I’m a Black woman. The Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings didn’t surprise me.
President Biden’s Supreme Court pick, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, withstood two grueling days of questioning from senators. Today, April 4, 2022, is the day the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on her nomination.
Each candidate for the high court must endure Senate hearings to obtain this prestigious honor. Backgrounds are reviewed, credentials verified, and court rulings scrutinized.
What does that look like for an African American woman of color? To me, as a African American woman and a professional, Jackson’s hearings looked different than they should have and different from hearings for the last Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett.
One of the burdens an African American woman carries is the wisdom to know that no matter how qualified she is, or how much experience she has, she will always have to defend her integrity and more. Jackson was questioned repeatedly about her sentencing in child pornography cases, even though her record on those cases is similar to judges of both parties.
Many Black people watched in horror, including myself, at how she was treated by some senators — highly educated men who clearly know the law but wanted to misconstrue her record for their own agendas.
Yet, no one of color was surprised by the actions of the many senators who questioned her about her sentencing record. We are not surprised that she was repeatedly asked questions that would never have been spoken to a man, let alone a woman not of color.
This happens all too often for women of color. So much so that it becomes all we know. We conform and we learn to deal with the behaviors of others. We find ways to control our voice and embrace tranquility. For we know that if we respond in the way those who are provoking us intend, we will be depicted as a stereotype — a stereotype no African American woman should be confined to.
When African American women aspire to a higher job, everything they have ever done, no matter how long ago, is thoroughly analyzed, even if their experience and resume prove that they are qualified to stand in the shoes of the many before them.
These women are subjected to the same mandates of providing proof, although the evidence of Jackson’s validity is overwhelming. She, like many women of color, has high hopes that all that she has done — her education, position and reputation — has spoken for itself.
Closer to home in North Carolina, African-American journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones received similar treatment last year at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she received her master’s degree.
Hannah-Jones’ predecessors as UNC-CH Knight Chairs received tenure. Despite her stellar qualifications, including a Pulitzer Prize and a prestigious MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship, some university trustees balked at offering Hannah-Jones tenure before eventually doing so in a 9-4 vote. She turned down UNC and took a teaching job at Howard University.
Her treatment reflects our sad reality.
So what does this mean for Judge Jackson? It has been over 400 years since slavery was brought to the colonies and this indeed is a beautiful moment for African American women. We have come a long way, all the way to the first African American woman nominee for the highest court in the land.
For these men to not provide her a fair inquiry for this position, at such a historic time, is disappointing. If only the hearings had reflected the inspiration of the moment.
This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 4:30 AM.