around reforming the gang database; that we are embracing and fulfilling the recommendations of the Boston Police Reform Task Force. That is work that I have been focused on.

And I think unfortunately, because I am interested in investing in public safety in our city, that oftentimes my commitment to reform and greater accountability and greater transparency is overlooked.

Boston Mayoral Candidates Annissa Essaibi George (left) and Michelle Wu spoke during a Haitian-American demonstration on Sept. 24. | AP Photo/Josh Reynolds

THE RECAST: Boston, for better or worse, has this reputation of being racist. So how does an Essaibi George administration go about combating this reputation?

ESSAIBI GEORGE: Unfortunately, racism still exists in our city. And I'm committed to working every day to make sure that we are eliminating it from our systems, whether it's housing or education, or policing, or transit, or even how we respond to the calls that fill a pothole, repair a sidewalk or rebuild a playground.

It starts on Day One by building a Cabinet that is diverse and reflective of this city. I will also make sure that we have a director of equity within each of our Cabinets. Its so important that we arent just saying weve got someone focused on the work, but that we are making sure that that work is embedded in the responsibilities we have in leading the city across all of those sectors.

We've got a lot of work to do around racial discrimination in our city moving forward and making sure that we are not just saying it out loud, but committed to breaking down that systemic racism that exists.

THE RECAST: Do you think that can actually change the minds of some Bostonians though?

ESSAIBI GEORGE: It's hard work, but we've got to do it. And I believe that those are the places where we can make that impactful change and work every day to change minds and hearts. But we've got to lead with the policy and as mayor, that's what I'll do.

OK fam, as many of us head into a three-day holiday weekend, let us be among the first to wish everyone a cheerful Indigenous Peoples Day this Monday. Bostons acting Mayor Kim Janey signed an executive order and called on residents to use the holiday as a moment of reflection of historic policies that actively suppressed Indigenous cultures. Now to some quick pop news updates and your Weekend To-Dos!

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MEA CULPA: An earlier version of this newsletter misstated the Boston news organization that wrote about Annissa Essaibi George's identity as a woman of color. It has been corrected.

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She's a woman of color. People don't believe her. - Politico