About six years ago, during a presidential debate watched by millions, Candidate Joe Biden promised to nominate a black woman for a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States, sparking a conflagration, one that should have been very predictable.
Two years after Biden became President of the United States, Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement from the Supreme Court, prompting the president to select Ketanji Brown Jackson from a pool of talented black female candidates.
Apoplectic conservative United State Senators who’d approved Brett Kavanaugh, credibly accused of sexually assaulting a woman as a young man, Amy Coney Barrett, a member of a religious cult with hardly any judicial experience, and Neil Gorsuch, credibly accused of plagiarism, accused Biden of shrinking the talent pool since he did not include white men during his search, a foolish point of view since more than 99% of Supreme Court Justices have been white men. In fact, people who criticized Biden for “constricting” the talent pool exhibited ignorance.
Because Biden was expanding the talent pool by picking a black woman, as we’d never had a black female Supreme Court Justice before Biden nominated Ketanji Brown-Jackson in 2022. Furthermore, she was one of the most qualified nominees in the history of the Supreme Court, because she’d received her law degree from Harvard, served as editor of the Harvard Law Review, and had spent decades presiding over cases as a Federal Appellate Court judge in Washington D.C.
And unlike all of the justices that came before her, Mrs. Jackson served as a public defender, which yielded valuable insight into the plight of indigent clients — people without resources to pay for private lawyers — who are often caught up in a justice system that subsists upon their backs. She would have been an exceptional and undeniable candidate regardless of her race, a nonpareil candidate.
Joe Biden found her and nominated her, one of the smartest moves he ever made as a President, because he was rewarding the Democratic base, comprised of millions of American black women who’d voted overwhelmingly for his ascension to the United States Presidency.
Ninety-two percent of black women voted for Joe Biden in 2020, ninety-four percent of black women voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and ninety-six percent of black women voted for Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012. Black women have been the most loyal constituency for the Democratic Party for generations, and President Joe Biden, a student of history, rewarded Black women for their loyalty.
This was a revolutionary policy enacted by President Biden in the early 2020s, because, for multiple centuries, black American women remained at the back of the line, consistently overlooked and neglected while being forced to fight for respect. The importance of black women cannot be overstated, because, in addition to being a reliable block of voters, they have worked tirelessly to ensure that less reliable constituencies pull the lever for Democrats. Therefore, rewarding black women for their herculean efforts should be viewed as an appropriate procedure, but America’s ugly racial past and present complicate this strategy.
Republican presidents have been rewarding white men and women, their most loyal constituencies, with benefits, and no one seems to bat an eye. I’m not saying that rewarding white people for voting the wrong way is a crime, because that is a part of the game, one that has been explicit for years.
During his presidency, Ronald Reagan, renowned as one of the most impactful presidents for many horrible reasons — lowering taxes for the rich, crushing unions, and igniting a war against denizens of the inner cities — declared his intention to nominate a woman for the Supreme Court in the 1980s. He selected a white woman, of course, since most white women, at the behest of their husbands, fathers, and boyfriends, vote for Republicans because they want to occupy the same space as their men, perched atop the societal pyramid where they can wield power. White people are the base of the Republican party, and are rewarded for their loyalty, so people should eschew engaging in blatant hypocrisy when democratic politicians reward their base voters: black women.
Unfortunately, Ketanji Brown Jackson serves on a Supreme Court that is replete with conservatives, thinly veiled reactionaries who are intent on rolling back civil rights provisions, hard-won victories that were achieved in exchange for copious blood spilled by black Americans. Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, avowed espouser of the “colorblind” delusion, the court’s conservative cohort has jettisoned Affirmative Action Programs, removed section 5 (preclearance) of the Voting Rights Act, and appears ready to toss section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the portion that ensures proportional representation in government. Yes, the six conservatives on the Supreme Court seem hell-bent on wiping away any laws that balance the traditionally skewed playing field benefitting white Americans.
As he presided over the latest voting rights case, Brett Kavanaugh, one of the most conservative members of the Supreme Court made his opinion clear: “The authority to conduct race-based redistricting cannot extend indefinitely into the future,” he said as he considered arguments from up on high. Interestingly, those six conservatives gave the green light to ICE (Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement) operatives to “stop and frisk” Americans based on their skin color. In fact, Justice Kavanaugh, through his jaundiced and short-sided opinion, declared that “apparent ethnicity can count as a relevant factor”, when members of the American Gestapo harass black and brown people on the streets. So, which is it? Do these conservatives want their quixotic colorblind society to come into fruition, where everyone can look beyond the race of a person? Or do they want to preserve the historical status quo, where “peace” and “tranquility” are upheld because traditionally marginalized people stay in their place? I’m thinking it is the latter.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, through exquisitely written opinions, has tried to lecture her obtuse conservative co-workers, hoping to dissuade them from subscribing to a misplaced belief in reverse racism. Her pleas have gone unheeded, though, because those six justices remain obstreperous, willful in their denial of the reality that exists for black people.
Reverse Racism is not a thing, because true racism is about much more than simple resentment based on the color of a person’s skin. True racism is a societal construct, created, cultivated, and honed by people in power — rich white Americans — to subjugate groups, denying them opportunities for economic and social advancement. In America, true racism allows a multi-century-long status quo to exist, a pillar upon which white Americans are permanently perched.
Three weeks into my tenure as a middle-school teacher, after being called the “hardest worker he’d ever seen”, the school CEO fired me, falsely citing an inability to master the teaching taxonomies. “I’ve got these kids to look after,” he said imperiously, which cut deep because he seemed to imply that he was protecting the kids from me. So, in addition to my intelligence being openly questioned, I’d lost my teaching career, was subtly accused of being a danger to young kids, and was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement barring me from discussing my experience with the school. I’d worked twice as hard as the white candidates and lost my only means to generate a consistent income, because no other school would hire a recently fired black male teacher, even if the reason for firing was suspicious. That’s real racism.
The recent economic downturn, promulgated by the intentional policies of a racist and psychotic Donald Trump and Elon Musk, presaged a predictable contraction of the black American workforce. The unemployment rate for black Americans, which is historically elevated in comparison with other ethnic groups, is 7.5%, considerably higher than the unemployment rate of white Americans, which is 3.8%. The rate of unemployment for black Americans rises with the passage of each month during the second Trump presidency, while the rate for white Americans remains stagnant, as they are protected from immediate harm.
Eventually, the unemployment will gradually rise for white Americans too, but only after businesses ravage black employees, and their communities by extension, with discriminatory layoffs. Traditionally, black people are the last ones to be let inside and the first ones to be let out, which is why we need policies enacted that protect us from harm.
We need a robust Civil Rights Act, Affirmative Action Programs, and DEI, programs that encourage inclusion, representation, and belonging, because we cannot count on many white people doing the right thing. Through her dissent on the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and v. UNC case, Ketanji Brown Jackson attempted to educate her colleagues about these facts. She was dismissed by the conservative colleagues and chided through a banal concurring opinion authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, the “other” black Supreme Court Justice. Thankfully, Ketanji Brown Jackson forcefully refused Clarence Thomas’s call for silence.
This whole reverse racism hysteria is a byproduct of abject fear, because many white Americans know that their numbers are quickly dwindling. They will be in the minority soon, which makes their teeth chatter as if they were trapped naked in a snowstorm, terrified that the new majority, potentially composed of black Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos, will force white people to embrace tolerance and equality.
Sadly, such a coalition will never come to fruition since a substantial number of Latinos and Asians despise black people. Thus, they eschew a productive relationship with us, choosing to align themselves with white supremacy. It’s why nearly half of Latinos voted for Trump in 2024 and why Asian Americans were a driving force behind jettisoning DEI and Affirmative Action programs. Hence, black Americans, the thirteen percenters, weary embodiments of the American conscience, remain alone. Our relationship with the scriptures prevents us from exacting retribution against others for past wrongs, so we would never exercise real racism against our oppressors if we were in the majority. We just want the opportunity to cultivate a viable existence before we die, one that allows us to live the American dream, a reality for millions that was built on the backs of the black American slaves for centuries.
And yet, some white people recoil as if slapped in the face when we ask for fairness and reparations. Their teeth gnash together when a minuscule number of us matriculate in an elite college or occupy a seat in a boardroom. When we take one step forward, they apply the lash, triggering reprisals against black Americans, thinly veiled psychological violence exacted under the guise of the law.
Reverse racism is a con job, a myth created by the rich and powerful to incite more hatred and engender absolute control. It needs to be called out for what it is: an excuse to oppress.
