By Lafe Tolliver, Eq
Guest Column
If you have been remotely following the GOP hue and outcry about President Biden fulfilling a campaign promise in which he would nominate a Black woman to the United States Supreme Court, you will, no doubt, recognize a reoccurring pattern wherein anything that impinges or impacts upon people of color is challenged by them.
In the present case, brain dead Senator Ted Cruz clearly stated that he is now a self-appointed spokesman for Black women when he said that such an appointment would be an insult to all Black women.
At other times and with issues involving Black women and their plight and place in this society, Ted Cruz did not adorn himself with the mantle of being their spokesman but, when it comes to a Black woman possibly exercising sweeping judicial power, Ted Cruz gets all worked up and wants to rally for all of the other Black women who have been excluded from consideration!
I know, I know…it is a cruel joke at best that Ted Cruz even remotely has one wit of care for Black women, but this moment was his time to shine his credentials in trying to outdo Trump by being a moron parading around as an intelligent elected official.
Of course, other GOP comments were the typical shrill remarks about a person being the beneficiary of affirmative action or such a chosen Black women would be a “lesser Black person.”
Of course, the GOP and the country at large has had no problems with the nigh all-white male history of domination on the highest court in the land. For white males, such a place of power and privilege is seen as their birth right due to white skin privileges, but to allow a Black woman to sit on the highest court in the land, well, that just sets them off with chattering a lot of gibberish.
The GOP continues to demean and diminish the Black woman as being intellectually inferior and is utterly incapable of telling the difference between a law book and a J. Crew catalog…such was the commentary from Louisiana senator, John Kennedy.
When it is time for the confirmation hearings by the Senate of the Black woman nominee, it will be telling to the watching public as to whether she receives the same cordial and laudatory treatment that was accorded Amy Coney Barrett, the most recent white Supreme Court pick.
White America has never embraced the Black woman as being an intellectual equal but their viewpoint of her has been soiled by concocted imagery of her being a welfare queen or a wanton sexpot or the Butterfly McQueen (Gone With The Wind) image of a loyal mammy.
Of course, those GOP haters would not debate a Black woman on such an issue and much less any of the proposed picks that Biden has in mind. Simply to say that any one of those possible contenders would run intellectual circles around their GOP detractors but since those intellectual bullies speak from the protected air of the congressional halls, they are not concerned with backing up their Neanderthal statements.
Why is it that none of those carping GOP haters ever questioned why the court has been packed with white males since its inception to current date and much less the lower federal district and appellate courts?
Did you ever see any of the GOP membership (or Democrats for that matter) champion the cause of a Black woman on the court? Of course not. Seeing a Black woman as a person and as a person of value who could hold their own on the court was never a consideration for white America.
The dynamics of a Black woman on the court would inject viewpoints into the legal arguments that they would probably never would have considered and which they are not accustomed to hearing or debating. Much less giving a response to a Black woman colleague if they are challenged were they to advance a legal position that is meritless or has no value or relevance to the average working American.
An interesting dynamic on the Supreme Court will be when the Black woman justice engages with Uncle Tom Clarence Thomas. I can imagine the angst of Thomas when he must deal with a Black woman, and he cannot hide from her stares or commentary were he to act as a court jester for the other court members or his wife who is allied with right wing conservative causes.
Ain’t nuthin’ like a Black woman who knows her stuff and calmly and icily puts an Uncle Thomas in his place. Would pay some serious bitcoin to see those encounters with Clarence rolling his eyes when the Black woman jurist checks his foolishness at the door and tells him,
“No, no…we are not going there on that issue and here are the reasons why.”
So, a word to Clarence Thomas, get ready to show your stuff or get out of the way!
The avenging spirit of Anita Hill will quicken the air in those supposedly hallowed chambers if and when Clarence tries to “downplay” or brush off the Black woman jurist.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com