'Hard to watch': For Black women, Ketanji Brown Jackson hearing feels all too familiar [View all]

[Demovictory9]

“This is just a master class in how Black women have to be patient — have to be fully composed in responding to things that are meant for destruction,” said Brown, chair of the women’s and gender studies program at Georgetown. “These are the kinds of attacks that Black women get in their professional roles.”

For weeks, Black women supporting Jackson’s nomination awaited her confirmation hearing with a mix of excitement and dread, eager to see history being made, but concerned her critics would play into racist and sexist tropes.


Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee seemed aware of that Monday, taking pains to insist in their opening statements that scrutinizing Jackson’s record was not the same as attacking the first Black woman ever picked for the high court.

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Referring to a children’s book that aims to teach young people about racism, Cruz asked Jackson whether she believes “babies are racist.”

A somber-faced Jackson paused for several seconds, exhaled deeply and appeared to reflect carefully before responding. It was a sigh that resonated with many viewers.

“The sigh. The pause. The double blink. The angle of the head. Volumes spoken before giving the answer,” tweeted Sherrilyn Ifill, a civil rights lawyer and former head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “We understand.”

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-03-23/black-women-ketanji-brown-jackson-hearing