Ms. Memo: This Week in Women's Rights
|
February 2, 2022 |
Right now, we face critical challenges to women's equality, both in the U.S. and around the world—but it can be hard to keep up. In this weekly roundup, find the absolute need-to-know news for feminists.
|
|
BY RAKIM H. D. BROOKS | Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement announcement is not even one week old, yet Republican senators and prominent conservatives are already attacking Biden’s unnamed nominee. Instead of celebrating the president’s historic commitment to picking the nation’s first Black woman justice, conservatives have already made up their minds that Biden’s choice of a Black woman makes her automatically unqualified.
Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker claimed she would be a “beneficiary” of an affirmative action “quota.” Ilya Shapiro, formerly of the Cato Institute, defended his favored male choice over any “lesser [B]lack woman,” adding that the nominee “will always have an asterisk attached” to her name. Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley accused Biden of using a “race/gender litmus test.”
What reactionary conservatives can’t be bothered to ask is: Why hasn’t there been a Black woman Supreme Court justice in the history of the United States?
The answer has little to do with Black women’s qualifications to serve on the highest court in the land. For the first 100 years of our country’s history, women and people of color couldn’t even attend law school. The first female federal judge was only appointed in 1928. The first Black federal judge was only appointed in 1949. The first Black woman federal judge was only appointed in 1966. And by 2020, there had still only ever been eight Black women to serve on the courts of appeals—a traditional prerequisite for a seat on the Supreme Court.
That systematic exclusion of Black women lawyers from the judiciary has clearly conditioned many conservatives to believe that there are no Black women good enough to be a Supreme Court justice. The nation is about to learn just how wrong they are.
Read more |
|
|
Tune in for a new episode of Ms. magazine's podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin on Apple Podcasts + Spotify.
Even before COVID, Americans in all 50 states were facing severe economic struggles, making it difficult to afford rent, mortgage, childcare and basic needs. The pandemic has made economic disparities exponentially worse. So why is a livable minimum wage so important to feminists and labor organizers everywhere? And how can a living wage boost the U.S. economy?
We hope you'll listen, subscribe, rate and review today!
Ms. Magazine
1600 Wilson Boulevard
Suite 801
Arlington, VA 22209
United States
If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please
unsubscribe.