Senate Blocks Interracial, Interfaith Marriages (SB 180)

[doggie]

Can Kentucky become more of the butthole of america?  

 

http://progressky.com/2016/03/senate-blocks-interracial-interfaith-marriages-sb-180/

Quote

A Kentucky Senate committee has passed a bill that would allow store owners and other providers of services to refuse to serve interracial couples, interracial families, or couples of different faiths. In addition, the bill would prevent the refused couples from seeking redress through the courts.

The Protected

Titled, apparently without any sense of irony, “an act relating to the protection of rights,” SB 180 creates a state-wide group of “protected activities” and “protected activity providers,” then proceeds to cover those so protected with immunity from any laws by any governmental body anywhere, and states that people so covered cannot be fined or charged with any crime.

Who are these persons so protected, and what are the activities so protected? Let’s look at the precise and clear language provided by the bill:

“Protected activities” means actions by people commissioned, employed, hired, retained, or otherwise used by the public or the government to provide customized, artistic, expressive, creative, ministerial, or spiritual goods or services, or judgments, attestations, or other commissions that involve protected rights;
“Protected activity provider” means a person who provides protected activities; and
“Protected rights” means the rights of persons to be free from governmental actions that impair, impede, infringe upon, or otherwise restrict the exercise of any right guaranteed by the United States Constitution or the Constitution of Kentucky, including but not limited to a person’s right of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and right to peaceable assembly.

 

[PennySycamore]

Anti-miscegenation laws were found to be unconstitutional almost 50 years ago in the decision Loving v Virginia thus legalizing interracial marriage in all 50 states.  You'd think that people would be a bit more accepting of it now.  Jeez....    This bill, if it should become law, is almost certainly unconstitutional.   

[CyborgKin]

That people can still think in such a disgusting way is simply sickening.  To me, just the idea that 'interracial marriage' is something that someone could have a problem with is appaling.  The only time the outdated concept of 'race' should matter is when someone is being racist.  I don't like the term 'race' at all.  It implies some significant difference between groups of people that a term like ethnicity doesn't.  In any case, there's a lot more to a person's identity than their genetic history, and even their family background.  So these stupid and frankly evil attempts at separating people baed on skin pigmentation are just... ugh, it's just so foreign to my experience.

Mind you, I'm saying this as a privileged white person who could theoritically marry someone from any ethnic background without social stigma.  So I'm complaining about a problem that doesn't affect me.  I just... if I ever had the misfortune of meeting people with such backwards views, I think I'd have to knock their heads together.

Okay enough pointless ranting.  Have something kinda topically funny (and yet kinda not funny too):

 

 

[Jingerbread]

2 hours ago, CyborgKin said:

I don't like the term 'race' at all.  It implies some significant difference between groups of people that a term like ethnicity doesn't.

I agree.  A Romanian person and I are the same race, yet we all know that being white matters for shit if you're someone who can be called a gypsy, yet thanks to race, Roma people allegedly can't be victims of discrimination.  Ethnicity matters, yet is ignored.

Also did we all fall in a time machine and go back to 1956?

[J'Lurker]

How is this a real thing.

[ADoyle90815]

My dad once said that Oklahoma was the butthole of America, but I guess he's wrong about that now.

[samira_catlover]

Somebody had better send me a whole lot of soothing tea, because am REALLY in need of it now.

Last time I looked, there were six million and forty-seven things on my "To Worry About" list, and just how people arrange their marriage relations and/or sexual life didn't even make the top 5 million.

@doggie:April Fool's Day is nearly three weeks away: did you mispost by chance?

[Hera]

Dear Kentucky, 

1950 called. It wants its hate issue of the day back. 

This is clearly unconstitutional, and hopefully will never get past a real vote, though the fact that someone actually suggested it, much less got it passed through a committee shouldn't surprise me, but it honestly does. Between this and the stat that 20% - or one in five - of the people who support Donald Trump wouldn't have freed the slaves back in 1864, I'm shocked.  What the fuck is happening in this country? 

[doggie]

Somebody had better send me a whole lot of soothing tea, because am REALLY in need of it now.

Last time I looked, there were six million and forty-seven things on my "To Worry About" list, and just how people arrange their marriage relations and/or sexual life didn't even make the top 5 million.

@doggie:April Fool's Day is nearly three weeks away: did you mispost by chance?

Sadly no.

[Gellhorn]

WTF indeed.  Here's my guess.  People are scared so they're also ANGRY, sometimes with good reason and it appears that they can't GET to the people who have been putting bad policies/good business strategies into action at their expense.

So they blame someone they can reach. 

Also, when you're angry, your I.Q. drops at least 10 points because you're all wound up and ready to beat someone into a pulp.  Thinking just goes right out the door. 

If I'm kind, I'm going to surmise that 51% of those who are REALLY ANGRY are also free-falling financially so they are also running out of energy to think their way out of their predicament.  When your energy is spent on chronically worrying about your survival, your creativity plummets too.  Only when you don't care much about whether you're going to eat that day, or your kids are going to eat can you continue to be at least somewhat clever about dodging around obstacles.  That's not most of us.

Trump is a con artist and comes from a long line of opportunists with very little concern about their fellow man.  The people who are most drawn to him are the ones who have lost the most and the ones who have some sort of weird idea that America was great for everyone in 1952 and the people for whom it wasn't great in 1952 aren't a loss.  He's a horrible person and a practiced liar.

Sorry - I'm conflating topics.  Kentucky is apparently trying to go back to the worst aspects of the 1950's (Kim Davis and now this).  Trump is too.  Now, I feel that Trump is trying to re-create the ugliness of Germany in the late 1920's and 1930's but that may be MY fear of what he's trying to unleash on MY family and friends speaking. 

KY can pass whatever they like, I suspect it's unconstitutional and that will be an end to it.  But it's the dog whistle for particular candidates and their supporters.  One wants to get re-elected and will put forth stupid policies in order to do so, knowing full well they aren't going to go anywhere (not really) but WILL appease their base AND upset "those people" whom they despise.  IF their supporters go on to break laws and hurt "those people", well, their hands are clean enough.  Plus they got what they wanted.  Their cushy legislative job and all the perks that go with it.

 

[samira_catlover]

@Gellhorn: how can I do eleventy likes on your post?

Said it before, will say it again (and asking your patience, FJ readers): Can all of you send prayers, energy, good thoughts, ANYTHING NICE, to support the blessed Constitution of my dear nation?

HELP!!!!!!

 

[Gellhorn]

1 hour ago, samira_catlover said:

@Gellhorn: how can I do eleventy likes on your post?

Said it before, will say it again (and asking your patience, FJ readers): Can all of you send prayers, energy, good thoughts, ANYTHING NICE, to support the blessed Constitution of my dear nation?

HELP!!!!!!

 

Thank you kindly!

Well, we can only hope that more people who are currently foaming at the mouth and egging on Donald Trump to say more outrageous (and illegal) things find themselves realizing that "those" people are members of their families.  Whether it's the colour of their skin, their background, their first language or their sexual orientation.  I think it's a Zulu expression, "We don't kill our enemies.  We marry them."

I can't remember where I read that, nor do I remember which tribe but for some reason I do believe it was presented as a Zulu saying.  If not, it's still something to keep in mind.  Once someone is family it is MUCH harder to hate them or take measures to make their lives more difficult or miserable.  After all, they're now part of your package and who wants to be touched up for a loan so the kids can eat or go to school?

[Kittikatz]

I just don't understand why so many are still bent on latching onto superficial differences and using them as a basis to oppress people who are 'different'. It seems like a common characteristic of what posters here call the 'angry old man' demographic.

It just makes no sense. Not only is it clearly unconstitutional, but did they not learn that this kind of behaviour didn't gain anything in the past?

Also, how do these idiots hope to enforce this? Mandatory genetic testing? Identity cards that list race and religion? Or is it just up to the discretion of whatever store clerk is at the till?

And what about people like me whose ethnic and religious heritage are so mixed that anyone I'm with could be viewed as an interracial relationship?

The whole concept of race as it is viewed in the Americas is a social construct, that by definition, is constantly evolving. It also varries depending on where in the Americas you are...

I wonder if this is related to all the pro segregation posts I've been seeing on Whisper lately....

So much frustrating stupid in the world.

[Dollypeeps]

There was me thinking we where one race, the human race. 

Sometimes mankind scares me. 

[bjr70]

On 3/13/2016 at 4:45 PM, Dollypeeps said:

There was me thinking we where one race, the human race. 

Sometimes mankind scares me. 

Many times I've said I prefer my cats to most people. Aliens may be avoiding this planet. We can't even treat our own fellow humans with kindness. What on earth would we do with aliens? As an American I'm ashamed right now. We're regressing by the day.

[PennySycamore]

From what I learned when I took a history course on US: 1829-1890, prior to the Civil War there was little fuss about interracial sexual relationships and marriages.  It was only about the time of the Emancipation Proclamation that the word "miscegenation" was even coined.  

The list of creoles (mixed race people from Louisiana or with Louisiana roots) is pretty interesting.  I didn't know, for instance, that George Herriman, the creator of Krazy Kat, and one of the greatest cartoonists ever, was a Creole.  If you don't know Krazy Kat, then you are culturally deprived!  Jim Parson of TBBT and Beyonce are both creoles.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Louisiana_Creoles

Miscegenation was one of those things banned by the Hays Code.  You couldn't even hint of it in a movie back when the Code was strictly enforced.  It led to some strange casting decisions.   Pearl Buck and Irving Thalberg both wanted a Chinese or Chinese American cast, but Thalberg did come to the realization that white audiences weren't ready for that.  He wanted to cast Anna May Wong as O-Lan, but it would not have been permitted under the Code as Paul Muni who played her husband was white.

Man, have we regressed rather than progressed! 

[Fundie Bunny]

What the hell. I don't even know what to say. This is not even mean, it's just ridiculous. Like Trump level

[CyborgKin]

These people wouldn't know how to deal with the phenomenon of two-tone twins!

[JMarie]

I suggest all the elected officials who voted in favor of this bill to watch Look Who's Coming To Dinner (it's almost fifty years old, so I'm guessing some of them have seen it already, but obviously they could use a refresher).

[Cleopatra7]

The continual obsession with interracial marriage is absurdly amusing, because that's a horse that left the barn about four hundred years ago. Most so-called black people have substantial amounts of European ancestry, and wouldn't even be considered black in other countries. If you're concerned about race mixing, chattel slavery is the worst thing to have, because it ensures that the "superior race" will sexually abuse the enslaved race with abandon, which is exactly what happened in the US. It should come as a surprise that someone like Strom Thurmond would rail about "race mixing" for hours on the Senate floor, while having a secret black daughter whom he was sending payments.

[Fundie Bunny]

16 minutes ago, Cleopatra7 said:

The continual obsession with interracial marriage is absurdly amusing, because that's a horse that left the barn about four hundred years ago. Most so-called black people have substantial amounts of European ancestry, and wouldn't even be considered black in other countries. If you're concerned about race mixing, chattel slavery is the worst thing to have, because it ensures that the "superior race" will sexually abuse the enslaved race with abandon, which is exactly what happened in the US. It should come as a surprise that someone like Strom Thurmond would rail about "race mixing" for hours on the Senate floor, while having a secret black daughter whom he was sending payments.

THAT!!! My aunt's skin is seriously darker than beyonce's. And she is white. The kind of obsession with race I see in the US is fascinating.

[CyborgKin]

10 hours ago, Cleopatra7 said:

The continual obsession with interracial marriage is absurdly amusing, because that's a horse that left the barn about four hundred years ago. Most so-called black people have substantial amounts of European ancestry, and wouldn't even be considered black in other countries. If you're concerned about race mixing, chattel slavery is the worst thing to have, because it ensures that the "superior race" will sexually abuse the enslaved race with abandon, which is exactly what happened in the US. It should come as a surprise that someone like Strom Thurmond would rail about "race mixing" for hours on the Senate floor, while having a secret black daughter whom he was sending payments.

Why should hypocricy be a surprise?

But here's a fun genetic fact for people who go on about racial mixing: "All humans are 99.9 per cent identical and, of that tiny 0.1 per cent difference, 94 per cent of the variation is among individuals from the same populations and only six per cent between individuals from different populations."

10 hours ago, Fundie Bunny said:

THAT!!! My aunt's skin is seriously darker than beyonce's. And she is white. The kind of obsession with race I see in the US is fascinating.

I find it weird/fascinating too.  A lot of what Americans call 'black' I'd call a great tan, and I've probably seen as dark or darker 'white' people at the beach.  Meanwhile I'll see Chineese Australians who are even whiter, in terms of skin tone.

But of course it's really about ancestry, not pigment.  Being born to the wrong people from the wrong place makes you part of 'them' not 'us'.  Well except when you happen to have features such that you can pass as one of the 'right' sort of people.  Ugh.

We can't help seeing that people look different, I just wish we could stop treating people as if they were worth different.  And it's not just physical features.  We assign status based on how people dress and talk too.  I think racism still has first place, but classism is another variety of the same sort of attitude.  And it's so easy to do!

[Alicja]

I agree.  A Romanian person and I are the same race, yet we all know that being white matters for shit if you're someone who can be called a gypsy, yet thanks to race, Roma people allegedly can't be victims of discrimination.  Ethnicity matters, yet is ignored.

Also did we all fall in a time machine and go back to 1956?

um, Romani people are most definitely not considered white in Europe...

[laPapessaGiovanna]

12 hours ago, Fundie Bunny said:

THAT!!! My aunt's skin is seriously darker than beyonce's. And she is white. The kind of obsession with race I see in the US is fascinating.

But don't you know that Mediterranean countries were already melting pots more than 2000 years ago . Oh wait we all descend from monkeys! But those dear lawmakers probably are young earth creationists 

Funny fact my grandmother censored her wedding pics because her complexion on the white dress is so dark that she could easily pass for a foreigner or a gypsy. I, on the contrary, censor my pics on the beach because I am so embarrassingly white that it seems that I reflect the light .

[samurai_sarah]

17 hours ago, Fundie Bunny said:

THAT!!! My aunt's skin is seriously darker than beyonce's. And she is white. The kind of obsession with race I see in the US is fascinating.

I find it fascinating too, but find it good that it's talked about. In places like Germany, it's taboo to discuss. People will claim that race isn't an issue, and then go out of their way to explain why. But that doesn't make the issues go away. It doesn't even hide them. It just makes them difficult to discuss. And we need a frank and open discussion!