insidebeshivemind

[insidebeshivemind]

Qualified | Feb 1, 2022

Joe Biden is about to nominate his first Supreme Court Justice and he has promised to nominate a black woman; there has never been a black woman on the Supreme Court before. Many Republicans take issue with this promise. They say “you’re going to nominate someone who has traits that have nothing to do with the office. You should instead focus on people’s merit and whoever has the best entire portfolio. You shouldn’t say you will only look at black women because there might be other people who are not black women who may be more qualified for the job.” And to be honest, I don’t think the people who are mad have much of a case for their frustration. Their argument would make sense if Joe Biden was nominating an unqualified black woman instead of a qualified person from another demographic. If Joe Biden was prioritizing race and sex over experience, understanding of the law, and objectivity, I would agree with their uproar. Reality shows us a different picture. 

The Supreme Court is not an office you are nominated for by scoring highest on some kind of test. There is no objectively best candidate; there are a few hundreds of people in this country who are qualified, and the president and his advisors get to decide which qualities amongst those hundreds of people are most important to them–which qualities will give them a candidate they would be proud to present for the bench. Some of those hundreds of qualified candidates are black women: a group of people who have never had their viewpoint represented in the Supreme Court. Limiting his search to black women does not mean overlooking candidates who would be better Justices just because they are not black women; he is already choosing from the very best this country has to offer and narrowing his search. If he did not already have a long list of potential black women at that level of expertise and experience to nominate, then he would not have made that promise. By making this promise he knows that he does not in any way have to sacrifice merit and skill to get this social milestone. He is acknowledging that past priorities for the bench disadvantaged women and black people, and so black women in particular. By limiting his search to only black women he makes sure to ignore those racist and sexist practices we have held in the past and would be likely to continue to hold. 

So much of the Supreme Court has been white men, and being not-white in this country brings a unique perspective the bench has rarely acknowledged. Being a woman in this country brings another unique perspective. So in particular, being a black woman at the intersection of those perspectives brings a dimension of insight the Supreme Court has never seen. Issues of race have never been addressed on the bench from this angle. Neither have issues of sex, or gender, or culture. Neither have issues of labor, or commerce, or immigration. A new judge’s cultural and ethnic background will play a large part in how they see evidence and prioritize findings in debate. It will affect what kinds of cases they decide to hear, and which are not worth the Court’s time. The people who don’t like his decision are more upset that Joe Biden is playing into race and identity politics than they think somebody will be put on the Supreme Court who does not have the career and capability required, because that will not be the case. And they know that.

[insidebeshivemind]

I am a Thinker | January 12, 2023

I am a thinker. I analyze and examine and reconsider and explore every avenue of every problem, and I enjoy doing it. I’m glad to have this information about myself as I grow into the person I want to be. I want to be a communicator of diverse theories, and a synthesizer of complex ideas. I want to show off current research and propose new projects; I want to explore the furthest edges of possibility. I want to talk about policy, and society, and circumstance, and purpose, and everything that could one day be. I want to be inspired by the big ideas and still nitpick their every tiny detail. I don’t know everything there is to know about myself, but I do know this: I am a thinker. So welcome to my thoughts.