This story in the Friday Dallas Morning News requires little commentary from me–just read the comments that follows the brief article and you will get a feel for what black officials like Victor Lander are up against. 

Black officials are not allowed to remind us that white Americans once regarded non-whites as non-citizens and behaved accordingly.  Judge Lander surrendered his column but he kept his job. 

If Mayor Leppert possessed real political courage he would have stood behind Lander. 

But the mayor is surrounded by people like John G. Browning, a Dallas attorney who is shocked . . . shocked by Lander’s commentary.  Browning makes much of the fact that Lander stood up for the Jena 6 and the infamous Jeremiah Wright.  From Browning’s perspective, these opinions qualify Judge Lander as a whack-job. 

Since I introduced Judge Lander and his congregation (Friendship West Baptist Church) to the Jena story I take attacks on the Judge personally.  Unfortunately, attacks of this kind are routine.  White Americans wants to believe that the criminal justice system provides equal justice for all and we break into loud lamentation when a black Judge like Victor Lander or a black DA like Craig Watkins suggests otherwise. 

Dallas Administrative Judge C. Victor Lander to stop writing opinion column

C. Victor Lander, administrative judge of Dallas’ municipal courts, has agreed to stop writing an opinion column for the Dallas Weekly after coming under fire for references to race in a recent piece.

In a meeting with Mayor Tom Leppert this week, Lander agreed to stop writing the column, confirmed Leppert’s Deputy Chief of Staff Paula Blackmon.

Lander also told the entire City Council that he would stop writing for the Dallas Weekly in an executive session meeting Wednesday, several sources confirmed.

In a March 4 column about Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, Lander wrote that “black folks have been cleaning up white folks messes for hundreds of years, so why should we expect any different now?”

The comment led to one call for his resignation from council member Mitchell Rasansky. Other council members were more understanding and accepted Lander’s apology and retraction of the statement.

Lander did not immediately return a call for comment Friday.

UPDATE: Lander called to say that he told the mayor he would not write the column anymore.

“I just want to make sure the things I say are not misconstrued again, therefore, I’m going to suspend with my column,” he said. “That does not mean I’m going to be silent. But I believe it is in the best interests of all concerned if I communicate on issues dealing with the municipal courts and improvement of the processes there.”