It is a measure of how successfully the United States has overcome racism that there doesn't seem to be enough of it to go around to satisfy the demands of race hustlers. Thus, we have the phenomenon of racism hoaxes metastasizing within the education industry.

The latest example comes from New Jersey, where a 16 year black candidate for class president at St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City sent himself racist text messages. Michaelangelo Conte of NJ.com reports:

The black St. Peter's Prep student who purportedly received racist text messages warning him to drop out of the Jersey City high school's student government election sent the texts to himself, a school official confirmed last week. (snip)

The 16-year-old was running for president for the Student Council in May when he supposedly received four hateful text messages. He brought them to the attention of school officials who called in his father and police.

"We have NEVER and will NEVER have an (n-word) to lead our school," was one of the messages supposedly sent to the 16-year-old student, who at the time, was a resident in Jersey City.

The message went on to call President Obama by his middle name Hussein and used a racial slur in referring to Obama, a police report said. "We will never make that mistake again. Drop out right now . . ." it continued, a police report said.

A second message read "Whites! Your a waste on this earth, a waste at this school, and most importantly a Waste for this campaign." That message called the student government candidate a "slave" and used a racial slur, a report said.

The third message texted to -- and as it turns out from -- the student, contained a warning to drop out of the race and the fourth read, in part, "COMEONE your black!!! lol your a joke for even trying to run," according to a police report.

The 16-year-old eventually lost the race for student council president but was elected vice president. A source said he no longer attends the school.

Racism hoaxes damage the social fabric, poisoning race relations. There is no indication that the 16 year old is facing any legal jeopardy for false reports with the police.

The time has come to institute serious legal penalties for race hoaxes, penalties on a par with those for hate crimes. Jail time, large fines, and public humiliation are called for.

But instead, because it is invariably progressives who launch these hoaxes because they just "know" that the racism is out there and want to "illustrate" it, too often the penalties for these crimes are light or nonexistent.