Boston bars are in the news lately.

In one case, a front-page Herald story produced strong allegations that two bars, McCarthy's in the Back Bay and Clarke's in Faneuil Hall, are controlled by organized crime figures from New Jersey, aided by members of the old Whitey Bulger gang.

In a second, Tom English's Cottage in South Boston has been lambasted because it had a display of stuffed jungle animals. The allegation here was that the display mocked Black History month.

Both stories broke on the same day. So which has everyone more upset: the bad joke or the bad guys? If you guessed the bad guys, you just don't understand Boston.

Drugs, prostitution, extortion and murder. No big deal. But heaven forbid if someone's sensibilities get jarred.

Last week, Boston City Councilor Brian Honan introduced a resolution decrying Tom English's Cottage for racism. For over an hour the council hotly debated the measure.

A quick check with the city clerk, however, found no resolutions decrying mob ownership of bars. Good thing too. It meant this Wednesday's council meeting was a lot shorter, clocking in at just over an hour.

Racism-related resolutions: one. Mob-related resolutions: zero.

The Boston Licensing Board, the agency responsible for regulating  liquor licenses, reports that it received over 200 angry calls about Tom English's Cottage. Calls poured in as well to city councilors' offices.

And the number of mob-related calls? Zero.

Everyone seems to be investigating Tom English's. The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the Anti-Defamation League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have all launched probes. An MCAD commissioner called it a "hate crime."

Goaded by city politicians, the liquor licensing board held a hearing within a week. That's fast. Moreover, another is scheduled for March 28.

And the number of licensing board hearings on mob-controlled bars?  Zero.

The board has threatened to pull Tom English's license. English's so far has had a clean record. It hasn't been cited for a single violation since at least 1980. McCarthy's, one of the supposedly  mob-controlled bars, is up before the board constantly on a myriad of complaints.

Plainly everyone is upset with Tom English and his jungle exhibit. Why?

``It denigrates blacks,'' says Honan.

How so? Well, the exhibit was an African jungle display, with monkeys, parrots and other animals. There was a sign behind the monkeys that said, ``Hey, hey we're the monkeys.''

That's a '60s reference, by the way. The Monkees were that decade's version of 'N Sync, but funnier. But still, is there anything about a jungle display that is inherently offensive?

Would a jungle display in a Roxbury bar largely frequented by black patrons raise anyone's ire? Of course not.

This display, however, happened to be in white, Irish-American South Boston. The thinking goes like this: If it's Southie, it must be racist.

The Tom English hullabaloo isn't just about a bar, it's about a community.

Tom English, the bar's owner, has vociferously denied there was ever any insult intended in the display. He even went so far as to deliver affidavits to that effect to all of Boston's 13 city councilors.

But still in some minds, and certainly in the mind of the bartender who was pouring drinks the night reporters showed up, the intent had been to mock Black History month.

Yes, that's bad. It's an offensive and cruel joke. But is it any worse than the practice of seemingly every bar in this city putting up pictures of drunken leprechauns in honor of St. Patrick's Day?

And more to the point: Is it any worse than the pervasiveness with which organized crime has extended its tentacles in this city?

The real story about the McCarthy's and Clarke's bars is that they are but the tip of the iceberg.

The real story is how Boston, and South Boston in particular, was in thrall for decades to the Bulger gang, how its kids today are strung out on heroin because the neighborhood's leaders winked and nodded or, at best, simply looked the other way.

The real story is how political leaders like City Council President Jimmy Kelly to this day pretend they will save South Boston by eliminating imaginary slights such as affirmative action, all the while making excuses for alleged mobsters like Whitey Bulger (a ``gentleman''), Kevin Weeks (someone who would ``straighten out the teenagers'') and Kevin O'Neil (a ``very decent man'').

 It's easy to beat up on Tom English and his little bar. But when it comes to organized crime, everyone is silent. In our obsession with slights and slurs, perhaps we're losing our capacity to be outraged at the things that really matter.

Tom Keane writes regularly for the Boston Herald. He is reachable at tomkeane@tomkeane.com.