THE MAN HAS ‘PILES AND PILES OF BLACK FRIENDS’…. It’s the 21st century, but apparently no one’s told Keith Bardwell.
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.”
Is that so. Bardwell lets black people use his bathroom and he has “piles” of black friends?
Well, in that case, I suppose there’s nothing objectionable here at all.
Apparently, couples that want to get married will call Bardwell to make arrangements. He’ll ask if they’re a mixed-race couple, and then refuse to help them if they answer the “wrong” way. As Bardwell sees it, society won’t accept their kids: “I think those children suffer and I won’t help put them through it.”
What a good point. The societal stigma on kids from mixed-race couples is so overwhelming, those kids would never have an opportunity to, say, grow up and someday seek the presidency of the United States. Oh wait.
The couple that Bardwell turned down last week intends to consult the U.S. Justice Department about filing a discrimination complaint. They’ve already received some support from the ACLU, which has sought an investigation from the Louisiana Judiciary Committee.
