1935 Germany: Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they were concluded abroad.
1911 Nebraska: Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more negro, Japanese, or Chinese blood.
I don't understand. I don't understand how anyone with a conscience can argue that because of someone's skin color, or religion, or sexual orientation, they don't deserve equality. I don't understand how our country can stand up and say that Hitler's discrimination violated human rights when parallel laws in America were enforced long before and long after Hitler's Nuremberg laws. How can Americans criticize the Germans for their medical experiments on Jews but defend the fact that it was okay for them to extract cells and experiment on blacks such as Henrietta Lacks and others? What is even more confusing is that racism is still alive and well today in America. This summer some family friends came up to visit from Arkansas. Collette, the guidance counselor at her children's school in Little Rock, told me that she heard from white parents regularly complaining about "those black kids" causing trouble and how they wanted them removed from the school. It's not just in the South either. The other day I was brought to tears as my black friend told me about the horrendous comments he gets every day for the color of his skin. I don't understand that a country that started as a refuge for those who were discriminated against, that fought for independence and equality for all people, and throughout its history has fought for the equality and freedom of other people around the world, can't even represent and fulfill its "so-called" values. I simply don't understand.
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