“Too Much For Them To Accept”

“For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” (James 1:20)

 By Pastor Rasheed Z. Baaith

Ketanji Brown Jackson is a Black woman of incredible gifts. She has a formidable intellect, possesses deep experience in her chosen profession of law, has the respect and admiration of others in her profession. And included in her background is the established fact of her excelling as a scholar all the days of her educational career.

President Biden has nominated her a seat on the United States Supreme Court. The facts of her life, in particular the color of her skin, her gender and her distinctions in all that she has done are too much for many in congress to bear. They would much have preferred Aunt Jemima. That is the kind of Black woman they can accept.

As a result of what she has achieved, who  and what she is; a cavil, a screaming cacophony of unfathomable noise is coming from those who oppose her nomination. Much more than anything the foundation for this loud verbal diarrhea spilling out is because she is Black and female.

While they may oppose the tenor of her writings, they cannot deny their legal reasoning; while they do not approve of some of her judicial decisions, they cannot deny they are sound arguments or out of the realm of accepted proper legal syllogisms.

There have been 115 Justices selected for the Supreme Court and 5 have been women; while there have been just 2 Black men on that bench since the court began on March 4, 1789. That’s a 233 year history. I think it is overdue for a Sister to sit where no Black woman has ever sat.

All Supreme Court Justices in some way influence their fellow Justices. It is my hope that Ketanji Brown Jackson will do the same. Do it in a manner of having compassion but not baseless sentiment and demonstrating thinking that reflects a well-accepted oeuvre.

I do believe Ketanji Brown Jackson will be confirmed, but I also believe few if any Republicans will vote for her. Including Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Senator in Congress. Like the rest of the Republicans, he finds the accomplishments of Ms. Brown too much to accept. There seems to be too little thought in what he says and does for the Republicans. But that’s a discussion for another day.

Republicans love to misquote or take out of context the words of Dr. King. In particular when Dr. King spoke of judging people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

That’s good emulation but that is all it is. They say those words but they don’t really believe those words. If they did, Republicans would be leading the fight to insure this nomination is confirmed.

With as little bigoted disagreement as they can muster.