Never Mind the Race Haters, Remember Loving Day
Reactionary conservatives are smiling through the racial apocalypse. To them race baiting is a joke, as "humorist" Rush Limbaugh will tell you when he's calling Mexicans "stupid." Or it's a matter of semantics when they claim that Sonia Sotomayor is a "racialist" which, far as I can tell, is the smooth jazz version of being a racist. Or they are just merely reporting the "facts" when they repeatedly call an abortion doctor "the killer."
Then, right wingers go nuts and start "Second Amendment-ing" innocent people, and for the life of them conservatives can't imagine how such things happen.
I could connect the dots for them, but there are plenty of other folks out there trying to do that. Instead I'd like to focus your attention on something else this June 12th.
Love. Or Loving, as in Loving Day.
As I've written previously: June 12th, Loving Day, is not named for the emotion of loving, but, fittingly, for Richard Loving and his wife Mildred. Richard was white, and Mildred was black, and when they were married in 1958, their home state of Virginia was one of 16 that still considered interracial marriage to be literally criminal. Hard as it may be to believe now, interracial marriage -- miscegenation is the pejorative -- was once a severely odious concept. In 1912, Congressman Seaborn Roddenbery of Georgia tried to introduce an amendment to the Constitution banning such unions. To his colleagues in Congress he lectured:
It is contrary and averse to every sentiment of pure American spirit. It is contrary and averse to the very principles of a pure Saxon government. It is subversive of social peace. ... No more voracious parasite ever sucked at the heart of pure society and moral status than the one which welcomes or recognizes everywhere the sacred ties of wedlock between Africa and America.
Then, as now, a particular ilk of politician tried to make bank using relationships between consenting adults as a wedge issue. Substitute "Africa and America" in the previous with "same sex couples" and you get my drift.
The Lovings spent time in jail for the high crime of being married to each other and were forced to move from Virginia. Then, on June 12 of 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Lovings' criminal convictions and struck down all laws against interracial marriage.
Now there's something like 4.3 million mixed-marriage couples in the United States. And the son of one such union is our president.
It's easy to get discouraged -- if not downright fearful -- when the race baiters dial their spew up to "11," and their reactionary puppets respond with violence. But take a moment on this June 12th to look at where our nation once was and where we are now, and take solace in knowing that we are headed in a better direction.
For more perspective, please visit That Minority Thing.com
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And yet the President, who is the "son of one such union", allows his administration to defend laws that discriminate against gays. What a world we live in, eh?
i like this
beautiful strangers that caress the length of time with hard won affinity
hunger for lessons of learned muse and lovers alike
considerate bigots that hate hate and wallow in their copious reciept
Until Sotomayor, I had only ever seen the term 'racialist' used by racists trying to make the claim that their view that whites are smarter (etc,...) than blacks (again etc., ..) isn't 'racist', it's 'racialist'.
The arc of the universe bends toward justice.
Love covers fear, but hate is an orphan.
neato misquito
And lies need a place to hide.
Thank you for acknowledging "Loving Day!" Maybe radio pundits and politicians are racially polarized. But, there are a lot of anonymous people like me who are loving family members of different ethnic backgrounds. Life is too short to deny the love and the right to marry of two consenting adults.
There was never a more appropriately-named court decision. Ever.
Just as radicals always do, the KKK and other hate mongers of the time predicted the miscegenistic horrors that would ensue from the union of people of different races. And what'd we get? A bit over four decades of proof that there really isn't that great a difference between us, after all. The children of these parents are no more screwed up than more boring, monochromatic rest of us. But by having a view into both ethnicities, these kids are the ones who can lead the rest of us into appreciating each other more thoroughly. And so is progress made.
I think we have to keep this in mind when reacting to the crap the righties spin today. They have been proved wrong so many time before, a little trip down memory lane on nearly any issue they flap about is always helpful in predicting reality. Extremists of any stripe are always far too ready to destroy the village in order to save it. They are proof of philosopher George Santayana's claim that, "A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim."
Thanks for the bit of history, John. I like knowing there's a "Loving Day."
beauty is free and clear of dejection and infamous for its spell on our longing.
its peace can be whispered to the quiet corners of the mind and churn the writhing found there-in
its for me. no, I do it for us so there is no room for savagery only you and me.
Thanks John.
Sometimes it's hard to be positive isn't it?
Thank you for this post. I'm grateful to all those who are bravely out ahead of our 'cultural norms' at any time fighting to let love rule. We can all be better and do better.
Mr. Ridley,
I am not sure where you get your numbers, but it appears that you have grossly overestimated and grossly underestimated the significance of miscegenation in US society. According to the 2000 census, 6.8 million people claimed to be of more than one race (2.4% of the population). Although your example points to mixed black and white marriages, the truth is that the highest number of mixed race respondents (2.2 million) claimed to be white and some other race, followed by white and American Indian/Alaskan native (1.1 million), white and asian (900,000) and then white and black (800,000). Asians make up 2.8% of the population, American Indians make up 0.8% of the population and blacks make up 12.1% of the population.
These statistics tell a different story than the one told in your post. What these numbers show is significant racism against blacks as measured by exogamy rates. There are twelve times more blacks than American indians, but blacks are less likely to marry whites than American indians are. Similarly, there are almost five times more blacks than Asians, but blacks are less likely than Asians to marry whites. Again, what is the progress that you are referring to when you claim that we are moving in the right direction. Who is the we that you are referring to?
The fact is, most whites are still against a family memeber marrying a black person, espeically if that black person is a man. You are very smart to break it down by white and other minority groups because we are under the impression that there are so many mixed relationships between blacks and whites, but the facts are 90% of black men and 98% of black women will date and/or marry someone else who is black.
Hopefully, by the next anniversary of Loving Day, we can be free to celebrate marriage for everyone.
Hopefully.
I have experience with interracial marriage. To the question "what was it like?" the only answer seems to be, "like a marriage."
I'm white and a liberal, but I wasn't prepared for the depth of racial hatred in this country. I never would have believed the stories of "everyday racism" - in which orders at fast food joints get mangled, or grocery checkout tallies are obviously wrong, or seating in restaurants are strangely delayed, or dozens of other little insults occur - unless I experienced them myself.
Racism runs far, far deeper in America than most white Americans will admit, and unless they begin to admit it racism will continue to be a problem in this country. Let's remember and understand that racism is not a black problem, it's a white problem.
"orders at fast food joints get mangled"
Wo, that hardly ever happens.
Wow, that's a comprehensive response if ever there was one!
This is where an understanding of History comes into play. If one looks back over the History of America, we have made great strides toward tolerance and equality. "Some" of the Founding Brothers would be proud. We still have fear of the "Other". If Fox News would magically just go away or at least tone down their Hate Speech we would be a lot better off. But that's not going to happen. There are millions of Haters and they tune into their Faves every day. The rest of us must out organize and out vote them. The Good people must stay active to defeat the "misguided" ones.
I'm a grumpy old "purple" voting independent and Military Historian, also half of an inter-racial marriage. We've run into our share of "haters" both in "liberal" California and here now in Texas, of every colour and description. We have no use nor time for such sad, pathetic lost souls afflicted with xenophobia, a malady that rots the mind and soul.
We've handled those petty insults when they arise with simple principle: "I did not order that," "We've been kept waiting for an excessive amount of time, and yes, I have been tracking the wait on my watch," "May I speak to the manager?"
We insist only upon simple respect: we ask for nothing more than that, but tolerate nothing less.
Racism is *everyone's* problem IMHO, and the whole stinking rotten edifice that is racism in America needs to be torn down one proverbial brick at a time, however long it may take.
Leland R. Erickson
Citizen
Amen.
And stay classy and cool when you (unfortunately) encounter more racists tying to deny your humaneness. Teach your children to act the same. (I bet the worst treatment is from people who make less money than you.)
Living well is the best revenge!
And there will be more mixed marriages because love just doesn't respect those barriers. Where this article goes off the track is by equating conservative talk radio with Congressman Seaborn Roddenbery, who was after all, a Democrat. http://the
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