Mixed-race adoptive families were the subject of public mocking at the hands of a Democratic lawmaker in Alabama last month. In an episode reminiscent of MSNBC’s infamous guffaw over the Romneys’ adopted, black grandson state Rep. Alvin Holmes questioned the existence of such families during a discussion of abortion policy.

State representative Alvin Holmes (D) Montgomery, said Republican lawmakers would support abortion if their daughters became pregnant by black men. Holmes later said he would offer $100,000 cash to anyone who could show “a whole bunch of whites” have adopted black children in Alabama.

Even Jezebel grudgingly allows this might not be the best tack for abortion rights activists to take.

One group, Faces of Families of Alabama, took Holmes’ challenge and tried to introduce him to some of the children he thinks his fellow citizens are too hateful to love. The Owings family echoed some of the issues for which MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry emotionally apologized after she and her guests joked about Kieran Romney:

Today at the state house, white parents who adopted mixed race or minority children said it’s time for Holmes to ‘pay up.’

Beverly Owings is an adoptive mother of a 13-year-old bi-racial daughter. “I would like for him to ‘man up.’ He’s made the statement. He needs to put his money where is mouth is.”…

Owing’s husband Jeromy, says his family has worked hard to break down racial barriers.

“After we work on it and work on it to have an elected official that can come in and make those comments and tear down everything that we’ve worked hard for. It puts a question in their minds of ‘Do I belong?’ ‘Where do I belong?”

The right thing for Holmes to do would be to apologize and pony up the $100,000 (or at least a portion of it) for a reputable adoption agency or charity serving adoptive families. The Blaze reported Holmes was invited to the rally but didn’t attend. But that’s not what Holmes did. Because he’s an upstanding liberal committed to tolerance and racial healing, he did this:

Alvin Holmes is sticking by some controversial comments he made during the legislative session.

“The majority of white people in the state of Alabama are against adopting black children and the majority of white people in the state of Alabama are against their daughters having babies by black men and I stand by that comment,” he says…

“The majority of white people in my opinion in the state of Alabama do not want their daughters having black babies,” he says. “They know it’s true. I know it’s true. And they’re not going to say, yes Alvin Holmes is right.”…

“I know it’s embarrassing to them,” he says. “When they go out and say, well it doesn’t matter to me and then most of them catch they daughter having a black baby, they’d have a conniption fit.”

Click here if you’d like to watch Holmes (D-amnhe’srude) stick to his insensitive guns:

Holmes grew up in a different Alabama than today’s. That’s bound to affect his perception of the state, understandably. But there’s no excuse for remaining willfully blind to the many good people who are, in one of the most intimate ways possible, building bridges between races. How is a group of happy families of different races on the steps of the Alabama state house a reason for repeated ridicule, not celebration? And, why do these families, which represent some of the best about our country, repeatedly become the collateral damage of liberals who attacking conservatives? It’s a nasty impulse they should examine before lecturing the rest of us about race.