Following last Monday’s inauguration, Councilor-at-Large Jaclyn Corriveau has become Peabody’s first person of color to be sworn into City Council. She is Chinese on her mother’s side and Native American, Algonquin Mi’kmaq, on her father’s side.
“I’m totally honored to be the first ‘minority’ elected to the City Council in Peabody, and I think it’s a testament that people are seeing ideas. They’re seeing what the person has to say before they’re taking into account race and gender, and they’re really looking at the quality of the person first,” Corriveau said.
She said “the fact that I’m a minority never came up” on the campaign trail.
“It’s probably because I look white, and I’m very white-adjacent as an Asian person, but I think people see a quality candidate, and they want to vote for that person, and if that person happens to be an Asian person, or an Asian woman, they’re going to vote for that person — and I think that’s great,” Corriveau said. “I think voters are looking at people very differently than they have in the past, and they’re looking for people who encapsulate a more diverse life experience set, which is absolutely fantastic.”
Corriveau noted that, when she was young, there wasn’t anyone who looked like her in the political sphere that she could look up to.
“There were fewer women in government 30 years ago when I was little, and I knew from a very young age that I wanted to do what I’m doing, and I found myself wishing I was a man because I knew my chances of getting elected would be better,” she said. “So that was a very sad memory, and just knowing I got to where I am today as a woman, as an Asian woman, feels really good, and I don’t want any little girl to feel like they can’t be who they are and still achieve their goals.”
Now having become that role model she was once looking for, Corriveau said, “It inspires me to be my best self, and that means doing what’s right for the taxpayers. It means doing what’s right for the residents. It means, when I am interacting with people, always putting my best foot forward and being the face that everyone expects me to be and representing the City and the City Council by being my best self. It really inspires me to do everything that I do with that in mind.”
