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October 17th, 2009 | 
Author: 
Pamela Troy
“I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way. I have piles and piles of black friends…” Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell of Hammond, Louisiana, on his recent refusal, as justice of the peace, to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple.
Stop! For the children!
While the shock and anger this case has evoked is gratifying, I’m not sure why everyone is so surprised by it. There’s nothing especially freakish or even unusual about Bardwell’s attitude, especially in the deep south.
There seems to be a widespread notion that racist beliefs ingrained for over a century just – “Poof!” – disappeared in the wake of the civil rights movement.
Every particle of racism was magically expunged from the hearts of those same people who responded to integration by screaming epithets at schoolchildren and/or snatching their kids out of the public school system and placing them in hastily thrown together white flight academies.
All those who winked at firebombed churches or declared murdered civil rights activists a bunch of troublemakers just asking to be kidnapped, shot, and buried in landfill, had an unprecedented change of heart.
Or they all died. None of them could possibly be around any more, could they? I mean, the 1960s – that’s forty years ago! Which would make even the younger adults alive then, like, in their sixties! Wouldn’t they need walkers to get around? Are people that old even sentient enough to vote? Or pass their racial attitudes on to their kids?
And so now, any time, ever a white landlord refuses to rent to black tenants, or a white employer refuses to hire black employees, or a white kid beats up a black kid on the schoolyard, it becomes a big news story. Jesse Jackson, the NAACP, and Al Sharpton descend upon the town where it happened because, as we all know, every black person in this country has Sharpton and Jackson’s telephone number, and the means, the time, and the desire to pursue such cases through the courts.
That’s why white supremacists today never utter so much as a racist peep.
Right?
Here’s a dose of reality:
Civil Rights legislation was no more intended to erase racism from the hearts of racists than laws against theft are intended to erase dishonesty from the hearts of incipient thieves. It was intended to minimize the effects of racism on its victims, to prevent much of it from being acted upon, and in that sense it succeeded. Anyone who remembers the Jim Crow south knows that tremendous progress has been made.
But any southerner of my generation, white or black, also knows that many of the old attitudes remain. The “N” word may not be as casually invoked by many whites or as frequently, but it’s invoked nevertheless, often in an undertone, with the air of someone saying something rather wicked and daring. There are still landlords, employers, and police departments who target black Americans for discrimination and harassment. Interracial couples are still sometimes subjected to hard stares, muttered insults, threats and, as in this case, institutionalized discrimination. And no, cases like this don’t always result in headlines or photo-ops with Jesse Jackson. It’s important to note that in this Louisiana case, Bardwell had already refused to issue licenses to several interracial couples before a couple was willing to go public with their objections.
What’s changed is the manner in which racism is presented. Our current crop of racists treat black racial equality less as a heresy than as an amiable fiction. The popular model is no longer the righteous violence of Thomas Dixon’s 1905 novel, The Clansman. It’s the purring noblesse oblige of Murray and Hernstein’s 1994 book The Bell Curve, which calls on black Americans as a group to accept their “scientifically proven” intellectual deficit, lest the white elite grow impatient and start taking drastic measures. It’s bad form these days to publicly confront a black person with their presumed inferiority. Instead, white commentators wink broadly at each other, throw out oblique, racially tinged insults against black Americans, and respond with injured innocence when called on it.
Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before even that mask drops and the notion of black racial equality is declared to have been a noble experiment that just didn’t work out.
If that happens, it’s a safe bet that the people saying so will object strongly to being called “racist.”
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17 Responses to “I’m not a racist, but . . .”
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Tangipahoa Parish has another claim to fame: It was the filming location for In the Heat of the Night, the TV show about race and the law.
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/not-in-tangipahoa-parish/
Why not just leave the old man alone and go to someone who will do it for them.
@Tommy said:
“Why not just leave the old man alone and go to someone who will do it for them.”(?)
Due to the fact that it’s obvious that you haven’t even bothered to read and/or attempted to understand the news story, all I can say is, if you have to ask that question in this day and age, then there can only be three possibilities:
1) You are completely ignorant of the racial history of this country over the last 60 years and have no ability to empathize with your fellow humans.
2) You are a racist.
3) You are a complete idiot.
Based on the nature of your response and the fact that you did not fully comprehend the article, I’d personally have to go with #3. Fortunately #1 and #2 also fit within the catch-all of #3.
I’ve seen enough interracial couplings first hand to know that they are not a good idea. The ones I saw ended in abandonment by the black babydaddy at best, bloody murder at worst. Do a google on “Sheri Morton Shawn Seabrooks” you’ll find it.
Also, it’s easy enough to understand that the average man is taller than the average woman, right? Even though some women are taller than most men, the average man is still taller than the average woman.
The average IQ of East Asians is 106, the average IQ of Whites is 100, the average IQ of American Blacks is 85. So if you are a White considering breeding with a Black, you are downgrading the intelligence of your offspring. Think again.
Also, even though Asians have an average higher IQ, Whites have more geniuses and exhibit more original thinking. So if you are White, your best bet is really to stick with your own kind.
And yes, I say this to everyone I know.
J:: I’ve seen enough interracial couplings first hand to know that they are not a good idea. The ones I saw ended in abandonment by the black babydaddy at best, bloody murder at worst.
I’ve seen enough “interracial couplings” that have worked, lasted, and not resulted in divorce or abandoned children (or murder) to know that the kind of generalization both you and that JP have made are bogus.
j: Also, it’s easy enough to understand that the average man is taller than the average woman, right? Even though some women are taller than most men, the average man is still taller than the average woman.
The average IQ of East Asians is 106, the average IQ of Whites is 100, the average IQ of American Blacks is 85.
IQ is a much, much more complex thing to measure than height. The results of an IQ test can easily be skewed by factors like personality, culture, and level of education.
J: So if you are a White considering breeding with a Black, you are downgrading the intelligence of your offspring. Think again….
It’s fascinating how cases like that of this JP bring Neo-Eugenic white supermacists out of the wood work.
J
Latest comments from the (in)Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell (source:USA Today)
“Everybody hates me,” he tells reporters. “Really. I don’t know why. I treat people, I figure, equal. I have one problem with mixed marriages and that is the offspring.”
Another fine example of logic from a Republican constitutionalist. One would think he could answer the mystery of why everyone hates him by meditating on his last comment regarding interracial “offspring”. I suppose an interesting question that should be asked is how a person this stupid ever got this position in the first place? Bobby Jindal’s effort to have this person dealt with is as slow and feckless as Bush Jr.’s leadership during the Katrina disaster. Did I forget to mention Bardwell refuses to resign?
No, IQ is a pretty easy thing to measure. The US Army has been doing it for almost 100 years. SATs, LSATs, MCATs, GRE, all these are IQ tests.
If these IQ tests were applied across the board, law schools and top colleges would have very few blacks:
http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/authors/Hoste-AA.html
Since in 2007–2008 there were only 16 Blacks nationwide who scored at 168 or above, that’s the number of Blacks that should’ve entered the top six schools
That’s 179 Blacks at top law schools. Actual Blacks at top law schools divided by deserving Blacks = 179/16 = 11.2.
So there are about 10 undeserving Blacks at the top six law schools for every one deserving case. This puts things in perspective for people who say that they oppose affirmative action because it stigmatizes African-Americans. Is it more rational to care more about the feelings of one Black out of 11 who gets where he is based on merit than the 10 Whites and Asians who lose their spot to a beneficiary of the system? Only if the self-esteem of one Black is worth more than the livelihoods of 10 non-NAMs!
Think about that, white person. Do you really want to mix your genes with that of a people who need affirmative action to get into higher education? Do you want to dumb down your descendants that way, not to mention the thick lips, the fur on the head rather than human hair, the miniscule attention span, the loud manners, the African impulsiveness and hypersexuality that so often leads to prison?
Wouldn’t Africans be much better off in Africa . . . the sort of place where their particular ways of being are better adapted to? It’s cruel to keep them in a complex civilization, and “pretend we’re all equal” and in the end we are victims of their impulsiveness, and they are victims of their poor fit in a modern civilization.
In Africa, Blacks rape children and virgins because they think it cures AIDS. Zimbabwe and South Africa were supposed to turn into multi-racial paradises when White apartheid was overthrown; instead they are corrupt, violent, stupid, diseased, impoverished, and all too typical African dictatorships. So they keep blaming it on “the legacy of apartheid” or “the legacy of racism.” Heck, when Whites are gone for 100 years, you liberals will still be blaming the imperfections of the world on “the legacy of racism.” You people don’t understand reality one bit.
Imagine an alternative history without the “legacy of racism.” How would that work? Would it even be possible? I dare say no, because before the 20th century, life was a grim struggle, and in the midst of a grim struggle there’s no room for liberal fantasies about “racial equality” and “diversity is strength.”
Happiness is WHITE grandchildren.
If your grandkids aren’t White, you are PHAIL.
Well, Jeronimus, you’ve just put paid to the claim that being opposed to interracial marriage has nothing to do with racism. The next time someone tells me racism is no longer a problem, we can just point them to your comments here.
Pamela,
I believe in calling a spade . . . a spade.
I just wrote a supportive letter to Keith Bardwell. All good men need to do to stop the neo-babelists is to stand up to them and speak the truth.
Race-mixing is yecchy, and it’s genocide.
Racist serial commenters are yechy. And given the provenance of your ideas, you have no business pointing the finger and accusing other people of “genocide.”
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