Tag Archives: Ketanji Brown Jackson

Point of View Columns

In the Matter of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson – Continued

It was not necessary to consult with the legendary seer, Negrodamus, to predict what the Senate Supreme Court Justice confirmation of hearings regarding the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson would be like. It was beyond predictable – it was inevitable.

After the rehearsed formalities and the transparently fake promise of fairness, the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee went to work like paupers at a banquet. There were the seemingly obligatory references to critical race theory, an academic discipline that has nothing to do with teaching white children to hate themselves. But literacy and common sense are not in the Republican tool kit.

Somehow, it made sense for Judge Jackson to be asked about the Dred Scott decision of 1857. The irony escaped Republican Gang Who Couldn’t Think Straight. That is because the Dred Scott decision was a classic example of the institutionalized nature of white supremacy at that time, holding that Black people could not have the right of citizenship whether enslaved or free. Asking the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court was simply an abomination.

Ted Cruz (aka CancunTed) continues to prove that there is no bottom to the cesspool of misinformation and veiled racism that is his habitat. Asking Judge Jackson if babies could be racist – a twisted application of the much-abused critical race theory – actually brought a moment of exasperation in Judge Jackson’s otherwise composed demeanor.

While she had to be prepared for dog whistle racism given the composition of the Senate Judiciary Committee, it took Ted Cruz to make it clear that no outrageous and convoluted interpretation of the legitimate concerns of Black people in this country was out of bounds. And, of course, Cruz intended for her to get so exasperated she might actually provide a sequel to the Bret Kavanaugh meltdown in a prior confirmation hearing.

Sorry Ted.

But that did not stop other Republicans from questioning her work as a defense attorney as if (1) a person accused of a crime is automatically guilty and (2) that the provision in the Sixth Amendment that requires that defendants in criminal cases be provided with counsel is really just a suggestion and not one that should be taken seriously by truly good Americans.

Judge Jackson was questioned on her defense of accused 9/11 terrorists at Guantanamo Bay was an indication of her tacit support for terrorists. Somehow Senator Grassley seemed to forget that Judge Jackson was working in the federal public defender’s office and was assigned to the case – in other words she was doing her job.

But, of course, these Republicans are building a house of cards and lies to provide some gossamer covering for the fact that they are simply not going to vote for a Black woman to be on the Supreme Court unless she is an intellectual of Clarence Thomas.

One can only hope that the Democrats can keep it together along with a few Republicans with some sense of decency so that Judge Jackson will be Justice Jackson in time for the fall term.

No one ever said it was going to be easy.

But no one ever said it was going to be this hard.

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Point of View Columns

In the Matter of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

It has never been seriously suggested that being Black in America was, is or will be easy. It has never been seriously suggested that being a Black woman in America was, is or will be easy. And therefore it cannot be a surprise that the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, one of the most highly qualified nominees in recent history, will be facing serious opposition in the U.S. Senate.

Most of the opposition will, of course, come from the Republicans. But it should be clear that this opposition reflects a certain train of thought, a viral strain really, that exists in America.

This viral strain presupposes the inferiority of Black Americans. When a Black man or woman achieves at a high level that person is seen as being exceptional, out of the ordinary and certainly not representative of the overall talent pool in the Black community. Because, after all, it is not useful, so the thinking goes, to expect exceptional achievement from any Black man, woman or child.

Further, even when a Black woman or Black man does achieve, very often there is an unspoken question mark. Is this person the beneficiary of affirmative action or a lower bar for achievement forgetting the fact that the legacy admissions to elite colleges has been the inheritance of white girls and boys for centuries.

It seems that there is always a reason why the qualifications of a Black woman or a Black man must be questioned – or praised as being exceptional from the perspective of race rather than being exceptional from the perspective of humanity.

As we come to the matter of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, we see that the American racist myopia is still very much with us. The fact that she graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School should make her credentials bullet proof. Instead they represent a bullseye for those who would question her credentials by use of the false lens of affirmative action. The fact that she graduated with honors seems to make no difference to the likes of Ted Cruz and John Kennedy and never will.

That fact never will make a difference because the basic proposition of white supremacy and black inferiority is omnipresent as a virus in the American intellectual bloodstream – and there seems to be no way to immunize the vast portion of this of the American bloodstream. And the virus makes itself known in obvious ways as seen in cases like those involving George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

Less obvious, but arguably more virulent are the way the virus presents itself in corporate America that cannot find even five (5) Black women or Black men to be CEO’s in the Fortune 500, and in the American electorate that can only find three (3) Black people out of one hundred to serve in the United States Senate as you are reading these words.

Now we will watch the members of the United States Senate try to denigrate the qualifications and abilities and experience and expertise of Ketanji Brown Jackson while claiming that they are being fair. It is a baptism of fire that Judge Jackson has experienced before and the good news is that in this case – it is not a fair fight.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will prevail.

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Point of View Columns

My Last Black History Month Speech of 2022

Greetings and thanks to the introduction and to all of you for attending today’s program. It is always a pleasure to join you brothers and sisters during Black History Month.

On this wet and rainy Friday, I am glad to begin this presentation with some truly good news. Today some more Black history has been made. Today, President Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first Black woman to serve as a Supreme Court Justice.

It should be noted that in the 233-year history of the Supreme Court, she will be only the third Black American to serve on the Supreme Court – and that we are still talking and rightfully celebrating Black “firsts” in the third century of this country’s existence is yet another illustration of the racist and supremacist virus that still courses through the veins of this nation.

Of course, during Black History Month we celebrate what has been – but we also have to take to time to observe, assess and consider the present and the future because if we ignore the present and fail to consider the future, then we do so at our own peril.

It should be noted that the origins of Black History Month began with the work of the great Black Historian G. Carter Woodson. The celebration began in February because the birthday of the great Frederick Douglass was in February. And I would like to begin with a quote by Brother Douglass:

There is no Negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have honesty enough, loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough to live up to their constitution.

Over the last six years it would seem that nothing could be worse for Black America than the presidency of one Donald J. Trump. And then came the torrent of sanctioned murders of Black Americans including George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery and so many more (and of course we should remember that Eric Garner was strangled to death by NYPD Officer Pantaleo and there has never been justice for him and his family even though the President and the Attorney General of the United States were Black at the time.

We have seen the birth and the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement and white corporate America has paid lip service to the concept – but institutional change has been elusive at best for Black America.

By every indicia – family income, infant mortality, life expectancy, incarceration rates, poverty levels, education and income deficits – the narrative of this country is that no matter where we live, no matter how much money we make, no matter where we went to school – if you are a Black woman, man or child – we live in a different country than that of our white sisters and brothers.

It would seem that since I first had the honor of joining you 4 years ago – so much has happened. And now so much is about to happen. Since the November 2020 election we have seen the deconstruction of American democracy moving from slow motion to warp speed. And even though American democracy has never been the saving grace of Black America that it should be, its demise simply cannot be a good thing. That is because the successor to American democracy could be very well be an authoritarian America that will certainly not be the friend of any Black woman, man or child.

Since January 1, 2021 19 states have passed 34 laws that make it more difficult to vote and in particular making it more difficult for Black Americans to vote. As you might guess, this is no accident.

Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 – and I realize that many of you gathered today were not even born then and therefore have enjoyed a level of franchise entitlement that never existed for Black people before that year and…. may soon evaporate within the next 36 months.

We have seen the deconstruction of the Republican Party, at one point the party of Reconstruction- seemingly a million years ago, and is now the vehicle for a proto-conservative, authoritarian, neo-fascist, jackbooted and tattooed cadre of shock troops hell-bent on a reconstruction of America that will not resemble anything that has been seen in this country’s history.

We must understand that instead of worrying about how many times Joe Rogan says “nigger” we should be worrying about how many members of Congress and the Senate will no longer consider Black Americans as a legitimate part of their constituency. And once that becomes the case, the remaining guard rails are coming down.

Due to our collective inattention and lack of focus, the Supreme Court now has a 6-3 proto-conservative majority. My sad prediction is that the following rights are on the chopping block and will be eviscerated or eliminated within the next 36 months – abortion rights, universal healthcare, universal voting rights, affirmative action, rights to public accommodations, gender equity, rights of the differently abled, same sex marriage and anything resembling for undocumented immigrants.

And keep in mind that this Court will have this right wing of the right wing majority for at least the next two decades – and that’s why elections do matter.

The American house is on fire. Like many house fires it may not be that noticeable at first – there might be some oily rags in the garage waiting for a moment of ignition or some old and moldy magazines smoldering in the attic and then – conflagration.

In the future we should never look back and say that we had no idea that it could get this bad. We have been warned and we have a choice. As Frederick Douglass said:

Power concedes nothing without demand

The question now is what do you demand? What do we demand?

We can regroup and reorient our focus towards resistance and resilience. We have to realize that our forebears didn’t even have shoes, but they marched to freedom – spiritually and literally.

Anything that we might consider to be freedom today is in jeopardy.

And if we just hope for better times, if we just go about our daily business with the assumption that things really cannot get that much worse, if we cross our fingers and refuse to imagine a more negative scenario than that in which we live, then we dishonor and disrespect everything that Black History Month is supposed to stand for:

-We will dishonor the enslaved mothers and fathers of our people who endured unspeakable horror, somehow holding on to the hope that if not their lives, the lives of their descendants would be better

-We will disregard the historic and epic achievements of Harriet Tubman and Nat Turner and Frederick Douglass on through to Fannie Lou Hamer, Harry T. Moore, Martin Luther King, Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X and so many others whose names we will never know

-and we will disrespect the rich legacy of hope and expectation that has been our inheritance

What can we do? We can invest strategically in that aspect of the political process to which we still have access and demand of our elected officials that every moment of every hour of every day should witness their working with the realization that we are at an existential point in American history and our continued existence is not a given – we don’t have time for political labels or petty partisanship or anything else that does not aim for resistance and resilience

What can we do? We can focus on education, healthcare and community development as if our lives depend on it – because they do.

What can we do? We can immediately stop acting like business as usual is going to yield useful results.

What can we do?

Everything!

We can get more serious about voter registration and, as importantly, voter education and, most importantly voter engagement – in your neighborhood and in your community.

We can learn from the opposition to play the long game – focus on the community boards, the school boards, the state legislators.

We can develop a real agenda that needs to be supported by candidates at every level – local, state and federal– healthcare, housing education, police/criminal justice reform, voting rights, abortion rights – what exactly do you want? You cannot complain that the system isn’t serving your needs if you don’t know what you want, and you don’t know what you need.

What can we do?

Everything!

Now!

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