No Greys, please!

Racism. I’d have thought we’ve come a long way, and this world is a better place now than it was about a decade back when it comes to human rights (unless, of course, you are a woman living in Mogadishu , or something similar to that somewhere else), that racism is predominantly a thing of the past- and whatever of it exists today is mostly limited to a disillusioned, uneducated, closed-minded minority.

In a way, it’s right. We humans have come a long way. We are now more aware and, I’d say, more sensitive- too; or so I thought- that was yesterday.

Today I’m asking the question- are we really much different now? A news has surfaced recently and I cannot help but wonder if I was giving these modern-day humans too much credit.

You see- when in this ‘modern’ times a Louisiana justice of peace in Tangipahoa Parish, Keith Bardwell, denies to marry interracial couples on the grounds of... well... race- all I could successfully do is ‘gulp’.

To quote a few lines from the article:

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.

"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."

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

Shocking!

Those children suffer, eh? Are you sure you did not mean that they become US Presidents when they grow up, Mr. Bardwell? You do seem like one of those who will not like a ‘mixed race’ president running your country!

Also… does he even ‘hear’ himself say those things?! Dude- first it was ‘inter-religion marriage, now you go ‘inter-race’?! Helloooo… Brotherhood! Where have YOU gone now?

To elaborate a little further- as if that wasn’t enough, he then goes:

“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.”

That sounds ‘racist’ to me, Mr. Bardwell... ‘very racist’, actually.

Apparently, Mr Bardwell, you seem very smug about the things you ‘let them do’! Seems like you are keeping a list, too. Eh?

Well... all I can say on a positive note is that at least, what he was doing is considered ‘illegal’ in these modern times.