This makes me want to vomit
I feel compelled to talk about the utterly horrible decision that came down from the Supreme Court today. Many of us knew it was coming, of course. Still, some of us — including me — had hopes that it WOULDN’T come; perhaps the extreme court would do the right thing for once. They didn’t.
And now Affirmative Action has been struck down. How sad Martin Luther King Junior would be! How utterly shameful of this Court. Of course, the decision was 6-3. Of course. Clarence Thomas has always been against affirmative action. At his confirmation hearing, he spoke about it, saying it can “undermine” the “self-respect” of the people it’s “supposedly helping.”
And last year, Thomas actually said the following when speaking about diversity: “I don’t have a clue what it means.”
Today Thomas read his opinion as some stony-faced Justices, including Ketanji Brown Jackson, looked on. “Their race is not to blame for everything — good or bad — that happens to them,” Thomas read.
And Thomas tore into Justice Jackson, saying, “Justice Jackson supplies the link herself the legacy of slavery and the nature of inherited wealth. This, she claims, locks blacks into a seemingly perpetual interior case. Such a view is irrational.”
I hate the word irrational! That word, along with “hysterical,” does seem exclusively reserved for women. Justice Jackson’s dissent was fierce, strong, and magnificent. She basically ripped Thomas a new one.
Not hiding her disappointment, Jackson criticized her conservative Justices, saying they acted with “let-them-eat-cake obviousness.”
She is correct.
This is a sad day for America, but it is not without hope. The rogue Court is one of the issues that will be prevalent in the 2024 election. I am sick of these patronizing six Justices and their dismissive attitude toward racism. Not anymore, some of them say. No racism to see here! America has overcome! Everyone is treated with respect these days. Liars.
Racism is alive and well and living in America. I wish it wasn’t. Sometimes, seeing the still enormous amount of racism, I feel as if I’m in some sort of nightmare. I fantasize about running down the dream corridor in my mind, and flinging myself into a different America, where everyone loves each other, where racism does not exist. I would so like that.
Unfortunately, that is poppycock. We’ve made strides but have a long way to go. Do you know friends and readers how much racism there is on social media? Do you know how many people I’ve reported — others have reported — people who demonstrate casual and cruel racism daily?
My dream for a pure America, an America where racism doesn’t exist and never has, is not real. What IS real is you. And me. And millions.
We have the power to win elections, to do court expansion, to advocate for good quality Justices, loving Justices who know that all of us — black, brown, white, yellow — all of us should have the pleasure of living as one in the greatest country in the world.
