Opinion by Michele L. Norris: Judge Jackson’s long journey to the court — and ours
They argue that we should not dwell on all that old-timey stuff like chains and shackles, dogs and hoses, or white hoods and black bodies swinging from trees. Well, to understand and fully appreciate the progress we’ve made, you need more than a passing understanding of the dark places Americans dwelled within the sanction of law to keep bodies in bondage, to keep people oppressed, to keep human beings in a subjugated state that mocks the core tenets of our Constitution.
And if you understand that history, you can quickly and clearly see how the waves of disrespect hurled at Jackson in the past month cut too close to the casual and constant denigration of Black people, and especially Black women, over centuries in this country.She was interrupted. She was called a liar. She was asked about anti-racist textbooks that have little to do with her work on the bench. Her record was distorted. Her accomplishments were belittled.
If you can bring yourself to even glance at our painful racial past, the behavior of some of the senators leaves a particularly foul aftertaste. Sen. Rand Paul Jackson’s confirmation vote for half an hour and eventually cast his vote from the cloakroom, a private meeting space off the Senate floor. Trifling is not a word one likes to apply to lawmakers, but how else do you describe that kind of loutish behavior? Sen. Lindsey O.
for the vote, which meant he could not appear on the Senate floor. He too cast a no vote from the cloakroom.