As the editorial page editor at the Atlanta Constitution and a frequent commentator on political talk shows, Cynthia Tucker is known as a compassionate and critical observer of today's political and social scene. Her experience has given Tucker an uncommon ability to take an informed, cogent look at the issues.

CONTINUING RACISM ALLOWS ATLANTA'S BLACK MAYOR TO CRY FOUL

Recalling J. Edgar Hoover's shameful persecution of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Campbell said, "The FBI has never been a friend of the African-American community, and they're not a friend now. ... I don't know that African-Americans have ever had any confidence in the FBI."

In Campbell's case, however, the claim of racism is unlikely. The investigation is headed by two African-Americans -- U.S. Attorney Richard Deane Jr., in charge of the Northern District of Georgia, and Special FBI Agent Theodore Jackson, in charge of the bureau's Atlanta Division office.

Besides, Campbell is no Martin Luther King.

Nevertheless, Campbell's accusations are playing well around some of black Atlanta, a city with a broad and politically powerful black middle class not easily misled by hysterical rhetoric. Black ministers and academics as well as popular black radio disc jockeys have joined in to defend Campbell and berate the FBI.

There is a reason Campbell's strategy still works, and those who have never experienced racism might do well to consider it: Black elected officials are unfairly prosecuted, even now. In 1996, The Wall Street Journal reported evidence of disproportionate prosecutions of black elected officials.

"Seventy congressmen have faced criminal charges during the past 25 years, and 15 percent of them are minorities -- or four times their percentage in Congress, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington think tank," the newspaper reported. Equally disturbing, black congressmen sometimes received harsher punishments than white ones for similar crimes, the Journal pointed out.

The newspaper compared the case of former Rep. Mel Reynolds, an African-American who was prosecuted for sexual misconduct, with the cases of three whites who were also members of Congress when they were investigated and/or prosecuted on similar charges: Donald Lukens, Dan Crane and Gerry Studds.

In 1995, Reynolds, an Illinois Democrat, was sentenced to five years in prison for having sex with a 16-year-old girl. By contrast, Lukens, an Ohio Republican, served nine days of a 30-day jail sentence and paid a $500 fine for a 1988 conviction on charges of having sex with a 16-year-old girl.

Dan Crane, an Illinois Republican, was only censured by the House in 1983 for having sex with a 17-year-old female congressional page. That same year, Studds, a Massachusetts Democrat, was also censured by his colleagues for a sexual affair with a 17-year-old male congressional page.

The double standard has not disappeared since then. Take a look at President Clinton's Cabinet. Of the five Cabinet members investigated by independent counsels, four have been members of ethnic minority groups (and three of those four were black).

Those numbers surely cannot be coincidence. Nor is there any reason to believe Cabinet members of color are more subject to corruption than their white counterparts. Indeed, the two cases that went to trial were practically laughed out of court. Former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy was exonerated; former Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Henry Cisneros pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor.

None of that has anything to do with Campbell's case. While the mayor claims that he is being set up because of his fierce advocacy of affirmative action (by a Clinton Justice Department that favors affirmative action, no less), the federal investigation actually grew out of legitimate suspicions about Atlanta's set-aside program for minority business owners. The mayor has not been indicted or even publicly accused of wrongdoing.

But there is a deeper truth just beneath Campbell's wild rantings about racism that creates support for him among his black constituents: The criminal justice system is not yet color-blind. As long as that is the case, politicians such Bill Campbell will be able to gain sympathy by claiming they are victims of injustice.