Mississippi – the citadel of gender and racial diversity, right?

From 1818 through 2007, there were 32 appointments to the federal bench in Mississippi. It took 189 years before the good ol’ boys in Mississippi to find one female that they believed was qualified for appointment as a federal district judge. It took the good ol’ boys 167 years to find a qualified African-American. Ms. Sharion Aycock was appointed on Oct. 22, 2007 and Henry Wingate was appointed on Oct. 17, 1985.

Shortly after Ms. Aycock was appointed in October, the following colloquy took place between Buford Bryant of Meridian and Delmas Jones of Oxford in early Nov. 2007.

Buford:             Hey Delmas, did ya hear the bad news?

Delmas:            What ya talkin’ bout Buford?

Buford:             Those damn fools in DC done went about and appointed some female as a federal judge.

Delmas:             You’re kiddin’ ain’t ya Buford?

Buford:              Damn sure ain’t Delmas!

Delmas:             Lord have mercy! I suppose it won’t be long before they be givin’ some Negro a judge job.

Buford:              Well Delmas, they’ve done, done that!

Delmas:             Say what? Come on Buford you’re pullin’ my leg, right?

Buford:              No, it’s true Delmas. Those damn fools gave some Negro named Wingate in Jackson a judge job in 1985.

Delmas:             That’s just bullshit Buford. What ya gonna tell me next – that some damn Mexican done got him a judge job?

Buford:              Yeah that done happened too Delmas. They done did that in 2004 by givin’ a judge job to a feller named Guirola in Gulfport.

Delmas:              I here tell that our Senator is the one that asks for these judge jobs, right Buford?

Delmas:             That’s right Buford. It would have been Trent Lott as to the Mexican and the female.

Buford:              That two face, double-crossing som bitch!

Delmas:              It ain’t like the good ol’ days anymore is it Buford?

Buford:               Sure ain’t Delmas, but what ya gonna do?

Delmas:              Well I damn sure ain’t hangin’ around here if this bullshitshit keeps up, if ya know what I mean Buford.

Buford:               Me too! I’ve been thinkin’ about moving to some place where ya don’t have to put up with this kinda bullshit.

Delmas:              Any ideas Buford?

Buford:                Yeah, been thinkin’ bout movin’ to Montana. There be almost 1 million folks there, but they only gots about 2,700 Negros.

Delmas:               That sounds right good to me Buford.