How can you write or say racist things and not be a racist? Ask the judge.

Richard Cebull is the chief US district court judge in Montana.  He's in a bit of hot water for sending an e mail out, a racist joke about Obama.  Here's the joke:

"A little boy said to his mother; 'Mommy, how come I'm black and you're white?'
"His mother replied, 'Don't even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!'"

The joke is obviously intended to denigrate Obama for his multiracial background.  The honorable judge eventually admitted that the e mail was racist but he isn't----an interesting explanation.   "The only reason I can explain it to you is I am not a fan of our president, but this goes beyond not being a fan," he said. "I didn't send it as racist, although that's what it is. I sent it out because it's anti-Obama."

"I didn't send it as a racist." says the judge, "although that's what it is".  I had to repeat that to let it penetrate my brain.  Perhaps his honorship has multiple personality syndrome disorder and one of his other personalities did it.  You wouldn't get very far with that argument in his courtroom I'm sure.  Can you imagine how "not racist" he is when handing out decisions from the bench to people of color in the dock.  The KKK is full of non racists too. I am no fan of Obama, he is a representative of the 1% and a consummate bourgeois politician.  He is an enemy of working class people throughout the world. But it would not enter my head to think of him in the way the judge does let alone write about it--------unless I was a racist, acting in a racist way.  We live in a racist society, so I am one of those people that expects such ideas to be expressed by workers at times. How can they not?  The same with sexism.  But not every worker that expresses prejudicial ideas is a racist or sexist, it depends how they react to being made aware of certain backward ideas and what they said an meant.  In the judges case I cannot be so generous.

Mother Jones Magazine covered the story and had this to say about his honors conduct:
The US Code of Judicial Conduct mandates that a judge "should personally observe high standards of conduct so that the integrity and independence of the Judiciary are preserved." It also says that a judge "should avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities"—which applies to both professional and personal conduct. With regard to politics, it says judges "should refrain from partisan political activity" and "should not publicly endorse or oppose a partisan political organization or candidate."
Of course there is no such thing as an in dependent judiciary either. The laws in society have a class base so it would be impossible for a judge to be independent.  They have a bias against all workers no matter what their color but the evidence speaks for itself; over 50% of the prison population are people of color and the laws and sentences are mush harsher for them and judges like this one make use of them I'm sure.  These statistics though are not all the result of the prejudices of individual judges but the inherent racism in society, it is a social problem.

The full story is here.