July 5th, 2023

Community shows support for City Councilor, target of racist, sexist comments

Tania Fernandes Anderson is the only Black Muslim woman on council

Supporters recently denounced a slew of racist and sexist comments directed at Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, the only Black Muslim woman on the council.

“We have an obligation to make whoever made those statements know that we’re putting them on notice,” Roxbury advocate Louis Elisa said in an interview. “We’re watching [this] to support her, to protect her, and then to let the police know we want them to do their job.”

Elisa and others also attended a June 27 press conference to condemn “violent, racist, Islamophobic comments and threats directed at” Anderson, according to a press release of the event.

Anderson has publicly said she regularly receives sexist, racist, and xenophobic comments from people on Twitter and other social media. She posted a screenshot of a June 19 email she said she received from a sender described as a “veteran and a cop” that attempted to intimidate her and her family. The email was sent using the contact form on the Boston.gov website and the sender has not been identified, according to the screenshot.

Anderson addressed the matter at a June 28 council meeting, at which she also said members of the council have used derogatory language to describe her and others. “People use harmful, hurtful narrative[s] that incite violence,” she said. “And I’ve asked this body, ‘stop doing that.’”

Anderson became the first African immigrant and Muslim-American to serve on the council when she was elected in 2021. (She was born in Cape Verde and grew up in Roxbury.) She represents District 7, which includes Roxbury and parts of Dorchester, the Fenway and the South End.

She is seen as one of the more progressive members of an overwhelmingly Democratic council. Her main issues include advocacy for economic opportunity and mobility for residents who have been disenfranchised, according to the council’s website.

Anderson, who chairs the prominent Ways and Means Committee, has faced public scrutiny in the past few weeks for approving a city budget proposal that would have, among other things, slashed funding for services to veterans and the city’s police department.

She pushed back at her critics, saying that she worked with others on the council and in the city to get the budget approved.

But her comments about receiving the threatening comments appeared to highlight the toll they have had on her.

“It’s a very lonely place… to sit here, to tell the truth, to fight, to be threatened, to be harassed,” she said at the meeting. “It’s a very lonely place to take the bullets by myself.”

Council President Ed Flynn called the comments targeting Anderson “vile” and “repulsive,” adding that it was unacceptable “to harass or intimidate someone using vile language or threats, including to our elected officials” and public servants.

“The repulsive comments aimed at Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, especially ones that are targeting her because she is a Black, immigrant, Muslim woman, are disgusting and unconscionable,’’ Flynn said in a statement. “I have already requested the proper authorities to investigate threatening emails and social media comments and will continue to report any such communications.”

Anderson’s supporters said they are proud of the work Anderson has done thus far.

“She is doing what she was elected to do. So why is she getting all this flak?” said Priscilla Flint-Banks, who is the co-founder and program director of the Black Economic Justice Institute.

Elisa said Anderson has been unfairly targeted.

“I take great umbrage when anyone threatens any woman in my life,” said Elisa, who serves on the District 7 Advisory Committee.

Former state senator Dianne Wilkerson said in an interview that threats and violent rhetoric against Anderson needs to be condemned to prevent them from escalating.

“We’re in that moment … in this country where these things are real, and we can’t dismiss it because we’re in Boston,” she said.

boston city council, islamophobia, racism, Tania Fernandes Anderson