Federal Judges, Minority Issues, Racism, SCOTUS, Supreme Court

The Supreme Court Rules Over Black People, It Doesn't See Or Listen To Them

Supreme Court oral argument might be the least welcoming place to black people in the entire country...

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At what point do the Supreme Court’s views on racial equality and tolerance become entirely illegitimate?

At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the only black people the nine justices know are characters they’ve seen in Tyler Perry movies. Sorry… characters the justices have seen in previews for Tyler Perry movies.

The Huffington Post has a damning report on the number of minorities who have even had the opportunity to argue in front of the Supreme Court this Term. It’s embarrassing. But in a couple of days or weeks, these nine people are going to presume to tell me whether or not we’ve achieved enough racial equality to do away with affirmative action and the Voting Rights Act?

It’s unbelievable. It’s unbelievable that these nine people think there is any person of color who should respect them worth a damn…

Here are the shameful stats from the Huffington Post:

In roughly 75 hours of arguments at the Supreme Court since October, only one African-American lawyer appeared before the justices, and for just over 11 minutes.

The numbers were marginally better for Hispanic lawyers. Four of them argued for a total of 1 hour, 45 minutes.

Women were better represented, accounting for just over 17 percent of the arguments before the justices.

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The Court, with one whole black guy, an actual Latino, and three women, is more diverse than the people arguing before them. And I don’t think many people would look at the Court as a paragon of racial and ethnic diversity.

A group of predominately white people sit around all day listening to a group of people who are almost exclusively white males and come up with decisions that affect all of us. I understand that not every panel of judgment can be as balanced as The Voice, but Jesus Christ.

And yet it is this group of people, this white-bred echo chamber, who will presume to tell us “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race.” Wonderful. It’ll be like Roger Sterling starting a boxing clinic for disaffected youths on The Wire.

Can you imagine the outrage white people would feel if this happened to them? Can you imagine if the education of white children were determined by a slam-dunk competition? Can you imagine what would happen if Amateur Night at the Apollo was how we decided farm subsidies?

‘Cause that’s what the Supreme Court bar is when it comes to meaningful diversity, it’s freaking amateur hour. The Supreme Court of the United States only had to listen to a black person for eleven minutes this Term, plus however many seconds Clarence the deaf-mute Thomas joked with his colleagues about Yale. It’s freaking pathetic. Judge Judy isn’t just more trustworthy than the Supreme Court, she’s a more legitimate arbiter of justice than this bunch.

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But, no, please, let’s all wait to hear what Anthony Kennedy thinks about racial diversity in college admissions. I’m sure his opinion will be totally informed and not stupidly myopic in every way. And I just can’t wait until all these nice white people declare racism over in the former Confederacy. That’ll ring totally true.

U.S. Supreme Court Justices Have Only Been Addressed By One African-American Lawyer All Term [Huffington Post]

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