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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