Editorial rights purchased from iStock. Photo by gorodenkoff.
A handful of Republicans are having a field day over Biden’s announcement that he’s going to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court. They’re calling it a quota — as if this will be a token appointment. How short their memories are!
Justice Thomas filed a quota — a man credibly accused of sexual harassment got a seat on the highest court in the land so Republicans could say “See, we’re not racist.” I remember this — I watched the hearings. It was an appalling spectacle and an embarrassing chapter in our nation’s history.
Quotas imply candidates are not qualified. In the context of Biden’s potential nominees, this is both idiotic and insulting. Every woman who has ever worked knows how hard it is to compete with men in the workforce. Any woman who can earn a law degree and succeed in her field given the obstacles in her way deserves our respect.
Black women must be particularly exceptional to reach the level of career success every one of the potential nominees has reached. The only people who don’t appear to know this are ignorant Republican white men.
Those same white men seem to have forgotten Ronald Reagan’s promise to be the first to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. Where was the outrage then?
SCOTUS should represent the American people — all of us — not just the old white guys. We need the perspective of a Black woman on the court. The women Biden is considering are all stellar examples of intelligence, capability, and integrity. Every one of them is more qualified than the judgment impaired Neil Gorsuch, the elitist misogynist Brett Kavanaugh, or the religious cult member Amy Coney Barrett.
Yet despite all this, Senator Ted Cruz is calling Biden’s choice “offensive.” Apparently, he doesn’t know what that word means. Perhaps he should listen to Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, who proudly flaunted his racism by making an inane comment about wanting a nominee who “…knows a law book from a J. Crew catalog.” Now, that’s offensive.
Kennedy is also concerned that if a Black woman joins the court she will “try to rewrite the Constitution every other Thursday to try to advance a ‘woke agenda.’”
Oddly, he hasn’t expressed any concerns about the right-wing justices who are rewriting the Constitution to take away a woman’s right to choose.
Thank you, Senator Kennedy, for starting off Black History Month by providing a textbook example of racism.
Here’s what I find offensive: of the 115 justices confirmed on the Supreme Court, 108 have been white men. If you’ve been searching for an example of institutionalized racism, look no further.
Not surprisingly, none of the men complaining about Biden’s decision are willing to discuss the qualifications of the women at the top of Biden’s list, and for good reason: these women are all eminently qualified. An honest discussion of their qualifications would leave these men speechless — not to mention the cognitive dissonance an intelligent, educated, successful Black woman would create for them.
Here are three of the women at the top of Biden’s list:
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, who was on former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court shortlist in 2016
California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, a former deputy solicitor general
Judge J. Michelle Childs of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, who has been championed by Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, and nominated for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
If Senator Kennedy is concerned about the ability of any of these women to tell the difference between “a law book and a J. Crew catalog,” he’s dumber than he looks (and he’s looking pretty darn dumb).
Rather than address the qualifications of these women, these Republicans have chosen to trot out the race card and negate their accomplishments, as if the backward opinions of a bunch of racist white dudes are even relevant. (They’re not.)
Unfortunately, these men aren’t the only problem. Senator Susan Collins, afraid of missing yet another opportunity to say something pointless, said Biden’s original announcement to put a Black woman on the Supreme Court (which took place during last year’s presidential debates) was “clumsy ”because it “added to the perception that the court is a political institution, which it should not be.” (Tell that to Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Coney Barret, and Thomas).
The only thing “political” about Biden’s announcement is the way Republicans are squirming in response to it. Collins’ comment shouldn’t surprise us though, given that it’s coming from the same Susan Collins who voted to impeach Trump for the insurrection but won’t dismiss the possibility of supporting him in 2024. She’s nothing if not consistent in her spineless inability to take a stand on pretty much anything — including blatant racism within her own party.
The thing about racists is they can’t process information that is inconsistent with racist beliefs. Denial of reality is baked into their mentality — it must be — they couldn’t continue to believe in their own innate superiority if they were hampered by facts.
Brilliant Black women can’t exist in their minds. It’s an oxymoron. If brilliant Black women exist, then brilliant Black men probably do too and that’s just a bridge too far.
The problem for these backward Republicans is that there are a lot of white people who finally get it now. They may not be the targets of institutionalized racism, but the murder of George Floyd, which we all watched with our own eyes, has made it impossible for thinking white people to continue to ignore the fact that institutionalized racism is alive and well in America.
The recent comments by Cruz, Kennedy, and even Collins make it clear that white men in powerful positions still think they should have rights Black people don’t. This is not acceptable.
It’s way past time for Black women to take their seat at the table, and on the bench. I’m just ashamed it hasn’t happened sooner.