Racist Judge? You Be The Jury.

[Judge Mathis would never pull this kinda stunt. Would he?]
An Atlanta area-judge recently Channelled His Inner Negro and now finds himself in hot water. Not necessarily for what he did, but how he did it.

It was an unusual message from a black judge in Atlanta: white people, out of the courtroom!

WSB's Veronica Waters reports while Fulton County Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington says the approach may have been a mistake, the message he wanted to deliver was not.

It happened last Thursday, March 27, during court proceedings. Arrington says when he walked out of his chambers and took his place on the bench, the crowd appeared to be "99.9 percent" black. Fed up with a parade of black defendants before him in his six years on the bench, the judge decided to talk privately with the suspects. He says there was nothing "racist" about telling the white lawyers to leave so he could talk pointedly to their clients.

"I didn't want to appear to be condescending, talking them down," says Arrington. The judge, who points out that he grew up on Atlanta's inner-city streets decades ago, urged the crowd to take a hard look at their lives.

"Get your life together, get in school, you can be a better you if you work hard," Arrington says was his message. "I essentially said the same thing to them that Bill Cosby said a year ago."

Arrington says in retrospect, segregating the courtroom for those few minutes was a mistake, and that the next time he lectures those in his courtroom—this Thursday—he's inviting all comers to listen in.

I'm somewhat on the fence about this one. Have a look yourself and then peep the question.



So, apparently Judge Pigmeat Arrington got sick and tired of seeing Negroes come in the courthouse actin' a damn fool, and needed to send a message. I don't necessarily think that's a bad intention.

However, he was dead wrong for asking the white folks (albeit just lawyers) to leave. It's a court of law, not to mention a public space. Telling people of a certain race to kick rocks so you can have a "family conversation" is a noble idea with incredibly awful execution.

Judge Joe Brown would never pull that kinda stunt.

Question: What do you think about Judge Arrington's "family meeting"?

Judge Orders Whites Out Of Court [WSBRadio]

* Props to T.G. for sending this one in. AB.com Request Week continues.