Oliver's Story

Sheila Oliver, the Democratic speaker of the New Jersey State Assembly, is not a happy camper. Her party recently was forced to give concessions on the state budget to Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, who played hardball with the legislature on the issue.

Oliver, who is black, had some choice words for Christie and his advisers on the subject of race and class, and it caused a stir not unlike the comments Shirley Sherrod was depicted to have made. Except that, though Oliver did say what she was reported to have said, she was expressing frustration with the arrogance of others; she did not show any arrogance of her own.

Oliver said that the Christie administration is an inner circle of white men who fail to understand the effects bus fare hikes and canceled tax credits are having on struggling working families. "That's why it’s so easy for them to sit around a table, slash this, put a line through that," Oliver told Tom Moran of the Star-Ledger. "How many of the guys sitting around that table have ever even sat on a bus?"

Sure enough, Oliver was criticized in letters to the editor for her racially derogatory remarks. Of course. Because apart from slavery, colonialism, genocide, predatory capitalism, and British art rock, what have white men wrought to warrant such abuse? :-O

Other letter writers liked to point out that white men take the bus just like anyone else. Really? You mean a city bus, not those snazzy commuter buses with sarcophagus seats that connect New Jersey to New York City? That would be news to anyone who rides city buses. I rode on one just yesterday, because I had to go to nearby East Orange (Oliver's hometown, incidentally), where the parking availability is atrocious. I think I saw one or two other white males on the bus. I was surprised to find that many.

If Christie has ever been on a bus, it must have been a long time ago. And, given his horrible driving record, it wouldn't have been a bad idea to ride them before he got himself a chauffeur.