Louisiana Judge refuses to marry biracial couple

Louisiana Judge Refuses to Marry Biracial Couple
A Louisiana justice of the peace, Keith Bardwell, refused to marry a biracial couple a white female and black male on the basis that he doesn’t believe in “mixing the races that way”. He also went on to describe that the main reason for his refusal was the children the future couple may have will not be accepted by either racial group and would suffer in society. When being interviewed he claimed to have refused to marry a total of four couples for this same exact reason. And yet this man still has a job as a judge? It has taken four couples for one to finally fight back against this blatant racial issue that still exists within America. And that not only are normal American citizens guilty of this, a person whose judge title has the word peace imbedded into it has gotten away with such injustices that have been ignored four previous times. Still even people are calling for him to be fired and he is yet to be reflects how race is still a prevalent issue in today’s society and politics. “The U.S. Supreme Court tossed out any racially based limitations on marriage in the landmark 1967 Loving v. Virginia case. In the unanimous decision, the court said that "Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the state." Yet a person for working for this system has the audacity to say he’s not racist and yet decides to ignore the constitution in favor of his own racist view. The husband of the newly married couple argues a important point when he is interviewed claiming that even though this judge claims that 99% end up in divorce how many black or white couples for that matter end up in divorce no matter what their race. Throughout our readings we have discussed the issues of racism that’s relevant within America and through this story we can see the implications of this system in the everyday lives of the citizens within this county. Tim Wise describes that racism 2.0 has taken over as the new racist system, although we can see plain old bigotry is still a huge issue even today. Although many claimed to be shocked, even the husband of the couple, that in 2009 this kind of hatred is still around displays how this invisible system of white privilege has imbedded itself into our psyches. I also think that Peggy McIntosh could add to her list a new item which would be getting married without worrying about being judged and denied the right to. I think that our society should learn from this story and other like it, and begin to accept that racism is still a huge issue within this country and begin to find ways to change the system. One of first steps would be to fire this man instead of letting him get away with social and political injustice he has created through his racist ideals.

Links

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/16/louisiana.interracial.marriage/index.html#cnnSTCText

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/black.in.america/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11921037

http://whitmanpioneer.com/opinion/columnists/2009/10/29/our-race-problem/

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