Saturday, October 17, 2009

Think Of The Children

You gays wanting to get married will just have to get in line because we still have a Justice of the Peace in Louisiana who won’t perform interracial marriages. But don’t call Justice Keith Bardwell racist; he’s just thinking about the children:
”I'm not a racist. ... I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house. My main concern is for the children."

See, this is exactly what I was saying yesterday when I spoke about “colorblind racism”: it’s nothing personal and everyone will get along just fine as long as everyone remembers their place!

I first heard about this on Bill Maher’s show last night. Maher was spot-on when he said it’s because Bardwell “doesn’t want any more Barack Obama’s running around.” Says Bardwell:

Bardwell said from his experience, “99 percent of the time” the interracial couple consists of a black man and white woman.

“

I find that rather confusing,” he said.

He said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. Bardwell said he came to the conclusion that most black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society.

Bardwell clearly has an indefensible position here. But so do a lot of other people involved in this story. For example, apparently the state attorney general knew about it and basically just told him to watch his back:

He said the state attorney general told him years ago that he would eventually get into trouble for not performing interracial marriages.



“I told him if I do, I’ll resign,” Bardwell said. “I have rights too. I’m not obligated to do that just because I’m a justice of the peace.”

I would love to know which AG it was who knew Bardwell was openly violating the law and did nothing about it. You know, that’s a form of racism, too.


(h/t Eclectic Radical)