Republican Dr. Ben Carson and other anti-democracy pundits joined forces to blast President Joe Biden for announcing he will replace retiring SCOTUS Justice Stephen Breyer with an equally qualified Black woman. They complain the president is playing “identity politics,” calling his statements abominable, appalling, steroid-laden, and warning it will end in tribal warfare.
However, President Biden, a moderate Democrat, understands the importance of an apolitical Supreme Court. Deciding to nominate a Black woman to succeed Justice Breyer is a tiny step toward creating a balanced judiciary — not identity politics.
“As the final arbiter of the law, the Court is charged with ensuring the American people the promise of equal justice under law and, thereby, also functions as guardian and interpreter of the [U.S.] Constitution,” Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes wrote in an address during his tenure of service to the country. He was an associate justice between 1910-16; the U.S. secretary of state, 1921-25; and the 11th chief justice, from 1930-41.
“Equal justice under the law” is not a reality for Black Americans who are underrepresented at all levels of government by those who remember suffering the adverse effects of systemic racism. Carson knows this reality.
Despite his impoverished childhood, he is a Black man who does not acknowledge that structural racism is a significant and evident problem in this country. Based on his 1990 autobiography, “Gifted Hands,” Carson knows how fortunate he was to rise out of poverty.
His comments about Biden’s supreme court field of candidates angered Twitter users, so much so that he is trending.
- @joeybazzell asks: “Does Ben Carson even know he’s Black?”
- @rexzane1 wrote: “It’s pretty funny that Ben Carson is criticizing Biden for playing “identity politics” when he had no problems with accepting Trump’s appointment as HUD secretary because he fit the demographic profile.”
- @aejohnsonphd asked fellow tweeters if anyone remembers when Carson was somebody you were told to look up to?”
So, how does a man whose childhood was typical of those who are living Black in America forget enough to deny racism’s existence? Perhaps, there is no answer sufficient to explain his avoiding the truth.
Carson lamented that bringing identity politics into the Supreme Court would be “very detrimental to our freedoms” while talking with Vince Coglianese during his eponymous radio show on WMAL in Washington, D.C. “You know this is America,” he added, “Many people fought and gave their lives to bring equality. And now we are reverting back to identity politics.” He warned of Biden’s actions causing more significant division into the country.
His sentiments have been shared by Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. Unfortunately, neither of these men understands there is a difference between the discriminatory versus unbiased promotion of a Black female candidate, as Biden promised he would do the first chance he had after being elected.
If the president chooses Justice Breyer’s replacement based on gender and race, “isn’t Biden’s agenda in and of itself discriminatory?” Hannity also contends that identity politics — eliminating everyone who is not a Black woman — is “not only extremely divisive but likely unconstitutional.”
Then there is Tucker Carlson, the most drama-driven host in the Fox News arena. He predicts that Biden’s use of “identity politics will end in tribal warfare.” Is he referring to the die-hard conspiracists and white supremacists who are already asserting their warring selves in cities across the United States?
“Has anyone noticed,” he wondered aloud: Is it “possible we’ve all marinated for so long in the casual racism of affirmative action that it seems normal now to reduce human beings to their race?”
It seems as though Carson, Hannity, and Carlson misunderstand that the very definition of a two-party system is identity politics. The term they are freely tossing about as an insult is nothing more than spreading misinformation. Identity politics is merely the “tendency for people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics,” according to Oxford Languages.
https://twitter.com/ThatsJustHorace/status/1486892902609522688
Opinion News by Cathy Milne-Ware
Sources:
Fox News: Ben Carson slams Biden for ‘abominable’ identity politics on SCOTUS pick; by Jon Brown
Fox News: Tucker Carlson: Biden’s Supreme Court promise based on identity politics will end in tribal warfare; by Tucker Carlson
Fox News: Hannity: Biden’s promised Black female SCOTUS preference is ‘identity politics on steroids;’ by Graham Colton
Supreme Court of the United States: The Court and Constitutional Interpretation
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First Inset Image Courtesy of Arbeiderpartiet’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Second Inset Image Leslie’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
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