Cuban Lawmaker accused of racial slur

Schools chief Rudy Crew said a state legislator called him racial epithets, and four public officials said they heard the lawmaker use such language.

TALLAHASSEE - State Rep. Ralph Arza, a top education leader in the Legislature, has repeatedly used racial epithets in English and Spanish to describe Miami-Dade's African-American schools superintendent, according to the schools chief himself and four public officials from the Miami-Dade area.

''They were very disparaging remarks made in a very, very ugly ethnic tone'' for more than a year, Superintendent Rudy Crew said Wednesday. Four other sources, both elected and appointed officials, some of whom are Republicans like Arza, told The Miami Herald they had heard the lawmaker use the language when talking about Crew.

Crew, who did not hear the remarks but relied on what he called ''a number'' of reports, and the four officials said Arza has repeatedly used the word ''nigger'' in English to refer to the schools chief. In Spanish, for which there is no direct translation, they said Arza called Crew a negro de mierda, using a word for excrement.

The four officials said they heard Arza's comments individually at different times over the past year, the most recent a few weeks ago in Tallahassee.
Crew said he is considering filing a complaint against Arza with the House Rules Committee, which governs lawmakers' conduct.

Arza, of Hialeah, denied using any disparaging language to describe Crew. He said he had ''no idea'' who would have said he made those statements, but added that he had heard ''rumors'' that Crew and others claimed he used the language.

''I'm shocked by it. I'm shocked. I have not spoken publicly against him. I have supported him publicly. He has a lot of good ideas,'' Arza said.
''In Spanish, the word negro is black. But it's not disparaging. I never said anything disparaging,'' Arza said.

Arza, chairman of the House's Pre K-12 Committee, and Crew say they're both dedicated to schools. And both agree on one thing: Neither feels the need to speak with each other about it. ''It's a rumor. It's false. There's nothing more to say,'' Arza said.

Said Crew: ''I really don't think that conversation would have been productive.'' And when he first heard of the alleged slur a year ago? ''I did not want to be confrontational about that,'' Crew said. "I thought the work itself was the greater part of valor and that it would fall by the wayside.''

Two of the sources who said they heard Arza use the ''N-word'' believed Arza was not really bigoted, but that he likes to ``talk tough and intimidate.'' Crew said he knew the job in Miami-Dade was tough. But he was surprised by Arza. ''I'm basically a street kid. But I know, there are some rules you never break,'' Crew said. "You don't ever cross that line, not in our schools, not in our government, not from our elected officials.'' (exerpt of story by MARC CAPUTO)