The recent resignation of a Virginia Judge for anti-African American comments while off the bench has put into high relief the harm that can be done by closet racists who codify their prejudice with jail time.
Richmond General District Judge Ralph Robertson elected to take a quick retirement from his duties after it leaked out that he wrote in an Internet chat room that “African Americans are prone to crime and violence because it is in their genes.” He went on to say some minorities are “people who have no regard for sanitation, courtesy, private property, etc.”
Robertson’s remarks came to light Thursday, two days after Texas Judge Matt Zapeda resigned after he was caught on a 2002 videotape using a racial slur and profanity while arraigning inmates.
Other incidents reported this week include a Conneaut, Ohio policeman fired on Tuesday for calling a 12-year-old girl the “N” word; on Wednesday the Chicago Fire Department began investigating the latest of five racial slurs shouted over department radios since February; and on Thursday, a 32-year-old worker in the city of Cincinnati’s radio and telephone services department was arrested after allegedly making racist comments over city police and fire radio channels.
“People think the days of racism are over, but we’re not even close to being beyond racism” says Marc Mauer, assistant director of the D.C.-based Sentencing Project, a nonprofit that provides justice policy analysis.
“There is no question that people who hold biased views will be influenced in their decision-making,” observes Mauer.
His group strongly endorses “carefully scrutinizing” a judge’s record in a “fair and open-way to see if there are any unwarranted biases.”
Mauer approves of the rigorous Senate confirmation process of questioning and investigating those judges singled out for controversial rulings – such as Mississippi’s Charles Pickering and Alabama’s William Pryor.
Pickering, who was installed by President Bush on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals during a congressional recess, was having his feet put to the fire by senators who charged him with making “disparaging” remarks about anti-discrimination laws and the people who file employment discrimination cases. Pickering was also questioned on the release of a cross-burner. Because of Bush, Pickering’s bench seat is safe until the next Congress takes office in January 2005.
On Feb. 20, Bush sidestepped the Senate again, appointing Pryor to the 11th Circuit. Civil rights groups, including the NAACP, vigorously opposed Pryor. “William Pryor has shown a consistent hostility towards civil rights, equal opportunity and voting rights,” the NAACP said in a statement. The group cited his suggestion that the Senate repeal part of the Voting Rights Act and his defense of Alabama’s practice of handcuffing prisoners to a hitching post in the hot sun.
While the president defended his appointments and charged their critics with using harassment tactics, some detractors empathized with the statement put out by People for the American Way, which charged: “This president is dedicated to packing the courts with right-wing judges who will turn back the clock on equal rights, privacy…and much of the social justice progress we’ve made in the past half-century."
“We live in a racist society,” says Mauer, “none of us are free of it. We don’t know what public figures do or say behind closed doors. Not all of them disseminate their views on the Internet”
It is important, he says, that citizens and their institutions put mechanisms in place that answer the bottom-line question, “Can the person standing before us serve in a public office?"
The recent resignation of a Virginia Judge for anti-African American comments while off the bench has put into high relief the harm that can be done by closet racists who codify their prejudice with jail time.
Richmond General District Judge Ralph Robertson elected to take a quick retirement from his duties after it leaked out that he wrote in an Internet chat room that “African Americans are prone to crime and violence because it is in their genes.” He went on to say some minorities are “people who have no regard for sanitation, courtesy, private property, etc.”
Robertson’s remarks came to light Thursday, two days after Texas Judge Matt Zapeda resigned after he was caught on a 2002 videotape using a racial slur and profanity while arraigning inmates.
Other incidents reported this week include a Conneaut, Ohio policeman fired on Tuesday for calling a 12-year-old girl the “N” word; on Wednesday the Chicago Fire Department began investigating the latest of five racial slurs shouted over department radios since February; and on Thursday, a 32-year-old worker in the city of Cincinnati’s radio and telephone services department was arrested after allegedly making racist comments over city police and fire radio channels.
“People think the days of racism are over, but we’re not even close to being beyond racism” says Marc Mauer, assistant director of the D.C.-based Sentencing Project, a nonprofit that provides justice policy analysis.
“There is no question that people who hold biased views will be influenced in their decision-making,” observes Mauer.
His group strongly endorses “carefully scrutinizing” a judge’s record in a “fair and open-way to see if there are any unwarranted biases.”
Mauer approves of the rigorous Senate confirmation process of questioning and investigating those judges singled out for controversial rulings – such as Mississippi’s Charles Pickering and Alabama’s William Pryor.
Pickering, who was installed by President Bush on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals during a congressional recess, was having his feet put to the fire by senators who charged him with making “disparaging” remarks about anti-discrimination laws and the people who file employment discrimination cases. Pickering was also questioned on the release of a cross-burner. Because of Bush, Pickering’s bench seat is safe until the next Congress takes office in January 2005.
On Feb. 20, Bush sidestepped the Senate again, appointing Pryor to the 11th Circuit. Civil rights groups, including the NAACP, vigorously opposed Pryor. “William Pryor has shown a consistent hostility towards civil rights, equal opportunity and voting rights,” the NAACP said in a statement. The group cited his suggestion that the Senate repeal part of the Voting Rights Act and his defense of Alabama’s practice of handcuffing prisoners to a hitching post in the hot sun.
While the president defended his appointments and charged their critics with using harassment tactics, some detractors empathized with the statement put out by People for the American Way, which charged: “This president is dedicated to packing the courts with right-wing judges who will turn back the clock on equal rights, privacy…and much of the social justice progress we’ve made in the past half-century."
“We live in a racist society,” says Mauer, “none of us are free of it. We don’t know what public figures do or say behind closed doors. Not all of them disseminate their views on the Internet”
It is important, he says, that citizens and their institutions put mechanisms in place that answer the bottom-line question, “Can the person standing before us serve in a public office?"