TW: A story like this gets plenty of pub and much umbrage. But to me it is a sign of massive progress. When I was born miscegenation was illegal in many states and greatly frowned upon in most others. I suspect even 20 years ago the number of "Bardwells" was still extensive. Now he quickly and decisively becomes a weak caricature of times and attitudes gone by. His story should not engender angst but pride that times have changed for the better.
From Politics Daily:
"Louisiana Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell said he refused to grant an interracial couple a marriage license, but don't get the wrong idea: "I'm not a racist," Bardwell claims. Heavens, no! What could possibly give anyone that idea?
Perhaps, it was this: "I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom." Or, perhaps it was this: "I don't do interracial marriages because I don't want to put children in a situation they didn't bring on themselves. In my heart, I feel the children will later suffer." Yes, won't somebody please think of the children! Quickly, now, before they are forced to accept fates as, oh, say, the popular leader of a global superpower.
As the child of an interracial marriage -- and someone who isn't suffering anymore than is usual for a girl wearing soggy boots and a damp skirt after being caught in this afternoon's rain -- I'm always annoyed when someone tries to pin their own anxieties about multiracial children onto children instead of onto themselves.
What's really appalling though is that Bardwell has done this before -- and without being removed as a justice of the peace. Bardwell told the AP that he's refused to marry four interracial couples in the last 2 1/2 years. Bardwell also claims that at least one office of Louisiana's state government had been made aware of his refusal years ago.
Bardwell told his local paper, the Hammond Daily Star, that he was informed by a state attorney general years ago that his refusal to perform interracial marriages would "eventually get (him) into trouble." Bardwell's response? "I told him if I do, I'll resign. I have rights, too. I'm not obligated to do that just because I'm a justice of the peace."
Actually, as a justice of the peace, carrying out the law is exactly what he's obligated to do -- but he may soon be relieved of that obligation. Responding to Bardwell's comments about the attorney general's office, Jennifer Roche, a spokeswoman for current Louisiana attorney general James Caldwell, told Politics Daily that "this administration has no knowledge of this justice of the peace refusing to perform interracial marriages."
Valerie Willard, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Supreme Court, said she was unaware of the state attorney general's office or anyone else filing complaints against Bardwell. But, she added, as of Friday she had fielded "about eight million complaints" from the public."
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/10/16/louisiana-justice-of-the-peace-keith-bardwell-refuses-to-marry-i/
Showing posts with label Race Relations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Race Relations. Show all posts
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Health Care As a Black Power Initiative
TW: It is becoming clear that Obama's gaffe relative to the Cambridge Gates matter has served as a permission slip for some on the right to jump back to their portrayal of Obama as a closet white-phobe. This attitude disgusts me. Do white folks really think they get the short end of the deal in this country?
I peek at Fox Nation to get a feel for what is percolating with the right-wing. Today's top headline was entitled: "Reparations By Way Of Health Care Reform" (other headlines included: "Is Obama a Snob", "Tea Party Protesters Erupt at Town Hall", etc.).
It references a piece from Investors Business Daily, a mainstream investing publication. I have never really read IBD but have seen them take a conservative slant on their opinion pieces. But in this one they try to somehow tie Obama's health care reform effort to providing reparations to slavery descendants. This stuff is obscene. Where is the sane opposition in this country? The IBD is not some cable TV channel trying to stir up sixty seconds of conflict to adhere channel flippers. This is an INVESTING paper making racial shit up for no apparent reason.
Here is the piece, I read it about three times trying to understand the convoluted logic but cannot even accounting for the fact that they take quotes out of context to build their perverted story.
From IBD:
"Still believe in post-racial politics? Read the health care bill. It's affirmative action on steroids, deciding everything from who becomes a doctor to who gets treatment on the basis of skin color.
President Obama is on the record as being officially opposed to reparations for slavery. But as with other issues, you have to sift through his eloquent rhetoric and go beyond the teleprompter to get at what he really means.
His opposition to reparations is based on the fact they don't go far enough. In a 2004 questionnaire, he told the NAACP, "I fear that reparations would be an excuse for some to say, 'We've paid our debt,' and to avoid the much harder work."
Never mind there are those who thought we apologized at Gettysburg and that an African-American president is a recognition of the hard work that has been done.
At a press conference with minority journalists last fall, candidate Obama was pressed for more detail on his reparations position. He said he was more interested in taking action to help people who were just getting by. Because many of them are minorities, he said, that would help the same people who would benefit from reparations.
"If we have a program, for example, of universal health care, that will disproportionally affect people of color, because they are disproportionally uninsured," Obama said.
This may be a goal of Obama's health care plan: the redress of health care disparities on the basis of race and the punishment of those believed to be responsible, such as greedy doctors who perform unnecessary tests and procedures and greedy insurance and drug companies lusting for profits.
In his health care plan published during the campaign, it was written that Obama and Biden will "challenge the medical system to eliminate inequities in health care by requiring hospitals and health plans to collect, analyze and report health care quality for disparity populations and holding them accountable for any differences found."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeated this when she addressed the NAACP this month, saying: "It is a moral issue for our country to reduce health disparities, whether in diabetes, asthma, heart disease, cancer and HIV/AIDS."
The racial grievance industry under health care reform could be calling the shots in the emergency room, the operating room, the medical room, even medical school. As Terence Jeffrey, editor at large of Human Events puts it, not only our wealth, but also our health will be redistributed."
I peek at Fox Nation to get a feel for what is percolating with the right-wing. Today's top headline was entitled: "Reparations By Way Of Health Care Reform" (other headlines included: "Is Obama a Snob", "Tea Party Protesters Erupt at Town Hall", etc.).
It references a piece from Investors Business Daily, a mainstream investing publication. I have never really read IBD but have seen them take a conservative slant on their opinion pieces. But in this one they try to somehow tie Obama's health care reform effort to providing reparations to slavery descendants. This stuff is obscene. Where is the sane opposition in this country? The IBD is not some cable TV channel trying to stir up sixty seconds of conflict to adhere channel flippers. This is an INVESTING paper making racial shit up for no apparent reason.
Here is the piece, I read it about three times trying to understand the convoluted logic but cannot even accounting for the fact that they take quotes out of context to build their perverted story.
From IBD:
"Still believe in post-racial politics? Read the health care bill. It's affirmative action on steroids, deciding everything from who becomes a doctor to who gets treatment on the basis of skin color.
President Obama is on the record as being officially opposed to reparations for slavery. But as with other issues, you have to sift through his eloquent rhetoric and go beyond the teleprompter to get at what he really means.
His opposition to reparations is based on the fact they don't go far enough. In a 2004 questionnaire, he told the NAACP, "I fear that reparations would be an excuse for some to say, 'We've paid our debt,' and to avoid the much harder work."
Never mind there are those who thought we apologized at Gettysburg and that an African-American president is a recognition of the hard work that has been done.
At a press conference with minority journalists last fall, candidate Obama was pressed for more detail on his reparations position. He said he was more interested in taking action to help people who were just getting by. Because many of them are minorities, he said, that would help the same people who would benefit from reparations.
"If we have a program, for example, of universal health care, that will disproportionally affect people of color, because they are disproportionally uninsured," Obama said.
This may be a goal of Obama's health care plan: the redress of health care disparities on the basis of race and the punishment of those believed to be responsible, such as greedy doctors who perform unnecessary tests and procedures and greedy insurance and drug companies lusting for profits.
In his health care plan published during the campaign, it was written that Obama and Biden will "challenge the medical system to eliminate inequities in health care by requiring hospitals and health plans to collect, analyze and report health care quality for disparity populations and holding them accountable for any differences found."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeated this when she addressed the NAACP this month, saying: "It is a moral issue for our country to reduce health disparities, whether in diabetes, asthma, heart disease, cancer and HIV/AIDS."
The racial grievance industry under health care reform could be calling the shots in the emergency room, the operating room, the medical room, even medical school. As Terence Jeffrey, editor at large of Human Events puts it, not only our wealth, but also our health will be redistributed."
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