Are Black Congresspeople Being Blacklisted?

Wait a minute now. Unless I'm reading it wrong, it looks like racial profiling has jumped from the 'hood to Capitol Hill.

According to a Politico article, the House Ethics Committee is actively investigating seven African American lawmakers under full-scale ethics probes, but not a single white person serving in Congress is under the same kind of scrutiny.

To be clear, the report came from the Office of Congressional Ethics, which is a quasi-independent agency. There are as many as 23 Democrats and six Republicans named, but only Maxine Waters (pictured above), Laura Richardson (D-Calif.), Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), Donald Payne (D-NJ) and Donna Christensen (D-V.I.) are the subject of all-out investigations.

Several of the allegations involve the use of corporate funds to pay for lawmakers' trips to the Caribbean. All of those accused deny any wrongdoing.

Now, I'm not saying that hands caught in the cookie jar shouldn't be smacked. Goodness knows former Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) had to go after getting busted with $90,000 in his freezer, which was intended as a bribe for a Nigerian official. It does seem funny, though, that the only people whose investigations have gone this far are black representatives.

What's worse is the the Office of Congressional Ethics was actually created by Democrats to weed out any questionables within their ranks. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) came up with the idea after the Jack Abramoff scandal.

There really shouldn't be a problem with keeping a watchdog's eye on lawmakers, since our pennies go to pay for everything they do and then some. At the same time, though, I've got to question whether these folks are being punished for being corrupt -- there is still a question as to whether it was wrong for a corporation to sponsor trips to the Caribbean, and Rangel hasn't been found guilty yet of not paying his taxes -- or if it has something to do with their support of the Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act and the repealing of mandatory minimum sentencing effort.

A major issue is that there aren't enough voters aware about what's happening to make a fuss, but I dare say it's an insidious way to neutralize empowerment within the black community. Take away political clout and what do you have?

Don't get me wrong, corruption is corruption, but I'll be less skeptical of what's going on when I'm seeing that it's not just black folks who are thrown into the fire for bad behavior.