During a recent viewing of television while traveling at the end of June, I happened upon the “Divorce Court”. While not a consistent fan, I do enjoy the wisdom of Judge Lynn Toler, so I watched the show. In particular, a court matter concerned a biracial couple where the wife was divorcing the hus
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band because he mentally abused her. During the husband’s testimony, he stated all “white people smelled like dogs” and that she smelled like a German shepherd. He was not apologetic at all, but he later tried to revise his statement and said that it was just “the white people in his neighborhood”. During his testimony in which he berated his wife as aforementioned, his son was laughing and the husband did nothing to correct the boy. Judge Toler asked the home audience if they believed that the man was racist, the result of which was never revealed. Later, in her judgment, she said the husband was not a “racist”, but a “classist”.
The handling of the husband in the judgment by Judge Toler offends me as a white person.
Let’s put it in perspective.
If a white person had stated that “black people smelled like dogs”, no one would stand for that. That person would be called a racist.
Donald Sterling said something stupid, but not as insulting as the aforementioned husband, there was a demonstration by NBA players, and he has been branded as a racist and is being forced to sell his team.
I tried to forget this insult, but I find that in the big picture, the world dismisses the fact that African American people can also be racist against whites. Everyday I am reminded of this incident by:
Multi page news articles about the anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act,
Judge Alex Ferrer coming down hard on a defendant who muttered an ethnic insult (and he didn’t even realize that it was an insult) and fined him $1000,
Judge Greg Mathis also coming down hard on a black man trying to falsely accuse a white man of racism.
I believe that Judge Toler really missed the mark on this one. By calling him a “classist” (which he was), I believed that she let him get away with being a racist. Not many people would be ashamed of being labeled a “classist”. However, if someone is labeled a “racist”, it might shame that person into reflecting and possibly changing his/her attitude. As a result of this exchange with Judge Toler, the husband now has no need or motivation to change his attitude toward white people. Further, by not addressing the son’s deplorable behavior, she also enabled his son to grow up endorsing the same approach as his father
Juli 12, 2014, 6:24 nachm. GMT
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