As
reported in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Ralph B. Robertson stepped down last week from the Richmond General District Court bench after word spread of his postings in the Atticus chat room on Yahoo! Groups.
Example:
"We have had more people killed in the city I live in by minorities in the last 15 years than ever were supposedly lynched. When do they get through being even?"
The person who apparently uncovered these postings was Richmond lawyer David P. Baugh, who had this to say: "Have I seen things over the years that personally caused me to have a concern about his objectivity on issues of race and ethnicity and when it came to sexual preference? Yes...But that's no big thing. African-Americans very often see people who harbor questionable values. They just accept it and move on," he added. "You put them in a certain category and work around it. But I found the statements [on the Atticus message board] to be disturbing."
In this follow-up article, legal experts (including a former professor of mine) say these comments aren't grounds to overturn his past rulings.
See extended copy for more of Robertson's postings.
Some more highlights from the article:
The exchanges in the Atticus chat room on Yahoo! Groups included a reference by Robertson to Martin Luther King Jr. as a plagiarist who "turned things upside down" and a description of Jesse Jackson as "a thief, a liar and a traitor to his own people."
He called the civil-rights movement "the scam it [is] and was." In another reply, Robertson said, "I felt far more comfortable in Russia, Germany, Hungary, Poland and other European countries [than] I do in many parts of my own country.
"I recall several years ago watching the Russians and the U.S. playing basketball. I remember thinking that if I turned off the sound and didn't know which team was which, that I would certainly have been rooting for the Russians," he said. "They were all similar in appearance to myself, while the U.S. had one substitute sitting on the bench with whom by sight I could identify."
To someone who expressed an equal liking for all races, he responded, "I simply don't think you understand 'all' races. I think it's a wonderful thing in the generality of your home, but ill fit for survival on the street, similar to saying I like all animals."
Robertson responded to suggestions that only those of European descent should be allowed in the United States and that interracial marriage should be banned with, "Personally, I like a country where morality has a meaning. We have had more people killed in the city I live in by minorities in the last 15 years than ever were supposedly lynched. When do they get through being even?"
To someone who responded to another forum member's observation that she resented "the implication that minorities are dirty, lazy and dishonest," Robertson wrote, "A lot of them I know aren't, which precludes the ones who are from living in such situations. You can't have your cake and eat it as well. A broom costs about the same as a bottle of 'Wild Irish Rose.'"