Opinion: Why Black people feel Jackson's 'seat at the table' is ours, too

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Jonathan Capehart

When you’re Black in America, you spend a lot of time counting firsts. The higher the first, the more we marvel (and shake our heads at how long it took to happen). The higher the first, the more the person who achieved it comes to represent how we want the nation to see us.

The latest vessel of our aspirations is Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman confirmed to the Supreme Court and the third Black person ever to sit on its mahogany bench. And, man, did she show up and show out during her first week at work. But the real test — for her and us — comes in all the weeks that now follow.

Jackson spoke up early during Monday’s arguments in a case challenging the Clean Water Act, asking questions before half her colleagues did and within the first 10 minutes. On Tuesday, she took the facile reasoning about laws “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition” that Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. used to help overturn Roe v. Wade and turned it into a sledgehammer against Alabama’s gerrymandered congressional maps.

Jackson’s skillful questioning not only set legal Twitter aglow; it also became another item of pride for African Americans, especially Black women. “I love that Justice Jackson isn’t doing the thing that a lot of Black women are expected to do when we start a new job chock full of white folks which is to be quiet and not make a fuss. To know our place,” journalist Imani Gandy tweeted. “She’s come out SWINGING and I LOVE IT.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/06/jackson-supreme-court-first-arguments-progress/

[calimary]

1. Works for me!

A great day for Black women! A pretty doggone good day for all of us women!

She's so smart and of such keen intellect! I was already impressed, but to hear her in action was a real WOW! moment for me. Sounded like she was saying the things that needed to be said, and asking the questions that needed to be asked. Including follow-up questions! That means she's a VERY careful listener.

[elleng]

2. the more we marvel (and shake our heads at how long it took to happen)

(Sorry, saddens me every time.)

[Hortensis]

3. Of course. So unfortunate that she's starting when RW extremists

have an overwhelming majority locked up, but her beginning suggests she'll keep talking and reminding people of how it's supposed to be. And the electorate's role for good or bad.