We (the public) don’t like to talk about racism, but when the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel applies two different policies for leaders with different colors of skin, no one should be shocked when one side sees unfair treatment.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is applying two different standards to two hot cases being tried out in the public eye. County Board Chairman Lee Holloway, an African-American, is being accused of ethical improprieties. State Assembly Representative Scott Jensen who is white, is on trial for felony misconduct and using public funds to further his partisan political goals.

These charges could potentially remove either of them from office.

Recently Holloway was exposed as being a slumlord when his tenants had to live in the dead of winter without heat because Holloway didn’t have broken out windows replaced after a fire. For the past several weeks, Scott Jensen who was nearly the most powerful Republican operative in the entire state, has been on trial in an ongoing saga that has found multiple politicians going to jail for lesser offenses than Jensen is accused of.

So who do you suppose the Journal-Sentinel would highlight on the front page in a lead story? Your choices are simple — a local politician or a state politician whose trial is going on right now?

If you said the state politician you would be wrong. Holloway was plastered onto the front page. For the entire week, Jensen’s trial has been relegated to the Metro section — a section of the Journal-Sentinel that is supposed to be for local news.

Lee Holloway is no saint, and no one is saying he is, but when the Journal-Sentinel applies a harsher standard to Holloway, it is no shock that people of color would be upset.

Feigning shock and indignation, conservatives don’t understand why Holloway’s African-American constituents would not come out and condemn him enmasse. Even that is a double standard.

As a white man, I’m more than a little shocked when Scott Jensen’s constituents didn’t remove him in his last election. Whether Jensen is found guilty or not, his clear misuse of taxpayer dollars would be something that I would think a conservative district who claims to care about taxes, would anger his political base. But instead of condemning the Brookfield Republican, they overwhelmingly rewarded him with another term.

So let’s get past the rhetoric of accusing the black community of cannonizing Holloway — they’re not. But as long as Jensen’s all-white district is remaining silent on his charges while re-electing him, let’s not even pretend that we should apply a higher standard to the Holloway case.

The Journal-Sentinel’s differing treatment of these two politicians of different races is not going to win over any new subscribers who are people of color. Applying double standards does not make their editors look like enlightened journalists.