Racism Only Removed On Purpose

A white student beaten in a schoolyard fight in the predominantly white town of Jena, La., was well enough to attend a school function the same evening, but six black teenagers were arrested, five of whom were charged as adults with attempted murder. There is something wrong in America.

An unqualified politician hired by Sheriff Ralph Froehlich gets paid $7,000 more than an 18-year law enforcement veteran in the same job title who is black. Undersheriff Joseph P. Cryan was hired by Froehlich in 2002, seven months after he lost his job as bartender at his father's Metuchen pub, but Cryan is paid $7,000 more than Undersheriff Gerald Green. There is something wrong in America.

After taking a picture without the knowledge of an elderly black couple in Newark to reflect his concern for minorities in campaign literature, Chris Bollwage -- now the mayor of Elizabeth -- entitled the photograph, "Spooks on a Bench."There is something wrong in America.


We are surrounded by one example after another of just how far America has to go in order to measure up to our self image as a just and morally superior nation.Racism is removed by conscious effort and continuous work, but despite progress made in many areas, we remain pitifully beleaguered by this social epidemic.

Democrats in Union County have largely ignored the black community. African American officials are routinely disgarded like trash when they prove unwilling to follow the orders of party bosses.

Hispanics and women are also victims of the neglect and contempt exercized by political insiders who are predominantly white men. Not one of the Democratic incumbents in the 20th Legislative district are black, female or hispanic.

Three rich white men get to cast votes in Trenton and their record reflects the short road to corporate profits, not the will of the local populace.

The state senator whose district includes more hispanic residents that any other in New Jersey quietly insults that constituency by learning to speak French. ¿Habla Francais?

In addition to his six-figure tax-funded salary in the sheriff's office, Cryan collects $49,000 a year as a state assemblyman.

It's not enough to exclude women and minorities, these gluttons need too flaunt their contempt.

In Cryan's case, he did that by arranging the arrest of his lover instead of just breaking up with her. Turning law enforcement into a tool for personal and poltical retaliation was only one act of injustice.

Tipping his hat to the young black men who virtually fill our state prisons, Cryan's son was sentenced to a stiff term of probation after beating a man with a baseball bat after an episode of road rage.

Women of all races plus men who are black or hispanic already know of too many forms of injustice perpetrated against them every day.

What they don't know is they have the power to change things with their votes.

We cannot blame racist politicians for what we, as a society, can remedy.