CNN online recently reported ” According to an average of polls by Gallup, Fox, Monmouth University, Quinnipiac University and the Pew Research Center, about 53% of Americans supported her(Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s) confirmation, with about 26% of Americans opposed. This is good for a +27-point net popularity rating.
If Jackson’s ratings hold up through her likely confirmation, she would be the most popular nominee to be confirmed since John Roberts in 2005. Jackson’s popularity should only help her in the confirmation process.”
White Supremacy is a racist oligarchal dominant ideology which through Eurocentric colonial hegemony has ruled the world for centuries through inventions of notions of White superiority over conquered, oppressed , and exterminated Non-White peoples and their institutions and communities. In being so, White Supremacy is not only a dominating belief system which is embraced by many though not all people of White Eurocentric descent , it is also effectively sustained and reproduced when internalized and embraced by Non-Whites who though systemic victims conform to the value and identity dictates of their White Supremacy perpetrators of their insidious systemic dehumanizing oppression.Such natures, ironies, and paradoxes of White Supremacy has been written about for generations such as by Frederick Douglass, William E. B. DuBois, Franz Fanon, and more contemporary observers.
In many respects, the historic U. S. Senate confirmation hearing of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U S. Supreme Court symbolizes the 21st century deepening cracks in White Supremacy in American dominant political culture and in our general private and public lives as Americans. Neo-antebellum ultra right influenced Republicans and their White nationalist hate lobbies could not sink the superbly prepared savvy Judge or rattle her as, perchance, it would have occurred less than a generation ago and definitely earlier due to the acceptable Jim Crow norms of American elite political culture. Just recall Clearance Thomas ‘ screeching “hi tech lynching” allegation in his 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing . Sure now Associate Justice Thomas got the job but has been tainted in public imagery ever since as being appointed through manipulating elite White male guilt than displaying significant judicial competencies thus being forever viewed ironically by many as what he opposes most: being an affirmative action appointee in the worst pejorative way.
Every one who has taken a first grade Sociology class on the coded languages of racism realize the traditional stereotypes about Black people being soft on crime and approving sexual deviant behavior let alone being overly sexualized creatures, in this case gendered stereotyped prejudices about Black women,are being covertly pedaled by neo-antebellum ultra right Republican Senators during the hearings. It is not working as significantly as hoped for by White nationalists disciples seen by the popularity of Judge Brown Jackson in well respected national polls.
So , the racist ploys advanced by the neo- antebellum ultra right Republican Senators during the confirmation hearings which also included subtle reminders that the Judge is not only interracially married ( forgetting for convenience Associate Justice Thomas is as well and that Associate Justice Barrett has adopted Black children) and that the Judge does not know what a woman is , subtext meaning White women , like the lowly regarded White female Senator from Tennessee define womanhood who had the audacity to imply such gendered sexist racism, are proving to be ineffectual if not backfiring. Instead what we have on full display is just another indicator of White Supremacy in the societal ICU unit dying while refusing to call for a hospice faith leader to administer the final rites.
White Supremacy is in a resistant desperation phase, at times, materialized as condoned violent tactics of the ultra right in Congress, in the Supreme Court and in state governments , and in civil society. It is a crumbling degrading and divisive manner of systemic and insidious racism attempting to spread its filthy now weakening wings through secret as well as reported donors funders to derail the demographic tsunami in electoral politics , in key areas of all education levels , in consumer, legal, and health sectors, and in faith which is sweeping the nation. The dominant elite media exacerbates the massive denial of the inevitable death of White Supremacy through conveying the mass consumer sense that the demographic tsunami is in the mysterious mystical distant future when it is already quite here in so many ways and places.
The problem is it is commonplace for we human beings to internalize and use obsolete knowledge to deal with the present let alone future. So while our ways we use to view racialized issues are stuck in 19th/20th centuries lingo and prejudicial cognitive styles, what we are thinking and saying in our obsolete ways of viewing racialized selves and others are becoming disconnected from what is really happening on the ground in a society experiencing an unprecedented transforming demographic tsunami.
What the Judge Brown Jackson confirmation hearing is symbolizing is its obsolete White Supremacy styles of elite discourse both in positive and negative senses. Such positive ways as President Biden in his well intended though archaic way introducing Judge Brown Jackson as a Black judicial superstar rather than as the most competent on his short list for the job without mentioning her race or gender though making the campaign promise to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. As well, by Senators on both sides of the aisle, especially Democrats, pointing out the truism about how extraordinary Judge Brown Jackson is; well exemplified by Senator Booker’s sermon of joy. Nice and well meaning but without sobering public acknowledgement let alone sensitivity and awareness that such Black and other Non-White accomplished rarity is a historical structural outcome of sustaining inequality expressed in the habitual ways Non-Whites who have competitive extraordinary talents are repressed and ignored or discounted or marginalized enough or just discarded along the way.They never taste the privilege of even reaching for the door knob to enter the doors of White power and privilege circles; especially their most sacred inter sanctuaries.And when a rarefied Black and other wise Non-White does gets to turn the door knob and walks in more often than not they find themselves among White peers they are ten times at least more competent both in interpersonal and analytical skills.
Historically speaking, to provide an illustration of the “over competency ” dilemma Blacks no matter their careers face we can note the pertinent observations of recently deceased Harvard Distinguished Sociologist Charles V.Willie. Namely, Willie astutely claimed that like in any other reputable university, to make it at Harvard as a promoted and tenured Professor, most Whites have had to be just “good enough” not stellar; an observation I certainly noticed while on the Yale faculty and in other prominent American universities and a few abroad. And we see that is the case everywhere else in American society,including the U.S. Supreme Court, merit for Whites means being good enough be it brains, publications, or connections or cash or all the above while for the rest of us it still is being a Moses dividing the Red Sea or a Jesus walking on water be it wearing pants or a skirt.
So racism can have the appearance of good intentions as well as bad as already stated about the circus performance of the confirmation led by neo- antebellum Southern racist Republican Senators stupidly trying to smear the impeccably competent Judge using embarrassingly absurd obsolete ploys and rhetoric of a gradually declining era of standard habitual racial bigotry still embraced by their delusional racist White nationalist ultra right constituencies which includes Gina, wife of Justice Thomas who saw no wrong in doing harm to the credibility of her Black husband in indulging in her White privileged access to the Trump White House to delegitimate the Presidential election of Joe Biden. Both in the Senate and in civil society the delusional ultra right dreaming about making America White Again are putting on a public show of desperation in their ineffectual efforts to derail yet another indication of the demographic tsunami transforming America no matter what they say and do.
With this said another most tragic example of the disjuncture between what used to be and what is as we slip away from being a White Supremacy ruled land is what we Black and otherwise Non-
Whites internalize what we assume we must say and do to make it up some privileged career ladder. We Black Baby-boomers and Xers still think in too many cases like our Depression Generation parents and grandparents we have to be pleasing and appeasing to Whites in an era such butt kissing and apple polishing as well as smiling and joking or even being polite, gracious, and considerate is drifting away . We can and must stand up for our dignity rather than waste our time with appeasement and selling our integrity and identity for a few silver coins tossed our way. We can scheme and get the crown which we just might find is not that golden after all since we sold out to those Whites and other Non-Whites who had mixed feelings or doubts of our capacities since learned in childhood who
now have proof we cannot be trusted since we cave in when convenient and thus have no moral scruples while they do or as what they too lack.
This is to say, if elite circle climbing Black folks
appease rather than stand for decency, honesty, and integrity, especially in this age when we really don’t have to,things will get worse for us once we get the position since during the interview process and before we even start on my way, we have made it clear we can be bent whenever it is convenient for those in power.
We saw this in now UN Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield ,a seasoned Black woman diplomat specializing in Africa. Her Senate confirmation hearing was abysmal with the usual Republican neo-antebellum circus guys especially Senator Ted Cruz eating her for lunch such as forcing her to apologize for a balanced speech she gave on China in Africa at a Black university and to say no when asked if China was doing any good things in Africa. As a senior diplomat, like in the case of other Biden appointees on the hot seat such as,Deb Haaland the first Native American to head up the Department of the Interior, it was tragic she did not use her diplomacy skills not to put herself in such compromised positions, equivalent to begging for the job,which has made her a rubber stamp for the Biden administration in the United Nations at times in need of push back rather than conformity .It has also weakened her negotiating power with China and Russian before and during the Russian-Ukraine conflict.
We saw this also with Judge Brown Jackson promising to recuse herself from the Harvard affirmative case which will deprive potential support colleagues of a crucial vote in a polarized court where supporters probably are outnumbered by their opponents. Certainly Judge Brown Jackson is on the Harvard Board of Trustees, but she could have used her impeccable brilliant interpersonal skills to get around the issue such as stating she could not answer a question of a case before the court as she said when asked questions about her views on abortion cases or about expanding the Supreme Court. Or if pressed, she could have said it would be a matter of conference justices discussion since several had previous Harvard connections and at least one Justice, was a direct beneficiary of affirmative action.Or, she can take a leave of absence from the Harvard Board Board of Trustees once the Harvard admissions case hit the docket– perhaps, this is not my lane.
Nevertheless, how can you claim through your public relations life story that you understand the historical struggle of Black Civil rights and then promise to recuse yourself from participating in a critical affirmative action case? What this does is create a double standard for herself while you don’t see present male Supreme Court justices accused of sexual improprieties or/ and being involved in the Federalist Society recusing themselves in cases with potential conflict of interest perceived or real. One wonders what would have happened in Supreme Court racial and gender civil rights decisions if Associate Justices Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Ginsburg would have recused themselves due to their prior involvements in respectively Black and Women civil rights organizations and movements?
This is to say being polite, patient, gracious, calm, charming, and grateful are all virtues to be embraced and admired as long as they are authentic and do not provide license to emotional abuse. While Senators were expected to ask Judge Brown Jackson tough questions some crossed the line of professionalism and common decency and were just bone headed racist. Rather than smiling and being so calm, there were some responses the Judge should have addressed more sharply and sternly because she could have without jeopardizing her confirmation given her credentials and responding to questions clearly out of line making it clear she would not tolerate inappropriate line crossing which White Supremacists assumed she would just roll over about. That speaks of the era we are now in. Speak up . Stand up when obvious lines of dignity and decency have been crossed because that is the era we are now in; no longer having to sit there and take emotional abuse just because you are Black and want the job. And if we such stand tall embedded in the sort of well documented high competencies and political support Judgw Brown Jackson possess and get punished by not getting the gig,best not go there anyways.
It will take another few Presidential and Congressional elections and changes in leadership in business, media, faith, law, mental health, and all levels of education for us to swing the pendulum in the direction we are already struggling to begin to become due to the nature and dynamics of the demographic tsunami existing and growing among us. Leaders who know how to surf the waves of the tsunami here and coming rather than drowning in them, thus transforming us into the multicultural democracy we have always been and must become more so authentically through effective 21st century restorative justice standards of living and being where mutual dignity , mutual understanding, and mutual respect with unity among all reigns with a new language of love and care for each other we embrace and share.
What we observed last week in the Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court confirmation hearings were the cracks in the sea of White Supremacy with the demographic tsunami flooding away old racist systems without the language and the cognitive awareness or effective policy practices yet to more than symbolically grasp and embrace what is going on thus being paralyzed in the obsession of paranoid fear on all sides.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing demonstrated though through the neo-antebellum clowns Blackburn, Cotton,Cruz, Graham Hawley Senate circus and other grotesque rituals such as the misfortune of racist hate crimes and street violence as indices of White Supremacy resistance to its inevitable decline, we are all getting there, just need the societal restorative justice leadership to lead us and sustain us there. It is surely coming and is here already. Just stay tuned.
Meanwhile, as we say in America, ” back to the ranch. I found the following while browsing Facebook. It is a prayer for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during her U.S. Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearings before the US Senate offered by Father Michael Pflrger:
” For overqualified women who remain calm, friendly,knowledgeable, and professional in front of underqualified men, in your mercy, hear our prayer.”
Amen to all that.