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Once again, your favorite glove-taker-offer has had his name
mentioned in conjunction with a Democratic candidate for president.
And, again, its with regard to my activism towards ending the Bob Jones
University (BJU) ban on “interracial” dating/marriage among students.
From the African Americans for John Kerry section of the campaign website of Senator John Kerry:
In
1998, James Landrith, who is white, tried to apply to the school even
though he is married to an African-American woman. According to NPR,
Landrith received this response to his application: �I noticed on your
application that you are interracially married. Bob Jones University
does not endorse this. It would be no problem for you to be a student
here as long as your wife was not or vice versa.
This is basically the same text that was used by the Gore campaign in 2000 with regards to BJU.
Now
for some background for those who may have come here researching this
topic. In the Fall of 1998, I called the university to inquire about
their ban on “interracial” dating/marriages among their students. I
promptly received a letter from the school, which has been online here since 1998. It has been reprinted worldwide and mentioned in a few books since then. 
But
getting back to the story. After receiving the letter, I applied for
admission to Bob Jones University (no, I wasn’t actually going to
attend), knowing that they didn’t allow interracially married students.
In a manner consistent with their policy, they actually
required prospective students to divulge the “race” of their spouse on
their official application (that is no longer the case). Being a good
little agitator, I did so, per their instructions. A week or so later, I received a polite email,
informing me that I could attend or my wife could attend, but not both
of us (even though my marriage was in violation of their rules). I
guess they were willing to bend their own rules to get a little tuition.
Following
this, as word of mouth and emails spread the story across the internet,
I was contacted by several news organizations and did some radio and
print interviews including NPR’s Morning Edition, The Boston Globe, The
State, Associated Press and others. Over the years, I’ve received
mostly positive emails about this, including many from current and
former BJU students. The few angry emails were mostly from religious
right wingnuts, including one lady who implied that God punished the
Kansas City area with several tornadoes following a less than
complimentary story on Bob Jones University in the Kansas City Star.
Priceless stuff.
For the down and dirty of it all, do I
believe that BJU had a right to their policy? Sure, I am a libertarian,
after all. But that doesn’t mean that folks can’t challenge that policy
in court of public opinion. That also doesn’t mean that they should be
the recipients of tax money taken by government force from individuals
who aren’t allowed to attend the university. Now, I don’t have a
problem with folks receiving a tax write off for their tuition to ANY
school - including Bob Jones University. Your money is your money,
spend it how you like.
I did, however, oppose a statewide
tuition program that would have taken money from the pockets of ALL
South Carolina taxpayers to be given to any student, including those
who attended BJU. To demand that anyone be forced to subsidize the
education of a third party is unreasonable and a form of theft. To
further demand that someone who couldn’t attend a particular school on
the basis of their “interracial” marriage subsidize the education of
said school’s students is an insult on top of the government enforced
thievery.
Judge me accordingly. I stand by my actions and I’ve
taken my lumps. But the Kerry and Gore campaigns’ use of my story does
not indicate an endorsement of either man’s campaign. On the other
hand, this posting doesn’t indicate an endorsement of that Bush guy
either.
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