This Just In – there’s something about strong women that kind of freaks some people out.
There is much history still to be written about the impact that Mary Todd Lincoln had on her husband’s prosecution of the American Civil War. She is commonly characterized as a chronically depressed, mentally disturbed person. My own take on that is that her display of grief in the aftermath of her son’s death was perfectly normal.
When FDR openly depended on his more able-bodied wife to travel around the U.S. (and the world) to represent him, it was controversial. It was not yet the expectation that the First Lady would do anything other than smile and pour the tea. Eleanor Roosevelt advised her husband on policy. Outrageous.
Bill Clinton famously handed over his attempt to create a National HealthCare system to his wife, who many (including him) described as “the brains of the outfit.” The effort failed, but Hillary Clinton made it clear to the US Senate that she knew a great deal about politics and the healthcare system.
Now comes Dr. Patrick Jackson, an accomplished surgeon, married to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Judge Jackson will be the next Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, but first, the Republican Senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee found it necessary to brazenly slander her on national television. Repeatedly. Openly.
Defamation (slander in speech, libel in writing) of a public figure must meet the actual malice standard. Without getting into the weeds too much, it means that for someone who is a public figure, you have to not only damage them by saying things that are provably false, you have to KNOW that it’s false and do it anyway.
That’s exactly what happened. The GOP Senators on the Judiciary Committee repeatedly asserted that Judge Jackson was excessively lenient when sentencing people convicted of possessing or distribution child pornography – an abhorrent crime – and that she did so because she is “pro-child pornography.”
Dr. Jackson sat through the hearings (along with his children and in-laws) and listened for three days while these senators, who know these accusations to be false, continued to make every attempt to provoke an outburst by the judge in self-defense. She did not oblige.
Her husband might have had an understandable urge to take some of these people out back and beat the snot out of them, but he did not. Like the husbands previously cited, he probably felt a little sorry for these cheap attempts to poke at his calm and thoughtful wife. After all, in 25 years of marriage he’s certainly argued with her (or tried to) and been crushed by the logic that it was his turn to take out the trash as they had agreed.
No, he didn’t act out. The world was watching.
It wasn’t, after all, as high stakes as Jada Pinkett Smith rolling her eyes at a joke she didn’t like. This, according to husband Will, was too much for him to take. He just had to jump out of his seat and slap Chris Rock, whose hands were behind his back.
That isn’t an act of “defending” anyone and we all know that. Keep watching … the Smiths will soon be seeking to monetize their experience, describing themselves as victims through their life experiences in an effort to salvage Will’s career. Translation: #NotSorry
The Godfather really does explain everything: Take the statue, leave the Academy.
Meanwhile, Judge Jackson, who is (among the public) among the most widely approved nominees for the Court in the modern era (second only to Chief Justice Roberts), will be confirmed this week. This will give us a satisfaction much longer lasting than watching her husband have an outburst. We can leave the fantasy scenarios of what might have been to Saturday Night Live. They served it up pretty good for Brett Kavanaugh.
NC Senator Thom Tillis will vote against Jackson and so will retiring Senator Richard Burr. I’m embarrassed for them, but as Cory Booker said, they cannot take away my joy in watching Judge Jackson teach all of us how judges go about their work. Watching those hearings was a great lesson in the value of an even temperament and the power of great intellect and communication skill.
Photo via AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin.
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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“This will give us a satisfaction much longer lasting than watching her husband have an outburst. ”
Yes! Good Black people do not react to the harm being done to them. They exist as objects in our white centered reality and any response to abuse that’s more than ‘sit and listen’ would cause discomfort to white people and white Jesus knows we can’t have that!