Fear
They fear Black excellence.
They fear Black joy.
They fear that with which they have fought to suppress for centuries.
This past week, we once again saw the Republican Party for what it is: a bitter, hateful, resentful group of White men and women hellbent on yelling at clouds.
Because that's all they have.
CRT. Soft on child molesters. Being unable to define someone's anatomy. Being the "wrong" religion.
None of these things have anything to do with the role of a Supreme Court Justice. Instead, they have everything to do with what is scary and unknown that will frighten Republican voters to get out and participate in the coming election.
Over the past week, the world saw what the Biden Administration already knew: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is more than qualified to sit on the nation's highest court. She had previously been confirmed three times. Her record had been made public three times. The ability for Republican senators to delve into her history and her rulings had been available three times. But that was before all the cameras. Before Tom Cotton could send out a fundraising email saying that Judge Jackson was soft on sentencing child molesters. Before Best Supporting Actor nominee Lindsey Graham could storm off in a fit of rage. Before Ted Cruz could bizarrely read LGBT-friendly children's books. Before Marsha Blackburn could tweet about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and claim that was a phrase in the Constitution rather than the Declaration of Independence. Before Josh Hawley could immediately announce he would not be supporting Judge Jackson's confirmation before she had even left the hearing on Thursday. No, those first three hearings included none of those theatrics because they simply didn't occur at a convenient time for Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and the right-wing outrage machine.
Republicans live on grievance politics. It's all they have. They offer no coherent vision for the future of this country. Their policies are based not only on maintaining the status quo but on rolling back the rights earned by women, people of color, and LGBT Americans. They want women to be barefoot and pregnant while maintaining the home. They want people of color to know their place and to live and work in subservient roles. They want LGBT Americans to be neither seen nor heard. For them, Making America Great Again is not an advancement but a regression to a time when White men had unquestionably superiority at home, in the workplace, and in the community. Where good Catholic families attended church each and every Sunday. Where schools taught a history that diminished or, even better, completely removed the accomplishments by people of color. Today's Republican Party would like nothing better than to return the country to a time and place that was great for White America but absolutely terrible for everybody else.
The above image collage terrifies them. As it should. What strong Black women like Ketanji Brown Jackson, Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, and Lauren Underwood represent is both the present and the future. It is a present where women of color are breaking barriers left and right. It is a future where those barriers have been long destroyed and that an entire generation had no idea those had even been barriers in the first place. That is the fear. Knowing that they can no longer ask Supreme Court nominees their thoughts on critical race theory. Knowing that strong women of color will be seen in TV and movie cameo roles. Knowing that a female vice-president can be working to set and reset American diplomatic efforts abroad. Knowing that a brilliant nurse can run for Congress in a swing district and proceed to pass monumental and enduring legislation. What scares Republicans most is that there are more brilliant women of color where these four came from, simply waiting on an opportunity to shine their light to the world.
They also fear the future. That young Black and Brown boys and girls will see more people like them in leadership roles. That LGBT Americans will see openly gay Cabinet members. Not only that they will see them but that they will want to be them. That little Tyrone or Shanita or Humberto or Maribel will aspire to be someone great. Because there is power in hope. That is why it was Barack Obama's clarion call for his 8 years in office. Republicans want to keep an entire segment of the population down. They want people of color to wait in line for 8 hours to vote. They want to force teachers to not teach about slavery and civil rights. They want to demean and degrade transgender youth and college athletes. Because the more frustrated they become, the less likely they are to want to change and rebel against the system. A system and a status quo that Republicans are more than happy to maintain.
But what we're seeing now is a turning point. Black excellence is on full display. This current generation is on the shoulders of the great civil rights activists of the 1960s and 1970s. They are the ones who as children were told of a world where their parents could not be financially independent, could not marry who they loved, could not live where they wanted, and could not get jobs because of their first name. They were the first generation to go to integrated schools. They stood alongside their LGBT peers as they fought for marriage equality. And they proudly and unabashedly cast their vote, twice, for a skinny, biracial man born in Honolulu named Barack Hussein Obama.
Black women felt Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearing. The attitude of arrogant White men and women against her. The condescending remarks. The thinly and not-so-thinly veiled racism. But they also felt Cory Booker coming to her aid as an ally. Because like Black women across the country, Cory Booker understood the assignment. He knew how momentous this day was. He knew that Judge Jackson even being in that room was a terrifying ordeal for the Republican Party. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is simply the latest example of this generation of Black women rising to power. Rising to prominence. Rising to fame. Republicans had no good reason to oppose her nomination except for this: she represents the future. But not just a future of her opinions being handed down from the Supreme Court bench. A future where a person's skin color can no longer be used to exempt them from work that they are most certainly qualified to do.
And it is that future that absolutely terrifies them.
They fear Black joy.
They fear that with which they have fought to suppress for centuries.
This past week, we once again saw the Republican Party for what it is: a bitter, hateful, resentful group of White men and women hellbent on yelling at clouds.
Because that's all they have.
CRT. Soft on child molesters. Being unable to define someone's anatomy. Being the "wrong" religion.
None of these things have anything to do with the role of a Supreme Court Justice. Instead, they have everything to do with what is scary and unknown that will frighten Republican voters to get out and participate in the coming election.
Over the past week, the world saw what the Biden Administration already knew: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is more than qualified to sit on the nation's highest court. She had previously been confirmed three times. Her record had been made public three times. The ability for Republican senators to delve into her history and her rulings had been available three times. But that was before all the cameras. Before Tom Cotton could send out a fundraising email saying that Judge Jackson was soft on sentencing child molesters. Before Best Supporting Actor nominee Lindsey Graham could storm off in a fit of rage. Before Ted Cruz could bizarrely read LGBT-friendly children's books. Before Marsha Blackburn could tweet about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and claim that was a phrase in the Constitution rather than the Declaration of Independence. Before Josh Hawley could immediately announce he would not be supporting Judge Jackson's confirmation before she had even left the hearing on Thursday. No, those first three hearings included none of those theatrics because they simply didn't occur at a convenient time for Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and the right-wing outrage machine.
Republicans live on grievance politics. It's all they have. They offer no coherent vision for the future of this country. Their policies are based not only on maintaining the status quo but on rolling back the rights earned by women, people of color, and LGBT Americans. They want women to be barefoot and pregnant while maintaining the home. They want people of color to know their place and to live and work in subservient roles. They want LGBT Americans to be neither seen nor heard. For them, Making America Great Again is not an advancement but a regression to a time when White men had unquestionably superiority at home, in the workplace, and in the community. Where good Catholic families attended church each and every Sunday. Where schools taught a history that diminished or, even better, completely removed the accomplishments by people of color. Today's Republican Party would like nothing better than to return the country to a time and place that was great for White America but absolutely terrible for everybody else.
The above image collage terrifies them. As it should. What strong Black women like Ketanji Brown Jackson, Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, and Lauren Underwood represent is both the present and the future. It is a present where women of color are breaking barriers left and right. It is a future where those barriers have been long destroyed and that an entire generation had no idea those had even been barriers in the first place. That is the fear. Knowing that they can no longer ask Supreme Court nominees their thoughts on critical race theory. Knowing that strong women of color will be seen in TV and movie cameo roles. Knowing that a female vice-president can be working to set and reset American diplomatic efforts abroad. Knowing that a brilliant nurse can run for Congress in a swing district and proceed to pass monumental and enduring legislation. What scares Republicans most is that there are more brilliant women of color where these four came from, simply waiting on an opportunity to shine their light to the world.
They also fear the future. That young Black and Brown boys and girls will see more people like them in leadership roles. That LGBT Americans will see openly gay Cabinet members. Not only that they will see them but that they will want to be them. That little Tyrone or Shanita or Humberto or Maribel will aspire to be someone great. Because there is power in hope. That is why it was Barack Obama's clarion call for his 8 years in office. Republicans want to keep an entire segment of the population down. They want people of color to wait in line for 8 hours to vote. They want to force teachers to not teach about slavery and civil rights. They want to demean and degrade transgender youth and college athletes. Because the more frustrated they become, the less likely they are to want to change and rebel against the system. A system and a status quo that Republicans are more than happy to maintain.
But what we're seeing now is a turning point. Black excellence is on full display. This current generation is on the shoulders of the great civil rights activists of the 1960s and 1970s. They are the ones who as children were told of a world where their parents could not be financially independent, could not marry who they loved, could not live where they wanted, and could not get jobs because of their first name. They were the first generation to go to integrated schools. They stood alongside their LGBT peers as they fought for marriage equality. And they proudly and unabashedly cast their vote, twice, for a skinny, biracial man born in Honolulu named Barack Hussein Obama.
Black women felt Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearing. The attitude of arrogant White men and women against her. The condescending remarks. The thinly and not-so-thinly veiled racism. But they also felt Cory Booker coming to her aid as an ally. Because like Black women across the country, Cory Booker understood the assignment. He knew how momentous this day was. He knew that Judge Jackson even being in that room was a terrifying ordeal for the Republican Party. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is simply the latest example of this generation of Black women rising to power. Rising to prominence. Rising to fame. Republicans had no good reason to oppose her nomination except for this: she represents the future. But not just a future of her opinions being handed down from the Supreme Court bench. A future where a person's skin color can no longer be used to exempt them from work that they are most certainly qualified to do.
And it is that future that absolutely terrifies them.