Nobody in the world, nobody in history has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them. Assata Shakur
Billie Holiday’s famous song performed first in 1939 and written by a Jewish teacher from the Bronx who ironically was said to be a member of the Communist Party. It was a shocking metaphor for bodies hanging from trees, the victims of racist lynch mobs in the U.S. in the early decades of the 20th century. It was a poem about racism and hatred. It was what the world saw in the face of Derek Chauvin, with his knee on George Floyd’s neck as Floyd took his last breath, and it has been what the world has heard in the vicious rhetoric and screaming of the GOP Senate Judiciary Committee members making mockery of the confirmation hearings of Ketanji Brown-Jackson, Biden’s nomination for the Supreme Court.
Although she has been the wife of a distinguished and devoted white surgeon for twenty-six years and the mother of two beautiful daughters and has received well-deserved accolades from the American Bar Association and so many others, she might as well have been swinging from a rope on a tree. It has truly been a modern- day lynching. The way ‘they’ see it, she is ‘strange fruit’ and does not belong. We all commend her for her poise, for her grace, for her confidence, for her faith, for her hard work accomplishing so much in the face of such vile, mean-spirited people. ‘They’ are so fearful of the loss of white supremacy ideology and the browning of America, that they would stoop to the lowest degree of pathetic malice.
Political activist, author, and academic scholar, Angela Davis, wrote, “Black women have had to develop a larger vision of our society than perhaps any other group. They have had to understand white men, white women, and black men. And they have had to understand themselves. When black women win victories, it is a boost for virtually every segment of society. The anger of white people post slavery and well beyond, comes from a place of resentment because of our success in this country and our resilience. We were never expected to make it across the Atlantic, never out of the cotton fields, to the voting booths, to desegregated schools, and into 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue. ‘They’ never accepted that Black America’s success is not a threat, but colorful threads and designs in the fabric of American democracy.”
Rather than celebrating the nominee’s prodigious professional achievements in the field of law, they have resorted to brutal attacks on court expansion, the Sentencing Commission, the 1619 Project, and lawyers who defend detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Because they realize there’s little they can do to prevent her from being confirmed, they are using the hearings to rev up their base and prepare for something much less settled in the midterm election cycle. What such criticism discounted was the fact that Brown-Jackson’s scholarly legal foundation is built on a constitutional requirement to provide representation for those who are unable to provide for their own defense. In a criminal justice system long needing reform, Jackson would be the first justice to have experience as a public defender since Thurgood Marshall 30 years ago.
As a columnist, I always enjoy writing about Friday’s ‘Healing Circle’ presented by “Conversations with Al McFarlane” and co-hosted by Dr. BraVada Garrett Akinsanya, founder and CEO of the African American Child Wellness Institute (AACWI). Dr. B’s master classes encouraging physical and mental health have been such a boast for me personally. Last week’s show was exceptional.
Highly respected and admired psychologist, Dr. Harriet Haynes, the former director of the University of Minnesota’s Student Counseling Services before retiring in 2011, noted that she had watched the nominee answer questions with such great dignity although she could sense Brown-Jackson’s anger as she answered the same irrelevant questions over and over. The questions had nothing to do with the job of upholding justice. “She was writing notes and probably praying, ‘Get me through these personal attacks”. It was the same kind of pain I experienced decades ago. It appeared her brain had switched into resisting oppression, and she would have to focus on her inner resources. I was traumatized watching her, a warrior, a creator, a visionary, and a mother, suffer the unwarranted indignities,” Dr. Haynes said.
“I couldn’t watch anymore, but their inhumanity made me thank God for the spiritual strength of my faith passed down by our ancestors which cannot be taken away. The brazen audacity of these people proves America has not come as far as we thought we had. It also highlights even more how the solution of our continued progress lies within our community,” she said.
The attacks on Judge Jackson were metaphorically reminiscent of Derek Chauvin’s knee on George Floyd’s neck -villainous and murderous. It was like we all wanted to scream, take your knee off this very powerful woman’s neck and let her breathe!
Alicia D. Smith, vice-president and commissioner-at-large for the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board and executive director of the South Minneapolis’ Corcoran Neighborhood Association, and proud mother of two sons, said, “The hearings are hard to watch, and it’s even harder to live in a constant state of siege. It’s like 10 million micro aggressions while 10,000 non-profits haven’t learned how to serve the people in need. We know how to live in a space where you don’t have to like us, but we can work together to make our communities and our city better and less divisive, especially for our children. This conversation, where there are six intelligent, committed, and non-apologetic individuals in meaningful conversations is liberating, and that makes us dangerous.”
Smith said, “I was so proud of President Obama when he did not hesitate to declare that Trayvon Martin could have been his son. That was a bold move for a President. And thank you, Corey Booker, for having Brown Jackson’s back. She is indeed worthy. It’s so sad when young people and millennials ask ‘why do people have to be this way?’ We need to be praying for our survival against Russia and North Korea who are hell-bent on removing the West from the planet. Derail and destroy. That’s their intention, but also the intentions of the white power structure.”
“Our ‘Healing Circle conversations every Friday have synergy, wisdom, and healing, and help us negotiate challenges that must be handled collectively and not in silence, said Dr. Oliver J. Williams, a clinical therapist and professor in social work at the University of Minnesota. “It’s uplifting because Brown-Jackson is there spotlighting the growth and progress Black America has made. Each generation moves a step or two up from the previous; a few more opened doors and a few more cracks in what Professor Mahmoud El-Kati refers to as the destructive forces of the white privilege and supremacy doctrine. The nominee just kept saying, look at the laws and guidelines. Each individual case is taking a person’s life into account.”
Williams applauds the emotions of Senator Booker as a way of ‘telling whiteness off.’ He said “It would be good to have Senator Mitch McConnell answer for his transgressions when he would not allow Merrick Garland to be considered as a qualified nominee for the Court in 2016. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has not been held accountable for his behavior in the January 6th insurrection, and now I would ask, as would others, what will happen to Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginni.”
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) in an interview with Jonathan Karl on ‘This Week’ said “You have a wife of a sitting Supreme Court justice advocating for overturning a legal election to the sitting president’s chief of staff. She also knows this election and these cases are going to come before her husband. This[AMI1] is a textbook case for recusing or removing him from these decisions.”
Klobuchar said the entire integrity of the Court is on the line here and that she is looking to leadership from Chief Justice John Roberts and the rest of the bench to speak out on this issue.
Speaking again of the confirmation hearings, said Shirlynne LaChapelle,“They did everything they could to attack and smear, to enflame her, but Brown-Jackson is hard to discredit, and they know it, They expected her to explode like that label of ‘the angry Black woman’. But what did she do? Checkmate! They looked stupid, like vicious animals in hunt for a piece of fresh meat. They tried to make it appear she was a beneficiary of affirmative action; as if she had not earned her plethora of accomplishments and inspired so many law students. And just a reminder. Clarence Thomas wasn’t fully investigated in the Anita Hill case, either.”
LaChapelle went on to thank Corey Booker, as well, and briefly touch upon the twice impeached failed President. “Don’t think Trump didn’t have a hand in the Ukraine tragedy in an effort to break up NATO. Until George Floyd’s televised execution, and what those of us can tolerate watching in the confirmation hearings, many didn’t want to see raw ugliness at its highest level. With thousands attempting to escape death as Russia continues to bomb hospitals and schools, even in the Ukraine, people of color were not allowed to get on the train.
