What better way to celebrate the beginning of Black History Month then to read an Associated Press story about a local judge being reprimanded for making disparaging comments about three black female public defenders?

Last April, Washington County Circuit Judge W. Kennedy Boone referred to the three lawyers as “The Supremes” and told a defendant to get “an experienced male attorney.” He has acknowledged that his comments suggested racial and sexual bias. Boone said he was trying to protect the three public defenders from representing a difficult defendant.

But isn’t that their job? Women can do any job a man can do. That includes representing criminal defendants. Even if they are male.

I discussed this issue on a message board for people local to the Hagerstown area. Most people didn’t think this was that big a deal. Some said that it was actually a compliment since The Supremes are a famous singing group and maybe the judge was a fan of their music. I don’t agree. The only thing these three lawyers had in common was the color of their skin and their sex.

It would be like me referring to three black men as the Harlem Globetrotters. If I were to say something like that where I work, I would most likely be fired. This man is a judge.

It’s just another strike against Hagerstown concerning racism and how the rest of the country sees when they take a look at us. Things like this make me cringe. Recently our city got some negative exposure in the national media after the plan to rename a street after baseball great Willie Mays received negative response from some in the community and the plan eventually failed because of it. Mays played his first professional baseball game here in Hagerstown. Hagerstown’s former mayor William Breichner thought race was a factor in the public response that led to the end of the proposal.

I was embarrassed after the Willie Mays street renaming controversy and I feel embarrassed over this controversy. It makes us look like a bunch of ignorant racist hicks. Stuff like this only makes it harder to attract good companies bringing good wages to the region.