Wildcat

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas has ordered a hearing to determine whether a trial should continue in Houston. Judge Kenneth Hoyt, presiding over a case of “environmental racism” relating to a Chevron oil facility from the 1920s, questioned whether a medical report should be accepted as evidence “because white people wrote it.” The case, in which a “Negro neighborhood” was created on top of old Texas oil pits, cannot get a fair trial, Chevron says, after the judge said race was not a factor in determining whether residents were sickened by ground pollutants, ruling “It’s not because they are black, but because they live in a certain area that white people put them in.” To help explain his thoughts, transcripts show the judge theorized, “Why do you think Chinese people are so short? Because there is so much damn wind over there they need to be short.... It’s environmental.” Since that apparently wasn’t clear enough, he lectured, “If you’re seven feet tall and you’re standing in China, then you’re going to get blown away by that Siberian wind, aren’t you?” (Reuters) ...Ya’know, Hoyt sounds like he’s all hat and no cattle.