Here Come da' Judge! Here Come da' Judge!

Judge Who Wore Black Face Is Suspended

A Houma judge who donned blackface makeup to complement his orange prison jumpsuit, handcuffs and afro wig for extra laughs at a Halloween party should be suspended for six months and take a course in racial sensitivity training, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday.

...[Judge] Ellender admitted wearing the racially insensitive costume Halloween 2003 at a Houma seafood restaurant, owned by a relative. He has since said he meant no harm or insult to the African American community.

...Ellender testified that he wore the costume to complement the police uniform his wife wore. He was her prisoner, he said.

My attorney says a judge should never wear blackface, but you know attorneys, always pushing the ounce of prevention, over the pound of cure. Here, though, he may be right: It's probably a bad idea for judges to go around telling (or miming, in this case) nigger jokes.

People--and I don't want to stereotype, but they tend to be the darker ones--take offense to it. They never seem to find the funny. Instead, they begin to doubt that justice can come from a guy reveling in bigotry and racism in his off hours, and the next thing you know, someone's taking racial sensitivity training to commute part of his sentence.

Of course, if the Louisiana state Supreme Court really found Ellender's actions an affront to the law, they would've sent him packing for a new line of work, but, that's another blog entry.