Meanwhile in "Post-Racial" America

I had trouble believing my eyes when I saw this, via Associated Press:

NEW ORLEANS – A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

"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."

Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.

The A.C.L.U. has now intervened:

"It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009," said American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana attorney Katie Schwartzmann. She said the Supreme Courtruled in 1967 "that the government cannot tell people who they can and cannot marry."

The ACLU sent a letter to the Louisiana Judiciary Committee, which oversees the state justices of the peace, asking them to investigate Bardwell and recommending "the most severe sanctions available, because such blatant bigotry poses a substantial threat of serious harm to theadministration of justice.

"He knew he was breaking the law, but continued to do it," Schwartzmann said.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Teachable Moments and Lessons Unlearned

New York Times columnist, Bob Herbert, hits the nail on the head on Gatesgate - Anger Has Its Place:

No more than five or six minutes elapsed from the time the police were alerted to the possibility of a break-in at a home in a quiet residential neighborhood and the awful clamping of handcuffs on the wrists of the distinguished Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

If Professor Gates ranted and raved at the cop who entered his home uninvited with a badge, a gun and an attitude, he didn’t rant and rave for long. The 911 call came in at about 12:45 on the afternoon of July 16 and, as The Times has reported, Mr. Gates was arrested, cuffed and about to be led off to jail by 12:51. The president of the United States has suggested that we use this flare-up as a “teachable moment,” but so far exactly the wrong lessons are being drawn from it — especially for black people. The message that has gone out to the public is that powerful African-American leaders like Mr. Gates and President Obama will be very publicly slapped down for speaking up and speaking out about police misbehavior, and that the proper response if you think you are being unfairly targeted by the police because of your race is to chill.

I have nothing but contempt for that message.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Mississipi Driver Throws Kids Off School Bus for "Saying Obama's Name"

See this report from Pearl, Mississippi, via WAPT.com

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Missouri 6th Graders Disciplined for "Hit A Jew Day"

This story from USA Today simply defies all rational commentary:

Several sixth-graders from suburban St. Louis are being disciplined for creating "Hit a Jew Day" and then hitting Jewish classmates.

Four or five students at Parkway West Middle School in Chesterfield could be suspended and undergo counseling for last week's incident, school officials told the Associated Press. Others who taunted Jewish students or encouraged others to participate face lesser punishment.

Officials said fewer than 10 of the school's 35 Jewish students were hit. One was slapped in the face and the others were hit mostly on the back of their shoulders. "There is a mix of sadness and outrage," said district spokesman Paul Tandy. "The concern is a lot of kids knew about it and they didn't take action or say anything."

AP explains:

It began with an unofficial "Spirit Week" among sixth-graders that started harmlessly enough with a "Hug a Friend Day." Then there was "High Five Day." Soon, though, the days moved from friendly to silly. Next there was "Hit a Tall Person Day" and, finally, "Hit a Jew Day."

This sort of conduct might be amusing on South Park. It is not when it comes to real-life American schoolyards.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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"I've Been to the Mountaintop"

An excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King's final speech on April 3, 1968:

Today is the 40th anniversaty of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. King was gunned down in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.

Also see:

• Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. - Washington Post
• Forty Years On - Truthdig
• Early Morning, April 4 - Digby

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Quotable: On Racism's 'Aesthetic Makeover'

Serious food for thought from David Sirota at Truthdig:

Since the 1960s, bigotry has undergone an aesthetic makeover. Today, the most pernicious racists do not wear pointy hoods, scream epithets and anonymously burn crosses from behind masks. They don starched suits, recite sententious bromides and stage political lynchings before television cameras. For proof, behold the mob stalking Barack Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

... It is polite pinstriped prejudice shrouding bigotry in feigned outrage against extremism—the operative word being “feigned.” After all, John McCain solicited the endorsement of John Hagee—the pastor who called the Catholic Church “a great whore.” Similarly, according to Mother Jones magazine, Hillary Clinton belongs to the “Fellowship”—a secretive group “dedicated to ‘spiritual war’ on behalf of Christ.” She is also friendly with Billy Graham, the reverend caught on tape spewing anti-Semitism. But while Wright’s supposed “extremism” blankets the news, McCain and Clinton’s relationships with real extremists receive scant attention.

Why is it “controversial” for one pastor to address the black community, racism and blowback, but OK for another pastor to slander an entire religion? Why is it news that one candidate knows a sometimes-impolitic clergyman, but not news that his opponent associates with an anti-Semite? Does the double standard prove the dominant culture despises a black man confronting taboos, but accepts whites spewing hate? Does the very reaction to Wright show he’s right about racism?

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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The Dialogue on Race in America

Barack Obama has called for dialogue on race in America.

Well, that long-overdue dialogue has begun. And not surprisingly, it isn't pretty.

Here are three must reads from two leading American commentators:

• Wright And Wrong - Digby
• One of Instapundit's favorite blogs speaks on race - Salon: Glenn Greenwald
• The difference between Jeremiah Wright and radical, white evangelical ministers - Salon: Glenn Greenwald

And while we're on this topic, in case you have not seen the entire clip, here is Reverend Jeremiah Wright's controversial post-911 speech that was at the genesis of last week's fiasco:

Below is a further clip, in which the Reverend opines very directly on the nomination battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama:

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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Toronto Catches Up With New York, London as Most Diverse City

According to a Reuters report, Toronto "may be pushing past New York and London as the world's most diverse city, with half its residents born outside of Canada:"

"Certainly there's no doubt Toronto is one of the world's most multicultural cities. It's catching up to New York and London, but it's still the younger one," said Michael Doucet, geography professor at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Toronto has about a third the population of either London or New York, but beats both of them in terms of the percentage of foreign-born residents, according to the government statistics, which were released this month.

...Because diversity is up for interpretation, there could be other contenders too. Paris, Los Angeles and a handful of other cities could also have a strong claim to be the world's most diverse, officials say.

Toronto, London and New York all have laws on multiculturalism, race relations, or immigrant health and safety as ways to ensure that the cultural mix doesn't become an explosive one.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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