Republicans really want racism against white people to be a thing. It's like they think if they can just make that happen, get people to agree white people are just as oppressed and systemically discriminated against as non-white people, they'll get to be assholes with impunity. Or something. Maybe confetti will fall down from the sky and they'll win a brand new microwave.
During an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," GOP Senator Ted Cruz told anchor Bill Hemmer that he thought it should beillegal for Joe Biden to say he planned to put a Black woman on the Supreme Court.
“Democrats today believe in racial discrimination, they're committed to it as a political proposition," Cruz told Hemmer. "I think it is wrong to stand up and say we're going to discriminate, this administration is going to discriminate. What the president said is that only African American women are eligible for this slot. They said that 94 percent of Americans are ineligible."
This is true. In fact, far more than 94 percent of Americans are ineligible to sit on the Supreme Court, by virtue of the fact that lawyers comprise only about 0.36 percent of the population . Sure, technically there are no official rules that SCOTUS judges be judges or even lawyers. Justice James F. Byrnes, who served for one year, from 1941 to 1942, actually did not even graduate from high school, although he did pass the bar. But these days it seems like they usually like you to have some kind of background and ideally a federal judgeship before joining the highest court in the land. That's only about 1,770 people.
Cruz continued, trying to draw a parallel between this situation and actual discrimination based on race.
CRUZ: I think our country has such a troubled history on race, we ought to move past discriminating based on race. The way Biden ought to do it is to say, I’m going to look for the best justice, interview a lot of people. And if he happened to nominate a justice who was an African American woman, great. But, you know what, if Fox News put a posting, we’re looking for a new host for " Fox News Sunday" and we will only hire an African American woman or an Hispanic man or a Native American woman, that would be illegal. Nobody else can do what Joe Biden did. And there’s a reason for that. Racial discrimination is wrong.
People always say this like there's going to be one single, objectively "best qualified" person for any given job. That's usually not the case, and that certainly isn't the case here. Granted, it's not 94 percent of the entire country, but there are many people out there who would be excellent choices. Surely some of those people are Black women.
The fallacy of the "most qualified person" has traditionally resulted in a lot of discriminatory hiring practices, as well as bitterness over attempts to correct for those discriminatory hiring practices. It allows for white men to assume that when they get a job, it's because they're the "most qualified," as opposed to there being several equally qualified people and whoever was in charge of hiring went with them for whatever reason, possibly because they were a white man.
There has never been a Black female judge on the Supreme Court, which is not great considering that the whole reason we have nine judges on the Supreme Court rather than one is specifically because it's important for a variety of perspectives to be considered.
That should actually be a concern for media as well. Diversity isn't just important because it's nice and we want to be fair to everyone. It's important because without it, you end up with blind spots. You end up missing things. This isn't to say all women represent all women or that all Black women represent all Black women. It's just that the more diverse the group is, the more likely you are to cover more bases. It affects which cases are taken by a court and which stories are covered by a media outlet, and these are things that matter. It's not purely decorative.
During the interview, Cruz had the gall to whine that Biden wouldn't pick Merrick Garland for the seat, suggesting they must have told him, "Sorry, you’re the wrong skin color and wrong gender, you’re not eligible to be considered,” and completely ignoring the fact that he and other Republican senators refused to allow Garland a hearing the first time around, despite his being a relatively conservative old white guy.
It's completely disingenuous for him to act as if this would be his obstacle in confirming a Biden judge to the Supreme Court. We all know it's not. He just wants to look like he's actually being "principled" to some degree, while also soothing the bruised feelings of white men who for some reason really want to believe they are victims of racial discrimination.
[ Fox News Sunday ]
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Future Fake News:
In a surprise development, President Biden has changed his mind about appointing a black woman to the Supreme Court.
"Ya know, Jack," said the President, "I got to thinking that I need to appoint someone who appeals to Mr. Average American and that is Ted Cruz. My first thought was that Heidi Cruz would be an ideal candidate but the Senator advised us that his wife, though a lawyer, is too physically repulsive to pass muster with The Master. Another strong possibility was Ron Jeremy, known for his Apollonian looks and ability to self-fellate, both key talents for a potential Justice.
But in the end, I have decided that the Best Possible Candidate is a very large and colorful loogie from Senator Cruz's nose. I am convinced that Justice Booger will be a valuable asset to the Court, being the first bodily effluent to serve on SCOTUS (with the exception of Justice Kavanaugh, of course.)"
The Next Day:
Followers of the Supreme Court nomination drama were shocked to learn that Ted Cruz, in a moment of absent-minded pica, accidentally devoured his own favored nominee.
The nose-treasure in question, described as long, elastic, and largely emerald-colored, was eulogized in Senator Cruz's moving words:
"I sure do like green snot and ham.I really like it Q you am.I like to eat it on a spoon.I like to eat it in Cancun.I like to lick it off a goat,I like to suck it down my throat.I like to eat it spread on Spam,I love, I Iove it Q you am."
A spokesperson for once-and-future president Trump, although unable to comment in any coherent terms on the Supreme Court controversy, verified the personal unattractive qualities of Mrs. Cruz in "terms that cannot be repeated in a family publication."
“…as well as bitterness over attempts to correct for those discriminatory hiring practices.” In any case where a Black man is hired over a bunch of white men, whether it is an attempt to correct historical bias and injustice in hiring practices or not, many of those men will assume that it was an “affirmative action” hire and every one of them will be angry that the Black man took “his” job. It allows for white men to assume that the system is rigged against them and that they are the ones being discriminated against. Case in point? Cancun Cruz and his ilk.