The right-wing chatter questioning the qualifications of black female nominees for the Supreme Court has already begun. And so has their colorblind and rose-colored distortion of American history and society. They know that for white supremacy to endure, Republican leaders need a few spurious narratives to exist in the minds of white Americans. So, they continue to perpetuate the notions that 1) blacks are inherently under-qualified; 2) that a person’s race doesn’t matter; and 3) that this is an equitable society where every person succeeds based on the merits of a level playing field. These absurd claims are attempts to hide their actual racism while they shamelessly imply that black women lack the mental acuity to be on the Supreme Court.
When I was an educator at the university level, I worked with many white students who found themselves confronted for the first time with the notion of white privilege and racial inequity. They came to the University believing in the existence of a level playing field. As a result, they would get angry and complain that certain people were unfairly given preferential treatment or special programs because they were black or brown. They would argue that the Civil Rights Movement made everything and everyone equal. They believed that it was admirable to be colorblind. However, they soon became confused when their black friend got stopped by the police while driving because the seat belt looked like it was on funny. They were confused as to why their black roommates couldn’t afford to buy pizza or go on that cool weekend getaway. They thought it was odd that the black premed major sitting next to them had never even seen the periodic table, never used a microscope, and had never dissected anything. They had grown up with the mythology that their black and brown peers were experiencing life and school in the same way as them. A few wealthy or sponsored blacks had similar upbringings to them, but the vast majority had not.
The reality is that most of the schools in the U.S. are segregated by race and economics. And those schools are by no means equal. I learned this firsthand when I was a child. Our family moved to a predominately white neighborhood when I was in the 4th-grade and so we attempted to attend the local white elementary school. It was the most magnificent school I had ever seen with these beautiful brick buildings. The classroom was cool and fancy and even the crayons were beautifully pointed and new. This school had a wonderful cafeteria that served hot lunches every day. I was amazed at how clean everything was and being the introvert, I cared little that none of the children bothered to befriend me. However, it took only a week for the school to inform my mother that we were not welcome and that we should attend an elementary school in another neighborhood. We left that school.
At the new school, I recognized the differences immediately. First, missing were the beautiful brick buildings and before me stood those familiar beige bungalows. All the cool stuff was absent including the cafeteria. Here, they had a hot dog day every Thursday. The second thing I noticed was that there was only a handful of black students and even fewer white students. This was a predominately Asian elementary school. For the first time I found myself surrounded by primarily Japanese students who were as interested in me as I was in them. And like me, most of them they cared deeply about school. The competition for the best grades was on and I enjoyed every minute of my competition with Bobby Ichihashi for top student, despite the lack of resources. Today, I consider myself lucky to have been at that school where striving for academic excellence was more important than beautiful buildings and creature comforts. A bonus was learning about the foods, living spaces, contributions, and values of Japanese Americans.
It is treacherous that the history most of the white college students I encountered during my career included a brief recounting of America’s dark discriminatory, exploitative, and predatory history. However, they had also been led to believe that everything magically became equal and equitable in America after Martin Luther King, Jr and the Civil Rights Movement pushed the country to provide equal protection under the law. As a result, many white students initially viewed laws like Affirmative Action as reverse discrimination. Strategically hidden from their view was the survival of inferior segregated schools, an unfair criminal justice system as well as ongoing employment, housing and banking discrimination. These unseen obstacles effectively handicapped black and brown people while they were allowed to progress unimpeded. But white students and arguably white Americans in general don’t know this. Believing the myth of a level playing field makes it easy to blame black people for their continued poverty and high rates of incarceration.
While in graduate school, at both the masters and doctoral levels, I would study the educational achievement gap in great detail after attending my first lecture on the subject in 1997. The speaker was Dr. Richard Ramirez. I then read many academic articles and books on the topic, the most influential book being, “Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s schools” by Jonathan Kozol. I read two of his other books, “Amazing Grace: The lives of children and the conscience of a nation” and “The Shame of the Nation: The restoration of apartheid schooling in America”. Later, I had the opportunity to hear him speak at a conference and had an insightful conversation with him afterwards.
Being in higher education, I’ve had the blessing of reading the works, attending the lectures and then conversing with some of my greatest social justice heroes. But more important that gaining insight from these incredible thinkers is my lived experience as a black woman of a certain age in America. I know what it is like to have to be more than qualified for a job. I also know what it is like to have my qualifications and accomplishments publicly diminished, ignored, stolen, or even hidden. It has happened to me far too many times. While it is personally hurtful, it is also contrived to preserve the false narrative of white supremacy.
Black and brown excellence is a threat to white supremacy. While black and brown people are no more and no less talented nor intelligent than white people, in order to present us as inferior, they work hard to hide the heavy weights they place around our ankles that hinder our progress in the race for economic and political influence. They once wanted white school children to believe that everything became equal after Civil Rights, they now want to wipe out the entire history of slavery, Jim Crow, Japanese Internment, Indian genocide, etc.
The ultimate goal of the white supremacist is to be able to point to people of color and say that their poverty and incarceration and low status in society is a problem of their own making. When I put the pieces together: prohibit abortion, erase history, question black qualifications, over-police, but praise their value as entertainment, I reach the conclusion that none of this is random.
It may be cynical for me to believe that Republican leaders want to force pregnant black women to have babies to impede their educational, career and economic progress while at the same time preserving a flow of cheap labor. If Republicans can erase history, our lack of progress becomes our personal failures rather than the result of exploitation, discrimination and violence against us and leaves the door open for new atrocities. If Republicans question our qualifications, they effectively raise the bar continuing the reality that blacks must be more qualified than whites for the same position. If Republicans over-police. they eliminate competition through incarceration and feed a for-profit prison system. If they praise only our value as entertainment, they not only demean us as existing for white pleasure but limit our prospects for success in other careers. And finally, if they suppress our right to vote, they are free to enact any and all laws that inflict further impede our progress.
As I write this essay today, I am observing the banning of books, the suppression of voting rights, the push for banning abortion, and the public demand that black female nominees for the Supreme Court be far qualified than their white counterparts.