posted October 16, 2009 11:45 AM         

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Interracial couple denied marriage license in La.
By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer Mary Foster, Associated Press Writer Fri Oct 16, 4:50 am ET

NEW ORLEANS – A white 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.

Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said. "I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it."

If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.

"I try to treat everyone equally," he said.

Bardwell estimates that he has refused to marry about four couples during his career, all in the past 2 1/2 years.

Beth Humphrey, 30, and 32-year-old Terence McKay, both of Hammond, say they will consult the U.S. Justice Department about filing a discrimination complaint.

Humphrey, an account manager for a marketing firm, said she and McKay, a welder, just returned to Louisiana. She is white and he is black. She plans to enroll in the University of New Orleans to pursue a masters degree in minority politics.

"That was one thing that made this so unbelievable," she said. "It's not something you expect in this day and age."

Humphrey said she called Bardwell on Oct. 6 to inquire about getting a marriage license signed. She says Bardwell's wife told her that Bardwell will not sign marriage licenses for interracial couples. Bardwell suggested the couple go to another justice of the peace in the parish who agreed to marry them.

"We are looking forward to having children," Humphrey said. "And all our friends and co-workers have been very supportive. Except for this, we're typical happy newlyweds."

"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 Court ruled 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 the administration of justice."

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

According to the clerk of court's office, application for a marriage license must be made three days before the ceremony because there is a 72-hour waiting period. The applicants are asked if they have previously been married. If so, they must show how the marriage ended, such as divorce.

Other than that, all they need is a birth certificate and Social Security card.

The license fee is $35, and the license must be signed by a Louisiana minister, justice of the peace or judge. The original is returned to the clerk's office.

"I've been a justice of the peace for 34 years and I don't think I've mistreated anybody," Bardwell said. "I've made some mistakes, but you have too. I didn't tell this couple they couldn't get married. I just told them I wouldn't do it."

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posted October 16, 2009 01:29 PM         

one thing i don't understand though, is that it used to be required (in some states at least) that couples get blood tests before marrying...which since the onset of aids, hepatitis c and other nasty diseases, seems even more important(it used to be to make sure no one who had syphilis or ghonorrea was going to pass it on to babies, or that two incompatible blood types would make kids)

posted October 16, 2009 02:08 PM         

but (sigh) it seems more important still to some people what is SEEN on the outside than what constitutes health and well-being on the inside.

posted October 16, 2009 07:17 PM         

btw that's just one judge

I doubt that Louisiana is like that in general. I am sure that there is a lot of racial tolerance there.

man...I wish that I could get in touch with my Black Creole roots there.
My father was from there.
My mother told me that he wanted us to move back there, but she refused. She didn't want me to grow up down there. She had those Southern racist views about that state.

I might have to spend a week or two in New Orleans, my father's birthplace. very cosmopolitan place too.

Raymond

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"Nothing matters absolutely;
the truth is it only matters relatively"

posted October 18, 2009 09:49 AM         

ah, well, clearly a liberal, open-minded man. unbelievable

posted October 19, 2009 02:10 PM         

Interracial Couple Denied Marriage License Play Video ABC News – Interracial Couple Denied Marriage License

* Justice who denied marriage won't resign Play Video Video:Justice who denied marriage won't resign AP

In this March 30, 2007 photo, Michelle, right, and James Cadeau play ball with their children, Elliot, 2, left, and Justin, 5, in the backyard of thei AP – In this March 30, 2007 photo, Michelle, right, and James Cadeau play ball with their children, Elliot, …
By Patrik Jonsson Patrik Jonsson – Fri Oct 16, 5:00 am ET

Atlanta – Louisiana justice of the peace Keith Bardwell's refused to marry a white woman and a black man reportedly because he believed that children of an interracial marriage would suffer socially.

That view was once common in the United States, and might have had some basis decades ago when such marriages were taboo and multiracial families were sometimes ostracized. But today, not only are mixed-race children widely accepted but some research suggests they might even have some social advantages.

Researchers are finding that multiracial kids can sometimes be better socially adjusted than single-race offspring. And with the high-profile success of multiracial progeny such as Tiger Woods, Halle Berry, and President Obama (who at his first press conference as president described himself as a "mutt"), stereotypes about the split world of the "tragic mulatto" have long fallen by the wayside.

The American Civil Liberties Union is now threatening a lawsuit if Mr. Bardwell, veteran justice of the peace at Tangipahoa Parish, doesn't step down. The group calls Bardwell's refusal to issue a marriage licence to Beth Humphrey (who is white) and Terence McKay (who is black) both "tragic and illegal."

"I'm not a racist," Bardwell told a local newspaper. "I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house. My main concern is for the children."

The 'tragic mulatto'
Refusing to issue marriage licenses for reasons of race has been illegal in the US since the Supreme Court in 1967 struck down anti-miscegenation laws in 16 states, mostly in the South.

Research on mixed-race children once focused on the social and psychological problems that can arise from not feeling like a full member of any racial group. That notion permeated early 20th century American literature through the figure of the "tragic mulatto," who did not fit in with either the black or white world.

As recently as 1968, the psychologist J.D. Teicher wrote, "Although the burden of the Negro child is recognized as a heavy one, that of the Negro-White child is seen to be even heavier."

The idea that mixed-race children were biologically inferior to white or black kids was also widespread in the South, and often formed the basis of anti-miscegenation laws during Jim Crow years. (Researchers have found that not only is that not true, but that mixed-race offspring tend to be overall more physically attractive than their peers.)

Changing views
But loosening of marriage laws and more-accepting social mores have transformed perceptions of multiracial families. For one thing, there are now 7 million mixed-race kids in the US, up from 500,000 in the 1970s.

A 2008 study of 182 mixed-race high school kids in California found that these kids didn't focus on exclusionary features like skin color or hair texture when thinking about themselves, but instead, they appeared to feel that their heritage made them "unique."

The kids are able to "place one foot in the majority and one in the minority group, and in this way might be buffered against the negative consequences of feeling tokenized," the study authors wrote in the Journal of Social Issues. The students surveyed included those with mixed Asian, Hispanic heritage.

Other studies suggest that while mixed-race kids may no longer feel the burden of discrimination, they still face unique challenges. A 2008 study led by Harvard researchers found that mixed-race adolescents tend to engage in risky behavior outside of school at higher rates than average and also fare "somewhat worse on measures of psychological wellbeing."

The reality for many mixed-race children probably lies somewhere between liberating and restrictive. On a Yale University blog this year, biracial student Phoebe Hinton wrote: "I am lucky enough to have an excuse flowing in my veins to do whatever … I want: there are some things white people do and … I'll do them. There are some things black people do, and … I'll do them."

"Pretty much the only thing people won't accept me doing," she adds, "is continuing to identify as neither black nor white, but an amalgam of the two."

Whether biracial children in rural Louisiana experience the same confidence in their identity – in a region where race arguably still hangs heavier than other parts of the country – is an open question.

Even if they don't, Bardwell, the justice of the peace, will be hard-pressed to convince anybody – including potentially the US Justice Department – that that's any of his business.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20091016/ts_csm/amixedrace

posted October 19, 2009 09:02 PM         

i'm thinking of a mixed man i knew recently who grew up in a black neighbourhood with a white mom and who felt the need to PROVE he belonged by exhibiting all the behaviours typical of ****** -off minorities, ie going south of the law and flaunting it too. had he been from a more affluent, mixed or whitish neighbourhood he might have tried harder to be "successful" in a mainstream way. sad really.

we still have a long way to go but i suspect the growing size of the mixed population, especially since the 60s, will erase this as a problem and also bring both sides together better than any law could do. of course the fact that laws now make it illegal to DO anything about your bigotry have contributed bigtime to the whole interracial family scenario.

posted October 20, 2009 06:39 PM         

The world needs more mixed children!!! Please, please, please!!! Not only are they good-looking (kat ), but these people represent more than one culture and have an insight in the real issue - We are all human.

posted October 20, 2009 09:53 PM         

Yep

that's how I am as the offspring of a black man and white woman

I think it reflects in my idealism,inspiration in connection to being mixed with my Moon in Pisces square Jupiter-Neptune in Sagittarius in 4th but also my cynicism,seeing harsh reality that race relations aren't all that great in connection to my being part black with my Moon square retrograde Saturn in Gemini in 10th.

3 of my 4 stepsisters had a Japanese mother

a lot of racial prejudice here in Sacramento too. My mom pointed that out to me. It's not as bad as the San Francisco Bay Area. I was born in San Francisco where my parents met each other. my father had Moon in Pisces disposited by stationary retrograde Neptune. My mom has Sun in 12th trine retrograde Neptune in 4th.

Raymond

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"Nothing matters absolutely;
the truth is it only matters relatively"

posted October 21, 2009 03:52 AM         

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I bet $20 that this guy is an old-fashioned Southern Democrat!

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yep. the classic pet them on the head and don't they make nice pets mentality. horrid.

I haven't personally known too many of mixed race - maybe a half dozen - but, yes, they were all strikingly beautiful. Not just physically attractive ... there's something almost psychologically healing in seeing that balance of supposed opposites. Living, breathing proof of a better way.

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edit: the censor machine is very strange. it blots out p1ssed but not ass?

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the ass thing is new, I think. I'm sure I've had 'ass' booted off before. Maybe they needed it for Lindaland Central?

posted October 21, 2009 05:08 AM         

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