The View is reported by Chad de Guzman, Mariah Espada, and Julia ZorthianTHE VIEW OPENER
The exchange was extraordinary in
its circumstances—Jackson is the irst
Black woman to be nominated to the
Supreme Court—but to Black women
across the country, it was also famil-
iar. An occasion that should have been
a celebration of how far America has
come since slavery ended was instead
a reminder of how far we have to go.
Jackson is in many ways a perfect
Supreme Court candidate. She’s well
educated with a stellar record both
as an attorney and as a judge. There’s
nothing questionable in her personal
life, no indications of ethical laws. In
fact, Senator Lindsey Graham, one of
her most aggressive questioners, voted
to conirm her to her current seat on the
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Jackson
has spent more time on the bench than
Justice Amy Coney Barrett had when
she was nominated, and unlike Justice
Clarence Thomas or Justice Brett Ka-
vanaugh, she has never been accused
of sexual harassment or assault. (Both
men have denied the allegations.)
Yet despite her résumé, Jackson has
faced an onslaught of microaggres-
sions, falsehoods, and demands for
irrelevant information. From Tucker
Carlson’s obsession with her LSAT
score to Cruz’s contention that she
must answer questions about the work
of another Black scholar because she’s
on the board of a school where his
book is taught, the attacks have not
been your typical partisan fare. Sena-
tor Marsha Blackburn, for instance,
insisted that Jackson’s support of the
1619 Project, an efort to center our
national narrative around slavery and
its legacy, means she wants to teach
kids that America is a fundamentally
racist country. Meanwhile, other Sena-
tors pressed Jackson on her sentenc-
ing of sex ofenders, suggesting this
Black woman would be soft on crime
and maybe even put children at risk.
IT WAS MADDENING to watch, yet I
know that Jackson cannot express her
frustrations outwardly. She’s going to
be expected to eat this indignity with
a smile and never speak of it publicly.
She knows, as does any Black woman
in America, that if she gets upset or
displays anger, she will be labeled
an Angry Black Woman and all her
Jackson takes questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 23credentials and hard work won’t matter.
Too many Americans have been
conditioned to expect Black women to
be less than them. This includes poli-
ticians who are supposed to represent
everyone. They expect Black women
to work hard, but not be too success-
ful or to acknowledge what they’ve
overcome in their pursuit of success.
It’s a view that harks back to Mammy,
the stereotype of a happily disenfran-
chised Black woman devoted to car-
ing for the family that enslaved her,
no matter the personal cost, and to
Jim Crow–era etiquette, which pre-
scribed that Black people refrain from
showing much emotion in public, and
it’s still present in workplaces today.
Black women are efectively ex-
pected to ill two roles at work: the
one they were hired to do, and making
their co-workers comfortable, at their
own expense. It’s not enough to be
educated, accomplished, and profes-
sional. To navigate the obstacles cre-
ated by racist stereotypes, they must
also hide their emotions. They cannot
be too talented or assertive, lest they
be seen as a threat. Like Jackson, they
must persevere in a no-win situation.
Politics will be held up as an excuse
for the atrocious behaviors at these
hearings, but one of the reasons so
many Republican Senators turned to
this toolbox of bigotry is they knowthere will be no consequences. Many
of their constituents will laud this be-
havior, and even those who don’t are
likely to celebrate Jackson’s strength
and never consider what these hear-
ings have cost her emotionally.
There is a saying in the Black Amer-
ican community that we must work
twice as hard to get half as far. What
we do not often say out loud is that for
those of us who reach great heights,
we have not only worked twice as
hard, but we have also been hurt twice
as much, and probably more. For Jack-
son to reach this place, she has had to
weather a lifetime of this treatment
and not let it stop her.
Pundits will continue to try to de-
humanize her, despite having no idea
what it feels like to walk this singular
path to the highest court in the land
as a Black woman. She is the irst, she
will not be the last, and as with all
trailblazers, her impact will be seen
in the Black girls and women who too
will learn to share their feelings in pri-
vate and present a calm, composed
face in public. Senator Cory Booker
told her, “It is so good to see you here.”
And it was. I just wish she were given
the welcome she deserves.Kendall is the author of Hood
Feminism: Notes From the Women
That a Movement ForgotSUSAN WALSH—AP