When President Biden announced he would appoint a Black female to replace retiring Justice Bryer, his announcement was hailed by many and condemned by others. Those leaning toward the progressive side said it’s about time, while many Republicans, mainly white male Republicans, were in the forefront voicing their objections to the announcement pulling out the expected tropes around qualifications.
Senator Cruz intimated that because Biden stated he would pick a Black woman to replace Byer, that person would not be qualified. Senator Kennedy made the following idiotic statement: ‘I want a nominee who knows a law book from a J. Crew catalog.’
Two white men from two southern states clutching their proverbial pearls at the thought of having a Black woman on the Supreme Court, oh my, they must think the end of the world is at hand.
Both Cruz and Kennedy have a high opinion of themselves and undoubtedly their educational background. Cruz, Princeton, and Harvard Law School, Kennedy Vanderbilt, University of Virginia Law School, Magdalen College Oxford. Yes, both have impressive diplomas, along with the smugness that comes with their academic pedigrees. While impressive, it tends to enlarge their ego as if it could get any bigger than it already, not to mention it their backgrounds removes their ability to have any common sense. If they had any, they would have kept their mouths shut and not said what they did. But being white and male, they couldn’t help themselves.
Kennedy and Cruz insinuate because they are Black women, they somehow are not qualified to be Supreme Court Justices. These two maladjusted misanthropes do not understand what it takes for Black men and women to rise in any work setting. They seem to forget it was 68 years ago (1954) when the Supreme Court ruled separate, but equal was indeed not equal, thus eliminating school desegregation.
Please take a moment and consider the sequence of events. Separate but equal was part of Jim Crow. Before Jim Crow, we had slavery. In several slave states, it was illegal for enslaved people to read or write. Consider the following from Fredrick Douglass
“Nothing appeared to make my poor mistress — after her turning toward the downward path — more angry than seeing me seated in some nook or corner, quietly reading a book or a newspaper.”
Mrs. Auld taught Douglass to read, believing it to be the Christian thing to do. Being the opportunist he was, Douglass availed himself of this opportunity as long as possible. Mrs. Auld enjoyed seeing a young Douglass master reading until her husband told her she was ruining a good, enslaved person. Her husband informed her that enslaved people who learned to read and write would become disloyal and rebellious; in other words, no Cognito Ergo Sum for them.
From her husband’s point of view, Douglass wasn’t capable of thinking higher thoughts, so why waste time teaching him to read? All Mrs. Auld’s husband wanted from Douglass was to work the fields, obey his commands, and essentially state out sight do his master’s bidding.
So, being the dutiful wife, she ceased teaching young Douglass, but as he wrote, it was too late the seed she had planted germinated and grew, as evidenced in his writings.
Like Douglass’s unquenchable desire to learn how to read and write, Black parents in the south were determined to see their children educated, no matter the cost, no matter the sacrifice.
From generation to generation, Black parents never stopped emphasizing the importance of education, and for many, the seed planted by their families took root and grew. From it, we have seen our greatness before our own eyes. We are about to witness a significant accomplishment take place.
President Biden will make his first Supreme Court Justice selection from this triad, DC Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, from South Carolina US District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs.
These three women have been through the gauntlet every Black person must go through who dares to grasp the sacred rings of knowledge, opportunity, and advancement. How dare they! What right do they have to move in the hallow halls of law and be good enough to advance to positions of judges? For President Biden to even consider these three, it can only be because he is trying to appease his Black voters. After all, there is no possible way these women have the qualifications to be on the Supreme Court. Yet here we are. From this triad, one will become the first Black female appointed to the highest court in the land.
So, senators Kennedy and Cruz can protest all they like to make all the insulting statements that come to them. Rage indignant at President Biden, who dares to recognize this is the 21st century with many qualified Black people extremely capable of numerous tasks even being a Supreme Court Justice.
I say to senators Kennedy and Cruz, damn you to hell for your Black women need not apply attitude, and as your soul’s travel to the inferno of hell. And you see the sign, ‘abandon all hope ye who enter here’ remember you’re there because you failed to recognize one simple fact, we are all God’s children regardless of the color of our skin.
For your willfulness’ in not realizing this, along with your arrogance toward women, particularly Black women, both of you will come back as enslaved women circa 1827 as servants on Hugh Auld’s farm on Earth two were slavery never ended and suffer the fate of enslaved Black women.
Photo Courtesy of Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash
Good article!
To begin, no one should be surprised that the racists in the GOP would focus on the SCOTUS nominee being black as a bad thing. Or that Biden trying to fulfill a major campaign promise, to break the race and gender barrier on the SCOTUS that has seen nearly all of its justices be white males, would be “offensive” to them.
The GOP has one campaign mode that it is always in, the aggrieved crusader to protect the entitlement and feeling of superiority of their predominantly white male base. And their always used tactic on race is the one Lee Atwater and Karl Rove embedded in them, always accuse Dems of what you’re guilty of. So trying to undo racism, is racism. Putting the first black woman on the SCOTUS is being prejudiced against all the white people who wouldn’t be considered. It’s ridiculous at this point and IMO, should always be described as their being racism apologists.
Cruz and Kennedy both know that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is far more qualified and experienced than that inexperienced Federalist, religious extremist novice, Amy Coney Barrett who had never tried a case once before in her life when they enthusiastically voted her in. It’s all such a stale game, the MSM shouldn’t even engage them in it anymore, hypocrisy and lies is all they have to oppose good people and good deeds.
There’s an old quote about Ginger Rogers dancing with Fred Astaire. Of course she was famous too but Astaire had more fame and money…
That’s how it is for those who break prejudicial glass ceilings. Jackie Robinson had to be great. Barack Obama had to be remarkable. And Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has to be outstanding. None of them could have been mediocre or below par like Coney Barett, Kavanaugh, George W. Bush, etc. because entitlement allows them to be lesser people. But breaking bigoted precedent always (unfairly) requires the person who does so to be remarkable.
Imagine if Coney Barrett had to prove herself to be remarkable, she’d never be on the SCOTUS. Thankfully, all three of the candidates Biden considered all had strong backgrounds as judges, Jackson being the most impressive of the three IMO and the best experienced as a former defense attorney.
I don’t know that the first breakthrough person makes it necessarily easier for whoever is the next one but they begin the evolution that eventually makes it easier in the future.
And they know, even though it’s not fair nor the case for people who are white, they are representing their whole race. They have higher bars to pass over, their behavior must be above reproach and they know they have less freedom to react to poor treatment by the white establishment.
Having seen Jackson at the nomination event, I am so impressed with her gravitas and strength. I have no doubt that she will be confirmed and no doubt that she will serve on the SCOTUS unintimidated by anyone. She seems like she will be a fierce advocate of the law and apply it appropriately, as the SCOTUS should.
We will be very lucky to have her on the court.
Now, if we can just win a net of 2 more seats in the Senate this year and hold the House, we could get rid of the filibuster and expand the court to 13 and put 4 more high quality, fair-minded judges on the SCOTUS to help our country and democracy pull back from the oppression represented by the current majority.