President Joe Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court.
As with all appointments to SCOTUS, Judge Jackson was a purely political appointment. But President Biden took it a step further, putting qualifications secondary to plumbing and skin color. This appointment, the president said in advance, had to be a Black female. No Asians need apply. Forget it if you’re a Coastal Miwok. And for gawd’s sake, don’t even think about it if you’re white man.
So, it is sad to say, Judge Jackson comes to the forefront of American attention with a fair amount of skepticism going against her. Discrimination is ugly and it is the fruit of identity politics.
All that said, I want to highlight Judge Jackson’s comments at her unveiling.
I thought they were pretty damn good and expressed in a way that you don’t hear enough from those on the national stage who too often start their public life by telling us how flawed and crummy the United States is.
So, kudos to Jackson for beginning her journey to nomination like this:
“I must begin these very brief remarks by thanking God for delivering me to this point in my professional journey. My life has been blessed beyolife p A1 n big a.c nd measure and I do know that one can only come this far by faith. Among my many blessings, and indeed the very first, is the fact that I was born in this great country. The United States of America is the greatest beacon of hope and democracy the world has ever known. I was also blessed from my early days to have had a supportive and loving family. My mother and father, who have been married for 54 years, are at their home in Florida right now and I know that they could not be more proud.”
That, ladies and gentlemen, was nice to hear.
SLAVE REPARATIONS
The idea of making amends for American slavery is a hot topic and if California is any indication, it’s going to be wildly contentious.
For example, California’s nine-member slavery reparations task force planned to debate who in the Black community should get paid first. One idea is that those who can prove they are, indeed, direct descendants of slaves would get first priority in payment. Then, everyone else with a claim would be dealt with later.
Calmatters.org reports that “In a sign of just how controversial that decision could be,” it took a 5-4 vote for the nine-member committee just to set the next meeting.
San Diego Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe: “We have to deal with the direct harm that occurred to the enslaved.”
Dr. Cheryl Grills, a psychology professor at Loyola Marymount University, countered: “How will we possibly be setting people up to be left out of reparations because they cannot establish that lineage? We’re going to reduce ourselves yet again to the masters’ tools.”
Masters’ tools?
With that kind of rhetoric, stand by for a wild debate.
WHAT HE SAID
“I continue to adjust my mask and pandemic policies based on the latest data and science” – Gov. Gavin Newsom
WHAT HE MEANT
“I continue to adjust my mask and pandemic policies based on the latest DNC polling, forget the science” – Gov. Gavin Newsom
TRUST IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
I’m not sure the California public school system will ever fully understand how badly it handled the pandemic. That won’t keep voters, however, from making a judgment, and so far that judgment is pretty harsh. Thirty-five percent of the state’s voters gave public schools in their local district a grade of A or B, down from 55% 11 years ago, according to a new poll from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies.
That’s down 55%. Whoa.
ONE MORE THING
– Marin voters would be better off if we ate more vegetables … and elected less of them.
– I was injured in a hide-and-seek game and got admitted to the ICU.
– Need an Ark? I Noah guy.
Thanks for reading, everybody. See you next week. Until then, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority.
(Sherman Frederick is the publisher of Marin’s community newspapers — the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. He is co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
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