Just what all Louisianans like to wake up to, a national news story about one of our couillon justices of the peace refusing to marry an interracial couple. Keith Bardwell says he's concerned about the white woman and black man’s children. Of course he is: One of their kids could grow up to be president of the United States.
A white justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, Bardwell also 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.”
Uh huh. He said it.
Bardwell also 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.
Hmmm. So would he also not marry a Latino and an Asian or a native Hawaiian and an American Indian? Or is this just a black and white issue? I’d bet my money on the latter.
The AP reported today that 30-year-old Beth Humphrey and 32-year-old Terence McKay, both of Hammond, say they will consult the U.S. Justice Department about filing a discrimination complaint. Humphrey is an account manager for a marketing firm; she and McKay, a welder, just returned to Louisiana. She plans to enroll in the University of New Orleans to pursue a master’s degree in minority politics, the AP noted.
Read more about Bardwell — and why he desperately needs to be replaced — here.