Blinded by the White
“76% of Americans” is trending on Twitter, because of a poll. The suggestion is that by President Biden committing to nominate the first Black woman to our highest court, he is not considering the most qualified candidate. It’s not just an insult to all of the supremely qualified Black candidates for the court today, it whitewashes the history of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court was established on September 24, 1789, and by Article 3 of the Consitution. Something many people don’t know is that there are no specified requirements for candidacy to the court. That being said, of the 115 justices that have served, over 95% have been male, and about the same percentage have been white.
That’s because the default, since the formation of the court, has been white and male. The demographics of a qualified candidate being Black or female meant that they were not even considered until the last 10–20 years. While many notable Black women are hidden in history, we can easily point to women who should have been considered for the court, but never were. From Sojourner Truth, to Ida B Wells, to Pauli Murray, to Shirley Chisolm, there are clear examples of qualified candidates who were never considered, because they were not male and white. In fact, Pauli Murray applied to be a Supreme Court Justice in 1971.
It seems to me that while more than 76% of people believe Biden should seek the most qualified candidate, that same majority of our country would do good to acknowledge how a default of white and male has prevented representation on our courts, and that needs to change.
I applaud Biden’s commitment to correct this, by starting his process with a promise to choose from the many qualified Black women in this country. Changing a generational bias of white and male is difficult, but it must be done if we will ensure that our democracy, and thereby courts, reflect all of our country. I hope Americans will consider that by President Biden doing this, we will end up with the most qualified, as any list containing all races and genders would invariably include Black women. There is every reason a Black woman can and should be at the top.
