From about 1975 until 2000, Bob Jones University discouraged and banned interracial dating. I don’t really get it, but it did occur.
How did they define race? White, Black, Asian, everything else?
Or did they have an organized system?
Anyone know how it was defined?
Dunno. I looked up the SCOTUS case that resulted from their policies (the court found the gov’t could revoke their tax-exempt status if they continued the policy), figuring they’d cite the rule in question. The do, but it doesn’t really go into any detail on what constitutes “inter-racial”
Here’s the rule as cited in the SCOTUS case
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The same case had another Christian School that was also fighting the same IRS rule, and their definition of race is given. Since they seem to be working from a similar religious tradition as Bob Jones, I suspect their definition is pretty similar.
So “Black + Oriental” OK, but “Jew + anybody” or “white + anybody” not cool.
This place hands out degrees in biology or other sciences?!
What is the other school?
I wonder if the other one could have been Liberty University another crazy right-wing Christian university. I had a friend that went there years ago and they had ridiculous rules like no holding hands and no watching rated R movies, why anyone would willingly go to such an institution is beyond me.
My first though was maybe they adapted the time-tested rule to say if one grandparent was non-white, you are non-white.
It is interesting to consider how they would have handled it practically on a day-to-day basis. Did they have a Board of Racial Classification that identified every student, staff, and faculty with a race label that went into their records as a matter of course, or did they only adjudicate one’s race if and when a complaint was filed alleging inter-racial dating?
What was your official “race” if you were multi-racial? If your dad was Japanese and your mom was Polish, were you supposed to date Asians or Europeans? What about if your dad was Polish and your mom Japanese? What if your dad was half Korean and half Arab, and your mom was 1/4 French, 1/4 Zulu, 1/4 Australian Aborigine, and 1/4 Jewish? I wouldn’t want to be on that Racial Classification Panel. Could a half-Japanese and half-Polish student date someone who was half-Vietnamese and half-Irish?
And if race was only adjudicated as part of the discipline process, was there a defense of lack of knowledge or intent? E.g. “I didn’t know I was Hamitic - my dad said that we were descended from Japheth. I am not guilty of knowingly violating the interracial dating policy.”
And what if you were adopted? Did you automagically take on the race of your adoptive parents, or were you judged by appearances (yep, the contours of your nose so say you are Jewish, or such says the Board)?
My WAG is that it probably didn’t actually come up that often. The school only has like 2000 students, and I’ll go out on a limb and venture that the sorts of people who found themselves going to BJU during the time period in question probably weren’t super into fraternizing outside their ethnic group (that ethnic group probably being white, the school didn’t desegregate until the mid-70’s) regardless of what the rules said.
Plus other rules regarding behavior at BJU were (and are) crazy strict. No handholding, watching mainstream movies or listening to pop-music. Chances are if the school catches you dating someone they disapprove of, they can just toss you for some other infraction rather than having to argue who is or isn’t a decedent of Japheth.
And regardless of whatever biblical justification was used, the actual reason for the rules is pretty plainly to keep whites and blacks from having romantic relationships. I doubt they really cared if someone was half-Korean or not as long as it wasn’t to blatant (and how blatant can you be if handholding is forbidden).
Goldsboro Christian Schools. Some sort of private school network in NC, apparently (not a University).
So if I can trace my ancestry back to Ham, and my date’s is traced to Shem or Japeth, we have a problem.
I can trace mine back to a bigafootasausus, so I’m not worried.
From here:
Facts & Statistics
African American 1%
Asian 2%
Hispanic 5%
International 5%
Native American 0%
White 79%
Unknown 4%
Except for the low number of blacks, looks like America circa 1970. Not sure what “international” means since some of them could be white…
Goldsboro Christian Schools was a K-12 school run by the Second Baptist Church in Goldsboro, NC. It was founded in 1963 and didn’t accept black students.
Those rules don’t seem too bad for a Christian university. I want to say Bob Jones encourages students to turn each other in for merits or something like that. It’s pretty extreme.
I have two friends who went there, but only for a short time. One found the rules crazy, the other was totally uncomfortable turning in his friends.
I imagine anyone can hand out a degree in biology or other sciences. Accreditation by what organization would be the issue.
I’m envisioning a scene similar to that in Frank Pierson’s Conspiracy with a Kenneth Branagh-esque chancellor making fine distinctions between various degrees of racial classification before suggesting “evacuating” non-whites entirely.
Of course! What better way to validate your idology than by enshrouding it in the veils of pseudoscientific language to give it the appearance of legitimacy? That no one actually familiar with population genetics would argue that the prototypical classifications of ‘race’ (which have varied radically with social acceptabilty of various minority ethnic groups in mainstream populations) have any practical meaning at all in terms of distinguishing the mean characteristics of said group is of no interest to bigots and the intentionally obtuse.
Stranger
Those unknowns are screwed. Or not screwed, which makes them screwed.
I can only trace my ancestry back to Pork. (They weren’t rich enough to take the cure, you see.)
Some of my best friends can also trace their ancestry back to Pork. (They’re Reform.)
My early ancestors apparently were Porkish. My father was Hamish. My descendants will be Bacon.
What am I?
Okay, a serious question: Among the better-known Christian Universities (in particular, Bob Jones and Liberty), do they in fact have an established reputation for their teaching of various fields of science? And if so, what is that reputation? (ETA: Is this question a fit subject for a new thread?)
Depends on what you mean by “Christian”. Are you talking about fundy schools, or all Christian schools, such as Catholic ones, like Notre Dame or Boston College? Trust me, there’s a huge difference.
The only things I know about Liberty University are:
Jerry Falwell was either the founder or a huge part of it.
They have had the champion debate team a few times.
Otherwise, no idea.
Bob Jones is just famous for being really strict. I’m not sure what their known for otherwise.
They didn’t have to, because they freely admitted that it was their policy and that they were going to stick with it. The trial court cited exactly the same rules in its decision:
What’s most interesting about this case (now) is that it would probably be decided in the other direction if heard today, thanks to the RFRA.