Schaer praises NAACP for Dye ouster

Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) praised NAACP New Jersey State Conference President Richard Smith for removing Jeffrey Dye from his position as Passaic NAACP President.

“Clearly under President Smith’s tutelage, the organization did what it felt it had to do,” Schaer said. “I’m hopeful, certainly very pleased and very, very thankful for President Smith’s leadership and for his involvement.”

Dye was fired from his job at the New Jersey Department of Labor last month after the New Jersey Globe reported on a series of anti-Semitic and anti-Latinx statements and social media posts he made.

Among those comments were ones calling Schaer, who is Jewish, a slave master.

“Every time we want something, we gotta go beg Gary Schaer for something.  We’re on a slave plantation here, and we all (are) acting like slaves if we can’t come together,” Dye said at a Passaic NAACP meeting in 2017. “Who wins when we conspire against each other? The slave master himself, Gary Schaer.”

Key Democratic leaders, including Reps. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) and Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff), New Jersey Democratic State Chairman John Currie, State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge), Passaic County Freeholders TJ Best and John Bartlett, and State Assembly members Holly Schepisi (R-River Vale), Bob Auth (R-Old Tappan), Lisa Swain (D-Fair Lawn), Christopher Tully (D-Bergenfield) and Clinton Calabrese (D-Cliffside Park) called for Dye’s resignation.

“It’s a difficult issue for all of us and A very difficult issue in terms of determining what is the most appropriate response, and I think that, as always, the national and state organizations reflected that kind of willingness to really explore the issue and move forward,” Schaer said.