Jack & Jill Politics

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie needs to put down that fried chicken and biscuits and learn some history. He managed to insult all Americans and American history with an either ignorant or disingenous assertion that, if Southern whites in the 1940s, 50s and 60s had just been given enough time, they would have totally been down for equality with their black neighbors. They would have even voted for it themselves! Hmmm…. Here’s the deets from the New Jersey Newsroom (emphasis mine):

In a comment related to his call for a voter referendum on the proposal to legalize gay marriage in New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday, “People would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South.”

The governor, who on Tuesday called for a referendum on the Nov. 6 ballot that would ask voters to decide if the state should legalize same-sex marriage, also said he will veto the Democratic legislation to allow it when the proposal reaches his desk.

The comment that the civil rights movement of the 1960s could have been settled through a national or southern states voter referendum stunned Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D-Essex), who became the first African-American woman to head the lower house in 2010.

“Gov. Christie better sit down with some of New Jersey’s great teachers for a history lesson, because his puzzling comment shows a complete misunderstanding about the civil rights movement,” Oliver said. “It’s impossible to ever conceive that a referendum on civil rights in the South would have been successful and brought justice to minorities. It’s unfathomable to even suggest a referendum would have been the better course.

“Governor – people were fighting and dying in the streets of the South for a reason,” the Assemblywoman said. “They were fighting and dying in the streets of the South because the majority refused to grant minorities equal rights by any method. It look legislative action to bring justice to all Americans, just as legislative action is the right way to bring marriage equality to all New Jerseyans.

Stunning. This new line of revisionist history falls in line with Ron Paul and Rand Paul’s creepy, cynical criticism of the Civil Rights Act, which forced private businesses such as restaurants, lunch counters and hotels to integrate. Their theory? The free market would have taken care of it, eventually. Yeah, right. It’s a dogwhistle and a wink to those boomers and older who have wistful memories of the days before it was possible for a black man to become president.

Black people and the non-black people who love them weren’t willing to wait then and we won’t allow people like Christie to distort our hard-won achievements for human rights and equality. Certainly not at a time when there’s still room for improvement in America in how we treat immigrants, Muslims, those in the LGBTQ community and oh yeah, every single black man who’s been hassled for no reason by the police.

Lord knows it was just Martin Luther King Day last week. If Christie is unaware of King’s seminal book called Why We Can’t Wait (available for free in Google Books) which answered those of the time who asked blacks to be patient, then surely he’s heard of King’s classic Letter from Birmingham Jail which also covers the topic of the extreme, shall we say, reluctance among the Southern white majority of extending anything even resembling equality to blacks.

Above, I offer Gov. Christie a short slice from a documentary of the integration of the University of Mississippi. 500 U.S. Marshals were required to enroll one extremely brave black man, James Meredith. Riots ensured. 35 Marshals were shot. 2 people died. James Meredith was later shot. He remains alive today. I’d strongly recommend that Christie read up on the inspiring life of James Meredith and then ask him whether he thinks the University of Mississippi would ever have been integrated via referendum. Hard to believe that Christie was once the great white hope of Republicans hoping for a viable, engaging presidential candidate to go up against Obama. Can’t wait to see him walk this one back.