Race row broke out between De Blasio's senior staff 

A race row broke out among New York City Hall staffers last month, 11 minutes before Mayor Bill de Blasio was set to give his daily coronavirus briefing and include a nod to the 100th anniversary of woman's suffrage.

City Hall emails obtained by the New York Post show that the argument exploded over the wording of talking points prepared for the mayor after they were sent to staffers ahead of his briefing on August 26.

The talking points included a commemoration of the centennial of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, while also noting that 'not all women could exercise that right' and adding 'women of color excluded.'

An email debate then erupted after one staffer demanded that the talking point explicitly single out white women as only gaining the right to vote, and argued that it was problematic to say 'women of color' instead of 'black women.'

That drew a sharp response from the white woman who authored the notes, who said she was 'being negged for something that happened 100 years ago.'

Insiders say the dispute is emblematic of the dysfunction in City Hall, and it follows a series of high-profile staff departures and heavy criticism of the mayor over the city's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, homelessness, soaring crime and a budget crisis.

The email imbroglio began on August 26 at 9.49am, just 11 minutes before de Blasio's briefing was scheduled to begin.

The mayor's talking points were sent out to his staff, including one noting the 19th Amendment, which prohibited states and the federal government from denying citizens the right to vote based on sex.

Among the bullet points on the suffrage topic were 'not all women could exercise that right' and 'Women of color excluded – fought for decades for equal access.'

City Hall's social media manager Ashley Ross-Teel replied to the email, demanding that the mayor explicitly acknowledge it was only white women who were given access to voting booths with the amendment's passing.

She also criticized the talking point for saying women of color were discriminated against, and for not singling out African American women.

'Sorry, but why wasn't white women added when it was flagged by [women of color],' she wrote, according to The Post. 'Also there is a growing negativity around incorporating Black women into WOC. Everyone's struggles are not the same.'

Three minutes later at 9.52am, now just 8 minutes from the scheduled briefing, the author of the bullet points - speechwriter Marjorie Sweeney - fired back at Ross-Teel.

'Because as a white woman, I find being negged for something that happened 100 years ago unnecessarily confrontational in this context,' she wrote. 'We're trying to bring people together here, not trying to score points off each other.'

'Negging' is a slang term referring to subtle disparagement or passive-aggressive insults.

The Post reported that at least two other high-ranking de Blasio aides were pulled into the row, offering further last minute suggestions that were then signed off by Peter Kauffmann - de Blasio's recently hired $17,000-a-month special adviser - at 10.03am, now three minutes after the briefing was due to start.

In the briefing, the mayor did specifically reference white women in his remarks about the 100th anniversary, but he kept the initially proposed description of 'women of color'.

'Not all women' could vote, he said, referencing the notes. 'Only white women — women of color excluded and they had to fight for many decades more.'

But the row continued afterwards, with Chief of Staff Emma Wolfe chastising the staffers for the argument.

'This should never h... (Read more)

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