Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.
I don't want to start a panic or anything, but I do believe that Justice o' the Peace Keith Bardwell has killed himself a passel of black folk. I mean how else do you "have piles and piles of black friends"?
Let's face it, live people do not stack well.
Perhaps I am being a little too harsh. After all his honor is only thinking of the children, and clearly he believes that it would be better if these two people married somebody of their own race who they may, or may not, love rather than to make babies that are biracial.
Just look at how badly that turned out for Tiger Woods and President Obama! Can you just imagine how much better their lives would have turned out if their parents had not selfishly chosen to dilute their race?
You know I just hate to be judgemental, but isn't it about time that somebody removed Justice O' Racist Bastard from a position of authority, take him out into the woods, and leave him in a nice cave or something?
Remind me never to even drive through LA. My family would not be welcome by this type of bigot. I'm 'causcaisan', hubby is South American (of Basque ancestory), 4 children are Mexican decent, 1 is black and 2 more are half black and half white. Were a total mixed bag, and one big happy family.
ReplyDeleteI am married to a good man originally from LA and in 30 years of marriage I have spent 36 hours there, and that was thirty-six hours too long. I am betting that the bathroom his black friends use has a fancy sign on the door stating "for coloreds only" on it. Shameful and disgraceful. As a child(now middle-aged) of an interracial marriage, my mom was Native american and my dad is white--in 1945 they had to get married in Canada, as did one set of my grandparents. My mom was so proud when all of us kids could get married in the USA, she viewed it as a big mile stone in her life--I am glad she is not alive to read about this bigot in LA.
ReplyDeleteGoing through all this posting shit is getting to be a pain in the ass.
ReplyDeleteGryph shits goin on right here at home. dont sweat whats others to deal with. love you.
I had to double check the damn calendar to make sure we were really living in 2009. They ought to hang the bastard with his own robe.
ReplyDeleteAnd I bet all his black "friends" are just SO proud of him.
ReplyDeleteEver notice that the most bigoted comments are usually proceeded by the "I have lots of black friends" remark?
ReplyDeleteMakes me think of Stephen Colbert pointing to his "one black friend" so as to prove he's not a racist.
Yes, there are a lot of racists down here. But, hey, please don't tar the whole state with the same brush! New Orleans voted overwhelmingly for Obama, remember?
ReplyDeleteThe judge's action was illegal. The couple can be married by a different judge. Hopefully, this judge will be reprinded. I have never understood why anyone would be against "mixed race" marriages. It isn't Biblical. I guess it's pure racism.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet his black friends have the piles from using his bathroom.
ReplyDeleteMan, this story is bad, but it's not as scary as the one you will find if you click on the link to left to go to nailpalinnow. That site will link you to a Salon article about facts behind the anti-abortion/pro-Christian adoption scams going on - now that is truly freaky. What's unsettling is that the story has the ring of truth about it and the truths are beyond creepy. Makes sense, though, when linked with the whole Dominionist thing creeping to the surface. Thanks Gryphen for having that link over there. Maybe it will open some eyes and minds.
ReplyDeleteThey always claim to have a black friend. It's usually someone that they work with and would die before they invited them to their home. Racist Bastards that they are.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, this article will go viral and more people will open up their eyes. Their are so many people who, (I know this is ridiculous) actually believe that their is very little racism and that it's so obvious you could avoid it. I have a bi-racial son and people that I have worked with in the past, there whole attitude changed when they met my son. I'm also dark skinned being from Sicilian decent and people actually have the nerve to ask me what race I am and argue with me about it. The best answer is to tell them you are from the human race. That usually shuts them right the fu*^ up.
Sadly, Bardwell was just re-elected to another 6 year term as JP in 2008. His violations of the law will be his undoing though IMO. I spent a year in rural LA and I have to say it was the worst year of my life. I was so ashamed of the ignorant behavior. What came to mind during that period were words such as: backwoods, backwater, educationally deficient and socially unacceptable. Sorry but certain sections of the South continue to exist as though the civil war never happened. Shameful.
ReplyDeleteSince on the racist topic
ReplyDeleteAnother saying I hear alot which gets under my skin (like the black/gay "friend" comment)
is saying "I am colorblind"
That is demeaning to all other ethnicities other than your own
You shouldn't be colorblind, my opinion
You should see "color" as "color" indicates difference which is a good thing!
Differences are what makes people interesting!
and expands our brains
We all tend to be facinated with other "historical cultures" but shy away from different cultures in our day to day life
Why is it facinating to study ancient Native American ways of life but then get squeamish when Native American's today rub against your shoulder in every day life
I saw this when I was in AZ on the Pima/Maricopa Indian reservation..
I was there on a "mission trip.. GAG" in my teens
It was all about turning these heathen, dirty, drunkards into "clean, white Christians" ..
yet, we would take a trip to visit the Native Amer museum and ooh and all over the cradle board, dried corn and mortar/pestal where they made grain..
Shayfray said "Makes me think of Stephen Colbert pointing to his "one black friend" so as to prove he's not a racist."
ReplyDeleteAlso, too, Sarah Palin talking about her good friend who is gay.
It makes me sad that in this day and age such a person holds such an office. I am guessing that he thinks MKL's "I have a dream" was really a nightmare.
Here's to hoping that this man's children or his grandchildren marry the person they love wether they are white of not.
ReplyDeleteThe judge's concern for the children of these marriages is very similar to one of the talking points opponents to gay marriage have regarding the children of gay marriage families.
ReplyDeleteNone of my friends are black. Dats da troof.
ReplyDeleteHey, I just proved I'm not a racist! Yay! LOL.
See that. Those who claim to have black friends are racists, so those who admit they have none and don't want any, are just the opposite!
"I have friends in the hood, and friends in hoods. Aint no big thing".
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @ 5:22
ReplyDeleteI am sure nobody black wants to be your friend and I am also sure it's not because they are racists; it's because you are an asshole. This judge's actions and character makes him a racist not him having or not having black friends.
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." --M. L. King
You are just another sincerely ignorant and conscientiously stupid individual.
Somebody above wrote "I have never understood why anyone would be against 'mixed race' marriages. It isn't Biblical. I guess it's pure racism."
ReplyDeleteWell, i'm not trying to start an argument or anything, and i am ashamed to even admit this, but when i was younger my family attended a "1611 Authorized KJV bible-believing" baptist church where we were taught that the black race had been cursed by the Judeo-Christian god because Noah's son Ham (of Shem, Ham, and Japeth) looked upon Noah's drunken nakedness.
As an atheist, i truly believe that the christian bible is the greatest stumbling block towards equal rights for women and minorities. But that's another topic for another day, right? ;-)
@ 10:25 Anon: Sure it's biblical to marry amongst your own kind. The bible is very clear that outside influence of any sort is of the devil -- and plays up the disasters inherent in marrying outside your tribe 'Dallas'-style -- all those queens who eventually just have to be torn to bits or tossed out windows for their heresy.
ReplyDeleteSince French/Irish is a racial mix, I'm willing to bet this judge has officiated over a lot of interracial marriages. So his objection is based entirely on skin color. As for his claim that interracial marriages don't last (aside from that not being in his job description) Louisiana has a large percentage of teenage marriages. Want those longevity statistics? As for his claim that society doesn't accept bi-racial children... brrrr. I think someone better check his friends' closets for white robes. Really.
What's the heaviest the state or federal governments can come down on this guy? Anyone know?
Definitions of what constitutes a racial group have changed over time and differ now according to context. The forensic scientist will describe racial types differently from the social scientist or historian. Politicians and legal systems around the world struggle to find categories within which to place the variety of human genetic, ethnic and cultural mixes that have evolved. Some countries, such as France, do not use race as a category to officially classify its citizens. Others have a myriad of weird ubcategories because of cultural emphasis on how dark one's skin is.
ReplyDeleteRacial identity based on nationalities is perhaps the weakest approach because there are Caucasian or Asian/Mongoloid citizens of Zambia or the Congo and Negroid/black citizens of Ireland and France. Ethnic or national identity is too fluid for most biologists to accurately convey genetic characteristics even though those might convey general cultural attributes.
However, terms such as "Hispanic or Latino," "Native American," or "Asian" are so all-encompassing that you cannot accurately pinpoint what kind of cultural or physical characteristics are being highlighted. They are only first-stage thresholds and not vey accurate ones at that.
Perhaps these categorizations speak to our need to pigeonhole people or convey shorthand concepts of who or what they are. As such, they fail on so many levels, don't they?
Both my husband and I have strong Native American genetics in our family mix. Some tribal groups seem to visual fit into that traditional Mongoloid grouping with darker skin and high cheek bones and slanted eyes, but others such as the Seneca are not even recognized as Natives by most people (including other "Native Americans")because their physical characteristics seem Caucasian-European though they had always had those particular physical/genetic features even prior to European immigration(their skin can so white and so sun-sensitve that they burn easier than those of Caucasian-Europenan descent)so we knew from early ages that parsing people into convenient groupings was not easy.
We as a species seem to have a need to one-up one another somehow. Perhaps we will evolve past using genetic characteristics as a tool to do that.
I know I am using intelligence and compassion as those kinds of grouping tools when I look at the Christian Right or right-wing Republicans just because I want to feel superior to them. I am beginning to seriously consider that they represent the bottom of the gene pool even though I know this is not fair or accurate.
In our country, on most legal forms, our government is moving towards asking us which racial or ethnic grouping we "identify with" - not what we "are." Our President, for example, says he identifies himself as a "black," even though his mother was "white" and he was raised by that mother and "white" grandparents, and his father is deemed "black." Some people would categorize his mother as Caucasian or American and his father as "African" or "Negroid." It just depends upon the context of the grouping how we identity ourselves or others, doesn't it - apart from genetic studies.
Hopefully, we will simply evolve to a point where we don't have a social or political need to classify ourselves racially in any way.
Even though categories can be tragic ways to pigeonhole groups,they can also be such funny things.
For example, though it doesn't relate directly to race but does relate to describing ourselves for official purposes, I believe the FBI fingerprint card still has "bald" as a hair color choice and "maroon" as an eye color choice. Now, honestly, have you ever thought of "bald" as or heard "bald" called a color?
I wonder if that justice of the peace is bald and whether his color-coding of people would include that official "bald" as a way to prevent interracial (in his world - color)marriages. No more bald middle-aged men could marry young blonde women, huh?
When it comes to evaluating racism in Louisiana, please look at the flip side of this story: this JP says he has turned down 4 biracial couples in the last two years. He lives in a small town where couples have other options for marriage, yet he has personally encountered FOUR biracial couples in two years.
ReplyDeleteRacism in the South is slowly dying amongst the young. Biracial marriage is becoming more and more common.There are holdouts, yes, but can we try to be a bit "glass half full" on this?
I guess my AA daughter and her white boyfriend, who are thinking about getting married after dating for 3 years, will have to call off their plans since we live in the south. LOL. As long as they're satisfied with each other, it's ok by me. I always remember what my dearly departed mom and dad always said when they were raising me: It's not important whether we like whomever you marry, we don't have to sleep with them! It worked for them, and it works for me.
ReplyDelete