Being black does not excuse bad behavior. If a person lies, cheats, steals, or stomps on their neighbor’s flowers, it should not be excused because of that person’s skin color. Likewise, investigating black people on corruption charges does not make someone a racist.
These seem like simple enough concepts to grasp; yet some lawmakers are crying racist over the ethics violation charges being brought against Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and Maxine Waters (D-CA).
The two members of the Congressional Black Caucus (side note — if there’s a black caucus, shouldn’t there be white, brown, purple polka-dotted, and yellow-bellied caucuses as well?) are being formally charged with behavior unbecoming of a member of congress, let alone a decent human being.
Rangel is being charged on 13 counts of ethics violations including tax evasion and using his congressional staff and letterhead to solicit potential donors to the Rangel Center.
During the 2008 banking crisis, Waters intervened with the Treasury Department to benefit a small bank. A bank in which her husband held more $250,000 in stock. Nothing shady about that at all.
Both members of congress chose not to settle with House ethics investigators, as doing so would involve admissions of guilt. After all, it’s difficult to maintain that I-care-about-the-little-people facade when you’re hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars from the IRS or screwing over businesses to benefit your own family.
