This is the sort of headline that makes one pause: ‘Interracial couple denied marriage license in La.’ The reason? The justice of the peace was concerned that the offspring of such a union would not be accepted by either ‘black society’ or ‘white society.’ Such explicitly retro segregationist sentiments are even in rare in the South—especially in a state that has elected a governor of Indian descent.
But that may not the most surprising part about this story. Rather, it is that the justice of the peace was not altogether wrong. The idea that someone may not be “black enough” pops up in some surprising places—even during the supposedly post-racial presidential campaign of Barack Obama in the mainstream TIME magazine of all places. One case in point was this New York Daily News op-ed by Stanley Crouch, provocatively titled ‘What Obama Isn’t: Black Like Me.’
Back in Louisiana, it looks like the PC police got this one right. After numerous calls for his resignation, the justice of the peace obliged.