How Juan Became John

Umm, did I fall and trip into the Way Back machine and take a ride with Sherman and Mr. Peabody to 1942? I’m sure by now everyone has heard about the white Justice of The Peace in Louisiana who refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple. He said that he was concerned about any children the couple may have and how society would treat them. He also said that in his experience mixed couples don’t last that long. I wonder how many white couples he married and how long they lasted. The Justice of the Peace, Keith Bardwell, also stated “I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way.” So not only is he a racist but he’s delusional to the fact. How about this quote from Bardwell, “I have piles and piles of Black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them like everyone else.” Yeah, unless they want to marry outside of their race. Still it’s good to know he’s not afraid to let them squeeze the Charmin.

Recently a white man, Larry Whitten, from Abilene Texas purchased a run down Southwestern Adobe style hotel in Taos New Mexico with plans to resurrect it as a tourist spot. Upon arriving to the hotel in Taos, which is a city where the majority of the population is Latino, he laid down some new rules to the current employees. They would no longer be allowed to speak Spanish (he feared there were talking about him) and were told to drop their accents. He also ordered them to anglicize their names. Juan became John, Marco became Mark and so on. Those who refused to follow his rules were terminated. He says he immediately noticed they were hostile to his management style. Management style? In fact the state of New Mexico has established Spanish as an official language alongside English. When asked for an explanation for the changes Whitten stated, "It has nothing to do with racism. I'm not doing it for any reason other than for the satisfaction of my guests, because people calling from all over America don't know the Spanish accents or the Spanish culture or Spanish anything." Then why are they booking a hotel in New Mexico? I guess that makes sense I know if I call a hotel in France I’d get upset if they spoke with some stupid French accent.

Seriously, both of these idiots are indicative of the paternal attitude white people have concerning minorities. They assume they know “what’s best” for us and the funny thing is that neither of these two bigots think they did anything wrong. The Justice of the Peace assumed he knew what was best for the interracial couple and their offspring and the hotel owner felt it was best for his workers to adjust to his idea of America. What they both fail to understand is that their ideas of America no longer exists and thank God. The vanilla flavored plain wrap white bread America they envision only exist in the minds of the same white supremacist and right wing whackos that refuse to accept a Black man as president. The same people who say they want to “take back the country”. They would prefer to go back to a time when minorities stayed in their place and did as they were told. Ahh...the good ole days. Well at least we can take some comfort in the fact that Bardwell has recently resigned as Justice of the Peace and both are facing lawsuits.