It's a big f**ing deal!
Getting your kids to celebrate Ketanji Brown Jackson's place on the court without essentializing
Hi friends!
By the time you read this, hopefully the Senate will have voted to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court of the United States. This is a huge deal. Justice Breyer decided he would step aside, giving Biden his first chance to shape the future of the court. And, for the first time, we will have a Black woman on the court, joining the intellectual and judicial powerhouses of Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. Of course. they’re still outnumbered by conservatives on the court, so these 3 will have a lot to talk about.
What I wanted to write about today was how to express the incredible fact of Judge Jackson taking her place on the court to your kids without it sounding like she was merely chosen for the court because of her skin color. As with a lot of things in politics, it requires allowing two things to be true at once: she is luminously qualified for this position, no matter what measure you are using, and it’s a real shame it’s taken us since 1790 to get around to appointing a Black woman to the court. (If you want to cry, read these interviews with Black women at Harvard reflecting on the importance of the nomination.)
So, here are a few ideas about how to have the conversation:
First, there’s a new Supreme Court Justice! That only happens every few years, so it’s always a huge event worth studying. Supreme Court Justices decide on the most important questions facing the country, so presidents (should) try to pick the most qualified lawyers and judges for the role. And, since SCOTUS judges don’t have to go up for election and don’t have term limits, they might be on the court for the next several decades. So presidents try to choose young judges who can have a lasting impact for the role. Judge Jackson is only 50, so could conceivably be hearing cases until 2050 or longer.
Second, Judge Jackson is awesome! President Biden couldn’t have picked a more qualified candidate for the court. She is the first justice since Thurgood Marshall (who was appointed by LBJ as the first Black justice to the court) to have worked as a public defender, representing poor people accused of crimes. She graduated from Harvard, and then Harvard Law School (even though a guidance counselor told her to set her sights lower). This interesting Washington Post chart shows her route to the court: the only justice to have clerked for the court, served as a public defender, worked at the sentencing commission, and served as a district judge and a Court of Appeals judge. Impressive.
Third, it’s embarrassing and bad for our country that she’s the first Black judge.
If you only listened to the Republican line of questions during confirmation hearings, you’d swear Biden only chose her because of of her race rather than her qualifications. And if you talk to a lot of people of color across the country, you’ll hear that they constantly get this vibe from white people, who imply that skin color, rather than qualifications and skill and intelligence and expertise, is the reason someone got a job/got into a school/was promoted/was nominated to the Supreme Court.
This is of course damaging nonsense. The reality is that, just like Ginger Rodgers had to do everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in heels, so too did Judge Brown become one of the predominant legal minds in America with systemic racism working against her all the way.
The fact is, our country is better when we have the most qualified people in charge, and having nonsense racist blinders about what “qualified” looks and sounds like keeps us from hiring the best people. (I challenge anyone to put the aggressively mediocre Brett Kavanaugh in an intellectual contest with Ketanji Brown Jackson. Affirmative action is that yo-yo falling up to take his place on the court).
So after school today, my kids and I are going to have a little Ketanji party to celebrate our newest Supreme Court Justice, and how great it is for our country that we’ll have someone so brilliant, so thoughtful, with such an amazing record representing us.
You should have one too!