Jordan Simpson, a 25-year-old aspiring attorney in Valdosta, Georgia, was excited to see the Senate hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, until Senator Ted Cruz’s line of questions made her feel something else: discouraged.
Judge Jackson’s treatment at the hearing reminded Fentrice Driskell, a Democrat and a Florida state representative, of how white male students interrupted her, and rarely gave her the benefit of the doubt when she was elected to the first black student government of the United States. Harvard. High school.
Andra Gillespie, an Emory University professor who studies race and politics, received a call from her mother, who said the political spectacle had upset her so much that she sought solace in church.
For black women in America, feelings of pride and hope about Justice Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court overlapped with pain and disgust when Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned her this week about critical race theory and gender identity, claiming she was indulgent toward people who are accused of possessing images of child sexual abuse.
Many of the questions from some quarters of the Republican Party stemmed from conspiracy theories and seemed to appeal to the party’s far-right base. And court hearings have often degenerated into political theater that has little to do with the law.
Despite Republican promises of a respectful approach, Judge Jackson, the first black to be nominated to the Supreme Court, had to take in Republicans’ bitterness at the stiff resistance their party’s last few nominees had, the mocking and aggressive tone which some assumed when they questioned her. and their characterization of her as an extremist by race.
During the hearing’s tantalizing exchanges, some black women said they saw the same thinly veiled discrimination they have sometimes experienced in their personal and professional lives. They also recognized Judge Jackson’s response: the same iron-clad perseverance they tried to display by holding tight, even under much less intense public scrutiny.
“Every sigh, every time her jaw clenches, every time her eyebrow raises a certain way,” says Jazzi McGilbert, 33, the owner and founder of Reparations Club, a concept bookstore and creative space in Los Angeles. “Every black woman speaks that language.”
In a dozen interviews, black women across the country recounted the emotional highs of seeing Judge Jackson’s historic appointment and the lows of listening to Republican senators initially pledge to treat her fairly and respectfully.
“When I was on the Senate Judiciary Committee, we didn’t ask as many questions about crime,” said Carol Moseley Braun, who represented Illinois in the Senate from 1993 to 1999 as a Democrat and was the first black woman elected to the chamber. “So why do you choose this woman? Is it because of her color? Because of her race?”
Judge Jackson’s composure inspired many of the women, who said they may not have been able to show the same restraint during days of such aggressive interrogation.
“The way she could sit there, listen and be grilled, interrupted, over and over on things that we know don’t affect what Supreme Court justices do, impressed me so much,” said Lynn Whitfield, 67. , of West Palm Beach, Florida, who has been an attorney for more than 40 years. “We all know that feeling of having to sit there with a smile on your face and be nice.”
That Judge Jackson, 51, was forced to show courtesy or risk further assault for losing her temper, some women found highly unfair.
“Some of those people deserved to be blamed,” said Dr. Gillespie, 44, the Emory professor.
She said she remembered the hearings before Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, whose wrath was castigated by actor Matt Damon on “Saturday Night Live.” (“I’m going to start with an 11,” Mr. Damon’s character said. “I’m going to get it to a 15 very soon.”)
“Brett Kavanaugh was allowed to do that, to show his justified outrage,” continued Dr. Gillespie. “But if Ketanji Brown Jackson had done that, we’d be talking about the angry black woman who is temperamentally unfit.”
Some women avoided watching the hearings live, to keep their distance from the political vitriol they felt was inevitable.
While Judge Jackson was being questioned, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a physics professor and a core faculty member in gender and women’s studies at the University of New Hampshire, was doing “simulations of dark matter and galaxies,” preferring to stay focused on her work as a scientist. and teacher.
“We’re seeing someone in the international spotlight being asked to carry out the hopes and dreams of the entire community,” said Dr. Prescod-Weinstein on Judge Jackson. “We all feel that kind of pressure all the time.”
Nia Jolly, a sophomore law student at the University of Louisville who was recently elected the first black woman to chair her school’s student desk, said she attended only a portion of the hearings to maintain her own well-being.
“To see this woman, who is more than qualified, go through the wringer and have to explain herself in a way that her peers don’t, was blatant,” said Ms Jolly, 25.
One bright moment that touched several women was hearing New Jersey Democrat Senator Cory Booker to Judge Jackson, “You’ve earned this spot. You are worthy.”
Several women also said they were proud to see Judge Jackson’s parents and daughters beaming in the hearing room.
“I’m grateful that Ketanji Brown Jackson is a dark black woman with natural hair — that means something — and that she has her daughter with her in the hearings,” said Melina Abdullah, a professor of Pan-African studies in California. State University, Los Angeles, and co-founder of the city chapter of Black Lives Matter.
But Ms. Driskell, the Florida legislator, said it’s hard not to worry about the country’s long-term future when Supreme Court hearings get so politically charged.
“If America isn’t course-correct as a country, it’s a harbinger of bad things to come,” said Ms. Driskell, 43, a lawyer. “Because the end result will be the undermining of public trust and confidence in the judiciary.”
That’s partly why the Supreme Court needs Judge Jackson, said Denise Lewin Loyd, a childhood friend of Judge Jackson, associate dean and business professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she studies how diversity affects small team performance.
The hearings reminded Dr. Loyd how her own credentials were questioned when she applied for a job in the construction industry in Boston after earning a master’s degree from MIT. The interviewer, a white male, asked her what her average grade had been a student, a question she found baffling after earning an advanced degree from one of the top universities in the country.
“The rarity of you in certain spaces exacerbates this question, ‘How did you get here?'” she said.
It’s just that perspective — of being a black woman, of having been a federal public defender, of serving on the U.S. Sentencing Commission — that Judge Jackson would make an asset to the other judges, said Dr. loyd.
“This will make her add so much value to the court,” she said. “I’m excited.”
