Posted on 10/17/2009 9:06:21 PM PDT by Cowgirl34
A Louisiana judge, Keith Bardwell, from the Tangipahoa parish is yet another symptom that racism is still a problem in America in 2009, despite the election of the first African-American President.
Justice of the peace Bardwell is now in the middle of a growing controversy, likely to end his career, after refusing to give a marriage license to an interracial couple. Barwell said he denied the license “out of concern for the couple’s future children.” Bardwell insists that he is not a racist, and that he has a lot of Black friends that he “welcome to his house, and even let them use the bathroom.”
“There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage. I think those children suffer and I won’t help put them through it,” said Bardwell. What Mr. Bardwell should comprehend is that one of the children of such marriages, between a white women & a black man, is our current President. It seems that he did pretty well in compensating for what Mr. Bardwell views as a birth handicap.
The couple, Beth Humphrey and Terrence McKay, has expressed that they will contact the US Justice Department to file a discrimination complaint. “That was one thing that made this so unbelievable. It is not something you expect in this day & age,” said Humphrey.
The ACLU has asked the Louisiana Judiciary Committee for an investigation in the case.
“It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009. The Supreme Court ruled in 1967 that the government cannot tell people who they can or cannot marry,” said ACLU’s Katie Schwartzmann.
She is referring to the case of Mildred Loving and her husband Richard, whose landmark lawsuit against the State of Virginia led to a Supreme Court decision in 1967 in favor of interracial couples’ right to marry.
The ruling was 42 years ago, and it was critical in the overall context of the civil rights movement. However, this case is a reminder that America has still a very long way to go, even 42 years later, to become a color blind society.
buh-lone-y.
Uh sure buddy.
"Rush, I'm a retired 20 year military officer and lifelong Republican, BUT..."
My instincts tell me that Beth is white and Terence is black, and that this judge would’ve found nothing quite so unsettling if it were the reverse. Can’t wait to see if I’m right.
Here we go again. The media is using an isolated incident to beat us "racists" over the head again.....just like their lord and master Obama likes to do.
I'm tired of this case already.
Leni
I was right!
You are right.
The man is an idiot. If he doesn’t want to fulfill the obligations of his office, he should not have taken it on.
The idiocy of this one individual is being used, as the article shows, to “prove” that America is still a racist society.
This judge needs to go away.
I don’t think that this case has so much to do with race as it does to gay marriage. This is a case that they are going to use to equate gay marriage with the intolerance of interracial marriage in the past.
“...they’s miscegenatin’!!!!”
I am sure the media is salivating over the possibilities for analogy.
The same issue applies, of course. If your position requires you to marry those who have the legal right to get married, you should resign your position if you disagree with the state on who has this legal right.
As a state official he is in a different position from a private citizen who decides not to provide business services to certain couples.
Ah...this dude sounds like a racist to me.
This case of white racism draws wide attention and outrage.
The torture-murder of an interacial couple by black racists gets none.
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/4_Marines_Charged_in_Murder_of_Marine_Wife.html
I especially liked the bathroom remark. A true classic!
Yes, It’s a sign that there are still idiots in the world and the media will use them.
I've experienced similar things. I was once told by a white man I could be his neighbor anytime...that he wouldn't object to me moving onto his street. As if I needed his permission.
Some people just don't get it.
Yep, the guy will be tossed if he doesn’t quit. The other side of this story is that yes...there might be a higher divorce rate with the set-up of black guys and white wives...but it’s not the government’s job or some government official’s job to prevent stupid marriages. The government’s only function is to marry folks, period.
Why of course ! That's the litmus test. If you have ever let a 'man of color' use your bathroom , there couldn't possibly be one racist bone in your body !
But if he were a minister, he would be well within his rights to refuse to marry them or any other couple for any reason.
No argument from me, although I’m sure leftists will disagree.
He’s not a judge, he’s a JP...justice of the peace.
He’s not a judge, he’s a JP...justice of the peace.
In the white guy’s (partial) defense, he was probably trying to awkwardly express his approval of you as an individual.
A true racist would feel neither the emotion nor the need to try to express it.
Was it a stupid thing to say? Sure.
Was it an expression of an indelibly racist aattitude? Probably not.
I grew up in a neighborhood where the first black family to move in, during the 60s, was firebombed out within two weeks. Now that’s racism.
Sorry double post...waited, waited...,...hit post again...pfft. The subject of this thread is dumber than my double post.
As for your comment about the white man I mentioned…
I’m aware he was showing approval of me as an individual. My point was that some people, the Justice of the Peace in the story included, just don’t get it. They think saying such things proves they are not racist. It accomplishes just the opposite. It is racist, albeit it to a lesser extent.
In a way, I have a weird sort of respect for this guy, even though he’s obviously a troglodyte. He’s just so perfectly upfront about it. Assuming he isn’t profoundly retarded, then he certainly knows that openly expressing these views and openly admitting to having acted on them in his capacity of justice of the peace, will get him fired, and quite possibly get him on the losing end of an expensive civil suit. He’s just so refreshingly honest and sincere about his troglodyte beliefs. Most people who hold seriously racist views are either violent punks like skinheads, or are pretending not to be racist while quietly sneaking around sabotaging the job applications and loan applications and contract bids of racial minorities, making it hard to root them out and stop them from carrying out their evil activities. This troglodyte is right out in the open, doing his troglodyte thing. After his inevitable firing, he’d be a perfect new display at a freak show.
I understand what you are saying. My parents had a mixed-race marriage and so do I. Knowing this ‘troglodyte’ (great word, btw) would not approve of either does not earn him my respect. And he’s not being honest. He claims to not be racist. He is.
I suspect the guy doesn’t think he is racist because he sincerely believes these POVs aren’t racist. To him they’re just common sense.
There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.
“there might be a higher divorce rate with the set-up of black guys and white wives”
Think about it, the judge is trying to prevent destroying the lives of young children, in addition to two adults.
I only know one mixed marriage (black/white), a 23 year old blond divorced girl with two young (3 & 2) who now really hates men, both black and white.
What is more tough about mixed races is mixed cultures. I know I am white and married one Oriental and one Indian, and love does not over come all, it takes enough work to understand a woman period, let alone a woman from another culture!
And some things just can’t be fixed, like taking your wife out to a dinner she will like or a friend she can talk to (10,000 miles).
Oh, for crying out loud...either marry them or retire.
I don’t think he’s lying. I think he really thinks he’s not racist. Also, per other reports, his wife promptly referred the couple to another justice of the peace who would be willing to marry them (apparently he does his justice of the peace job from home, which would explain his wife’s presence and involvement). It’s not like he’s actually trying to prevent interracial couples from marrying (I think he grasps that society just isn’t with him on this). He just doesn’t want to do it himself, because he feels it’s wrong. It’s kind of amazing to me that he seems very willing to pay a high price to uphold this principle that’s so dear to him. I guess that’s why I’ve got this little tidbit of respect for him. So many people who really aren’t racist wouldn’t be willing take the sort of personal legal/financial risk he’s taking, to stand up for their non-racist principles.
I am a product of a mixed-race marriage. I have experienced discriminations directed at me from both blacks and whites. But I have serious doubts Barwell's motives are borne out of concern for the couples’ future children. A couple can have children out of wedlock and if not married likely will. So his reasoning is specious at best…but most likely an outright lie.
Denying a couple a marriage license based on race is indefensible. Barwell is a racist.
Isn’t it amazing that we aren’t supposed to “stereotype” minorities for the bad behavior of any number of individual people but this one guy is going to be held up as proof of “Yep, all conservatives are racist and any other white people better wring their hands in guilt?”
Who/what is more representative of their group, this one guy, or the “amazing coincidence” that 100% of the 40+ members of the Congressional Black Caucus are rabid left wing kooks somewhere at or to the left of Dennis Kucinich?
Obviously it’s indefensible. I just don’t the get the sense the guy is “lying”. He’s got some irrational ideas, partly the product of a not-too-sharp and not-too-well-educated brain, and partly I expect from experience. In his very narrow life experience in his rural home, probably most children of mixed race couples do get treated like crap (and probably most of them were “accidents”, not intentionally conceived after marriage, but that’s getting pretty far into analytical thinking for this guy). But so do children of meth users (by their parents and by people who won’t let their own children associate with them), children of people with a violent criminal history (ditto), and on and on. Given what’s required for a marriage license in Louisiana (birth certificate and $35), the justice of the peace doesn’t always have clear evidence of these other parent-handicaps, but he see can skin color with his own eyes.
Is his commitment to not officiating for mixed-race marriages based on some fundamentally racist assumptions? Of course — he grew up in the same sort of culture you grew up in, only he was on the white “side” and it looked different. But his level of awareness of where he fits on the spectrum of present-day racial attitudes is probably very fuzzy. I’m sure he really does think of himself as very enlightened and progressive when it comes to racial affairs, and compared to his father and grandfather, I’m sure he really is. He strikes me as being enough of a back-country hick that he may actually be unaware that the current President of the United States is the product of a mixed-race marriage. I can’t picture this guy spending much time reading the news, or even watching the skimpy news on TV.
I’d really be interested to know if he’s ever declined to marry a white couple, based on personal knowledge of things like meth use or convictions for violent crimes. He’s seems confident enough about making up his own rules, that I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if he has.
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