Who said racism was dead?

[Miles]

NEW ORLEANS – A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

source

[Goat]

NEW ORLEANS – A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

source

He has piles and piles, but it isn't of 'black friends'.

[VermilionUK]

I personally think we'll never be free of racism. It's been going on for near enough the whole of human existence.

And in the age of terrorism, it's hard to see the issue of racism going away any time soon - which is a shame, I think racism is perhaps one of the most vile traits in human society.

[McCulloch]

This judge is certainly asking for a constitutional challenge. Is he allowed to deny a license based on his own subjective personal opinion of how long the marriage will last?

In Canada, we are quite used to seeing successful interracial marriages. The leader of one of our major political parties, Jack Layton is married to Olivia Chow since 1988. This all seems quite absurd to me.

[cnorman18]

My question would echo the title question of this this thread: Who, indeed, ever said that racism was dead? I can't think of anyone who has ever made that claim. There will in all likelihood be racist individuals 100 years from now. Some of them will inevitably be in positions of power, however insignificant, like this JP.

But as a respectable position or attitude among educated white Americans - as it was in the 50s and early 60s, something that was commonly and openly expressed and regarded as a matter of common agreement - yes, racism is most certainly dead. If it weren't, this story wouldn't be worldwide news.

Who is defending what this man did and said?

Personally, I think it would be hilarious if President Obama gave him a call and reminded him that sometimes the children of mixed marriages do pretty OK.

ETA: Just for the record, McC, I suspect that most Americans find this just as absurd as you and I do. It's big news here in the US, too.

[McCulloch]

Who is defending what this man did and said?

More importantly who is censuring what he did and said? Who is not and should be?

Louisiana Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell refuses to marry interracial couples. He's been doing so for years, but it wasn’t until October 2009, when he refused to marry Beth Humphrey and Terence McKay, that his actions attracted attention.

Appalled by Bardwell’s practice of checking with every couple who comes before him to see if they are interracial, then insisting that interracial couples go to other justices of the peace for their wedding ceremonies, Humphrey and McKay, the ACLU, the NAACP, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and Louisiana Senator Mary L. Landrieu have all called for Bardwell's resignation.

[...]

Courts justified these laws by insisting that interracial marriage was "unnatural," a claim that became so pervasive that by 1958, 94 percent of Americans told pollsters they opposed interracial marriage. Judges claimed that because the laws punished both the black and white partners to an interracial marriage, they affected blacks and whites "equally." Like Keith Bardwell, they persuaded themselves that equality somehow demanded that public officials refuse to marry interracial couples.

[...] Ever since the Loving decision [U.S. Supreme Court, 1967], refusing to marry an interracial couple has been—and despite Bardwell’s protestations, still is—a clear denial of constitutional rights.

[...]

Yet it would be a mistake to assume that attitudes like Bardwell’s can be safely consigned to the past. A significant segment of several state populations still refuses to recognize that interracial marriage is a legal right. In 1999 and 2000, when South Carolina and Alabama finally got around to removing bans on interracial marriage from their state constitutions, the public vote was roughly 60 percent for removing the bans and 40 percent for leaving them in the state constitutions.

In other words, Keith Bardwell is entirely wrong, but he's not entirely alone. Perhaps this helps explain why he's gotten away with his outrageous behavior for so long. In the end, though, it only makes it all the more important that he be removed from public office. The disappointed bride, Beth Humphrey, said it best. "He doesn’t believe he’s being racist," she said, "but it is racist."

The U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has begun an investigation into the incident. I have not found that such an investigation has made any progress in this rather clearly obvious case. Does anyone know if he has been forced to resign yet? If not, why not?

Personally, I think it would be hilarious if President Obama gave him a call and reminded him that sometimes the children of mixed marriages do pretty OK.

It might be funny, but the marital status of his own parents might be used to support this JP's opinion.

ETA: Just for the record, McC, I suspect that most Americans find this just as absurd as you and I do. It's big news here in the US, too.

I certainly hope so.

[Miles]

BATON ROUGE, La., Nov. 3, 2009

Judge Who Nixed Interracial Marriage Quits
Louisiana Justice Admits He Routinely Denied Interracial Marriages

A Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry a couple because the bride was white and groom was black resigned Tuesday.

Keith Bardwell, who is white, quit the post with a one-sentence statement to Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne and no explanation of his decision: "I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009."

Bardwell refused to perform the ceremony for Beth Humphrey and Terence McKay because they are of different races.

source

[jwitness]

To those who would be true disciples, Jesus said: “All you are brothers.� – Matthew 23:8. Later he added: By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.� – John 13:35.

Despite human imperfections, that sense of oneness was a reality among early Christians. The apostle Paul wrote: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor freeman, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one person in union with Christ Jesus.� – Galatians 3:28.

Soon God’s Kingdom will destroy the present ungodly system of things, including all who do not genuinely love both Jehovah God and their fellowman. (Daniel 2:44; Luke 10:25-28) God’s word promises that the survivors will be persons “out of all nations and tribes and people and tongues.� – Revelation 7:9. Drawn together by worship of the true God, by faith in Jesus Christ, and by love for one another, they will truly make up a united human family.

[elle]

Wow, I thought everyone knew about Loving v. Virginia, or at least everyone directly involved in the legality of different marriages. Apparently he was absent on that day of class. And people I've met think racism has been eradicated from the US.