It is alive and well down in Louisianan.
There is a justice of the peace in Hammond LA who denied an interracial couple a marriage licenses, he said,
"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."DUH! When you treat people differently because of their race…that’s racism! I don’t care how many friends you have that are black, when you will not marry them because of their race you are discriminating against them.
In another article he is quoted as saying,
"I don't do interracial marriages because I don't want to put children in a situation they didn't bring on themselves," Bardwell said. "In my heart, I feel the children will later suffer."Yeah, like becoming President of the United States.
In the same article attorney Katie Schwartzman for the ACLU said,
"It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009," said American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana attorney Katie Schwartzman. "The Supreme Court ruled as far back as 1963 that the government cannot tell people who they can and cannot marry."Except if you are a same–sex couple, then its OK for the government to tell you that you can’t get married.
Incredible.
ReplyDeleteSo how come he keeps his job?
In the uK he's be suspended next day, and out on his fat butt the week after.
chrissie.
xxxxxx
Because this is Louisiana, the heart of the deep South. This is from a 1993 New Times article and they are still fighting again desegregation...
ReplyDeleteLouisiana's state colleges and universities are run by four different boards, one for mostly white institutions like Louisiana State University, one for mostly black institutions like Southern University of New Orleans, one for regional colleges and universities and a fourth that oversees the remainder.