Racism in 2009: Thoughts on The Louisiana Judge Denying Interracial Marriage

That is also why I voted against Proposition 8, California’s initiative banning same-sex marriage that caused so much controversy last November. If two guys or two women want to get married, that is their business and theirs alone.

Some may state that mixed race and inter-cultural relationships are no good because strong ethnic families are needed. For example, many African Americans say that they disapprove of interracial dating and marriage because it would weaken black culture and destroy black families.

I’ve always felt that was cop-out, a way for African Americans, whites and others to hide their racial, ethnic, and cultural biases and pawn it off as something else. To put it another way, the Ku Klux Klan has always taken the position that their main goal was to preserve the white race and to “protect white womanhood” – that was their actual motto in the 1920s.

In that context, blacks – and others - who object to mixed race and inter-ethnic relationships are no better than those guys in the sheets and the hoods, burning crosses and screaming “White Power!” like the crazed bigots that they are.

I know full well that the majority of Americans today feel as I do – that it makes no difference whatsoever what skin color or ethnicity one is when it comes to marriage, dating, or even friendships for that matter.

Martin Luther King hit the nail on the head when he said that he dreamed of a time when people would be judged “…not by the color of their skin by the content of their character.”

Fortunately, millions of people are not only sharing that dream, but are living it, a lot more in 2009 than when King made that statement in 1963.

However, Bardwell’s actions and statements prove that we have a long way to go (to coin a cliche) before we reach that point of truly making judgements based on a person’s soul rather than their outward appearance.

In the meantime, I hope that couple in Louisiana did obtain their marriage license, and that they have a great life together. That will show Bardwell and those fellow bigots out there.