At CCM, attorney general explains importance of respect, diversity

BY MICHAEL DAIGLE, the Daily Record, June 14, 2006

WARREN WESTURA / SPECIAL TO THE DAILY RECORD New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber spoke to the Morris County Human Rights Commission at the County College of Morris on Tuesday

RANDOLPH -- Speaking to about 20 members of the Morris County Human Rights Commission Tuesday night, state Attorney General Zulima F. Farber delivered a message about respect, diversity and "disparate enforcement of the law" that was not aimed at those in the room, but to the unseen audience outside the walls of the County College of Morris student center.

Farber told the human rights commission members how important their work was last summer when they helped defuse bias incidents in Morristown, but then reminded them that the work to address bias and discrimination was never over.

As the demographics of Morris County change as more immigrants, especially Spanish-speaking ones, arrive Farber said, "new tensions arise and old tensions resurface."

Those tensions are personified, she said, in actions that her office is keeping an eye on, specifically whether there is any disparate enforcement of housing and employment laws in Morristown where complaints have followed the town's crackdown on illegal housing and the presence of Hispanic day laborers, and the passage of new taxi ordinances in Dover that prompted lawsuits by four taxi companies.

Farber made it clear that her office is paying attention to such activity statewide.

She was appointed as attorney general in January by Gov. Jon S. Corzine. Farber is the first Hispanic attorney general in the state's history.

Farber said that as she got telephone calls congratulating her the day after she was appointed, she was told by other state attorney generals that she held the most powerful AG post in the country because she is not elected and served on the governor's council.

She made it clear Tuesday that she will use the power of her office to fight bias and discrimination.

She said that she likes newspapers because she learns about many incidents, including one in which a tenant complained that her landlord stopped making repairs to her apartment because he learned that she was receiving Section 8 rental assistance.  Farber said she sent officers from the civil rights division to investigate.

Offers for help

The landlord recanted, and the tenant received offers for assistance and new apartments from landlords across the state.  The tenant decided to move, she said.

Farber also attacked the notion that only poor, uneducated people maintain attitudes that exhibit bias.

"Hate resonates on the World Wide Web," Farber said.  "But people who use the Internet have enough means to purchase a computer and computer software and the intelligence to access the Internet."

She explained the history of Morristown's Neighborhood House to show how long today's immigration issues have been around and to show that things have not really changed.

Neighborhood House, located on Flager Street in the middle of a mixed-race neighborhood, was founded in the beginning of the 20th century to help Italian immigrants find work, Farber said.  Later it became a center to help blacks who had migrated from the South and now assists Hispanic immigrants.

The Italians, she said, faced the same bigotry and discrimination faced today by Hispanics because they spoke a different language and had a different culture.

Michael Daigle can be reached at (973) 267-7947 or at mdaigle@gannett.com.