but where is the cheese?
"I'm not a racist. I have piles and piles of black friends." This a quote from Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish in Louisiana. As reported in the news Thursday of this week, Bardwell denied a white woman and a black man a marriage license because he does not believe in interracial marriage because he feels children from such a union will be adversely affected through being biracial.The obvious reaction I should be having is as follows: What the fuck, Bardwell? This is clearly racial discrimination. What the hell were you thinking? Why are you still defending your actions as if you're in the right days later after this story has not only gained national attention but also the disavowal of several high-ranking public officials?!
However, I am choosing to only focus on Bardwell's quote that I began this blog entry with. Of course, my reaction still remains the same: What the fuck, Bardwell?!
This (il)logical qualification has frequently been used to justify a discriminatory stance on something. "I just don't believe in gay marriage. I'm not homophobic though; I have a gay uncle." "I'm not entirely sure the Holocaust actually happened. I'm not an anti-Semitic though; I mean, I have Jewish friends." "Is it really the rapist's fault? That woman was just asking to be raped with her scantily-clad dress in the workplace. I'm not a sexist pig though; I love women." (Okay, so this last one is a stretch, but I think my point shines through.)I cringe every time I hear something like this. Why would you think you need to qualify your statement by saying you know people who are so-and-so? The only reason I can think of is because you're afraid that what you just said was fucking bigoted. And how else can you quickly qualify such bias with your tiny, close-minded brain? Oh, that's right: mention that you know someone who is black/gay/Jewish/female/whatever. I mean, do you think people live in bubbles where there only exists people who are exactly like themselves and the fact that you know people who aren't exactly like yourself will astonish people? If so, please wake the fuck up.
Honestly, I can't comprehend how mentioning your social network adds to your argument or even begins to justify anything at all aside from the notion that you know such people. Unless you're trying to socialize with me, I don't care that you know person X, Y, or Z. If you don't think your perspectives, knowledge, and stances can speak for themselves through your words (logical structures, rhetoric style, vernacular, etc.), then what you're saying is full of shit. That's it. I don't know what else to tell you.My name is Timmy, and I think close-minded people should go fuck themselves so that they will die out through inbreeding. But it's perfectly okay for me to say these things; I
EDIT: Picture of Bardwell!
Unrelated, but I highly recommend bluegrass group Nickelcreek. Here is "When in Rome":
This has less to do with your blog entry than the fact that this guy is now a sort of celebrity villain. Why is this guy getting so much attention? When I first read about this incident, it seemed like an Onion article. While it's terrible that there are still small numbers of people who think that interracial marriage is wrong, this is clearly a very anachronistic incident. And while giving so much media attention to such an outlying instance of racial discrimination lets us collectively wag our fingers and pat ourselves on the back for "not being racist," doesn't that take attention away from the less obvious, more prevelant sorts of racism that occur every day? Just some thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, is there a picture of this person anywhere? I want to see if he fits my own bigoted assumptions about southern white bumpkins...
I agree that there are still small factions of people who disagree with interracial marriage. But the thing that makes this instance much more different is that a person of the law denied a couple marriage due to their interraciality AND the couple wanted to DO something about it.
ReplyDeleteI also think that by bringing up the completely inane illogicality of the "illegality" of interracial marriage, it is incredibly easy to draw a parallel to the current illogicality against same-sex marriage.
Also, I added a picture/video I found of Bardwell toward the end of this entry since I apparently can't use html codes in blog comments. Lame.