Seemingly Oblivious to the Obvious

There is an excellent point US Representative Summer Lee of Pennsylvania makes here. However, as in the tweet below, it will be lost in Lee's racial blindness.

Lee: When Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was up for confirmation or when VP Harris was added to the ticket, they called them DEI hires. They want you to believe that Harvard graduate with over 20 years of experience is not qualified but Fox personality is qualified to run the DOD pic.twitter.com/Q1MTAfS1aK

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 20, 2024

Summer Lee argues

When Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was up for confirmation and when Vice President Harris was added to the ticket, they called them DEI hires. They want you to believe that a Harvard graduate with over 20 years experience- who happens to be a black woman- is not qualified but a Fox News personality is qualified to run the Department of Defense and a WWE executive is qualified to run the Department of Education. 

Let's be real. There is attempt to create a direct correlation between our race, being a black person, and our qualifications so muc to say there is no way to be a black woman, there is no resume that a black person cold have that could qualify them unless that black person is a Republican. And there is a quota there.

So, let's be real.  Of course, Republicans don't believe a black female Democrat is qualified, because she is a Democrat. And as Lee seems to understand, if a black person is a Republican, he or she instantly becomes qualified because he/she is a Republican.

And also to be celebrated as being not a black male. Representative Byron Donalds, a black Floridian who reportedly was on Donald Trump's long list as a running mate, appeared on CNN on Wednesday night defending as to diversity President-elect Trump's choices for his Cabinet. He cited the nominatiosn of Suzie Wiles as Chief of Staff, Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, and Elise Stefanik as Ambassador to the United Nations. There are a few other picks who also are not white males. When a black person is nominated, Republicans will own it like Donald Trump hugs the American flag or Republican honchos chant "USA! USA!" Anything that sells.

They won't admit it but the DEI game is one Republicans can play almost as well as Democrats. It's a grand old tradition for the Grand Old Party, which exploits it effectively. The primary difference is that Republicans usually pretend their quota is not a quota, as when President George HW Bush ludicrously referred to Clarence Thomas as "the best person for this position" of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. By contrast, Democrats typically do little to disabuse voters that a selection has been made for demographic reasons.

In July of 2022, making good on a campaign promise, President Biden stated

While I've been studying candidates' background and writings, I've made no decision except one: the person I nominate will be someone with extraorinary qualifications, character, experience, and integrity- and that person will be the first black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme court. It's long overdue, in my view.

At the time, the percentage of federal judges both female and black was somewhere between 9.5 and 11.8, inclusive. That Biden's selection, of Judge Brown, has proven to be an excellent one is remarkable given that by his specifications, he narrowed the universe of acceptable candidates by approximately 90%.

The short list of running mates being considered by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in July of 2020 included probably five black women and possibly one white woman (Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer). Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, whose influence was influential in anointment of the nominee, had told Biden (probably months earlier) that the selection should be a black woman.

Obviously, that choice did not work out so well. Biden very likely would have won the 2020 election if his running mate were someone else. As vice-president, Harris was the simple, albeit unfortuante, choice as the party's presidential nominee in 2024. She lost an extremely winnable race, lipstick on a pig and all that. 

Of course, Pete Hegseth is not qualified to become Secretary of Defense and Ketanji Brown Jackson was well qualified to be a Supreme Cour justice. And though I had serious doubts that Kamala Harris would have been a good President, she was clearly well qualified for the position. However, both Jackson for the High Court and Harris for the presidence were DEI hires, or there is no such thing as a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness movement. 

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