State should investigate Boles' charge of racism

Youngstown City Councilman Clarence Boles has publicly charged that the absence of minority, female and city residents in many of the city school district's construction projects is the result of racism. It's a claim that cannot be permitted to hang out there without an objective review.
Seeing as how Ohio is putting up 80 percent of the $200 million cost for the 13 new and two renovated school buildings, we urge the state superintendent of education to send a team to Youngstown to investigate the claim.
After all, not only is Boles a city government official, but he previously served on the city board of education. If racism does exist in the hiring practices, then individuals overseeing the projects must be called to account. But if Boles has simply tossed out an incendiary charge that he cannot prove, he has a responsibility to publicly apologize for exacerbating the racial tension that, he says, already exists in the city.
During a school board meeting Tuesday, Boles said he believes white union leaders and construction managers have yet to make good faith efforts to help meet the hiring goals. At the heart of the matter is racism in the city, the councilman opined. He noted that Youngstown has never had a black mayor and only recently got a black police chief and a black female superintendent of schools.
Citywide elections
So how does he explain the election of James E. Fortune Sr. as president of council and Robert A. Douglas Jr. as municipal court judge? Fortune and Douglas are black and, like the mayor, are elected citywide. No one is suggesting that the residents of Youngstown are colorblind when it comes to voting, but for Boles to draw a conclusion that racism exists because the city hasn't had a black mayor seems to us to be a stretch.
Are there white residents who will only vote for a white candidate? Of course there are -- just as there are black residents who will only vote for a black.
In response to Boles' charge that racism is preventing nonwhites and females from being hired for the school construction projects, Al Curry, the school district's equal employment opportunity officer, released a hiring breakdown. At Taft Elementary School, for example, minority workers represent 20 percent of the workforce; 32 percent are district residents; and 1 percent are women.
To be sure, district's overall goals of hiring 20 percent minorities, 20 percent women and 50 percent residents have not be met, but as Superintendent Ben McGee noted, the district is working to remedy the situation. However, McGee pointed out that training in carpentry, brick laying, painting and construction management takes time.
But because Boles was so strident in his criticism Tuesday of the hiring practices -- he went so far as to threaten to mobilize pickets and to shut down a construction site if progress isn't made -- we believe an independent review of what is taking place should be conducted by the state.