October/November 2018 Your Opinion Matters


Politically Correct, or Perfectly Civil


Kavanaugh’s On The Court Because He’s ‘A Close- Minded Partisan Zealot’


The HBCU Advocate 13


Convention in 2012. Photo by Matt Gagnon


BY DR. JULIANNE MALVEAUX Megyn Kelly giving a standup news report from the floor of the Republican National


At this writing, Megyn Kelly is


off the air at NBC. Aſter her horridly vapid statement saying she didn't see anything wrong with blackface, she apologized the next day and even invited journalist Roland Martin on to take her to school. Roland did a brilliant job in explaining the history of blackface and the way it demeans African American people, and it was great that he had the opportunity to educate, not only his odious host but also the millions who watch Megyn Kelly daily. So Kelly tearfully apologized, and she listened to Roland and television commentator Amy Holmes as they talked about race. But does Kelly "get" why her remarks were so objectionable.


not so sure.


Roland says she does, but I'm She prefaced her apology


by saying that she was not a "pc kind of person."


I'm not sure what that


means, and what is wrong with being "politically correct" if it means being perfectly civil, informed, and mindful of others.


If African American people


say that blackface is offensive, it's not a big deal, Megyn. It's offensive. Whether you know the history or not, if members of a group say something is wrong, why not accept it? Or does your white skin privilege allow you to determine what is offensive and what is not?


Tis is not the first time Ms. Kelly


has put her foot into racial quicksand. Confident in her Aryan-ness, she proclaimed that Santa Clause is white, and so is Jesus. To declare Jesus white, given his geographical roots on the African continent or in the Middle East, is to embrace a special kind of both spatial and historical ignorance.


But


if you are vested in the world being a narrow white Caucasian, then you are free to spew racist myths, or shall we say, "fake news." On the Santa tip, since Santa is not a real person, but a fairy tale figment of someone's imagination Santa's race is subject to the imagination. Kelly seemed to have a problem with a Black Santa. Why? Does a Black Santa offend her lily-white sensibilities? Is she so seeped in whiteness that she can't think outside the box? And did NBC throw the talented Tamron Hall under the bus for that? Speaks to their own racial bias and sense of white superiority!


Kelly has


It is tragic to consider that Megyn three young children who


are undoubtedly being influenced by her warped racial views.


But NBC


may, perhaps, be reconsidering their relationship with Kelly.


It would be a


great loss if she were bounced off the air, though there are some who think she has learned her lesson sufficiently to continue her career. What if, instead of losing her job, she was involved in a "black immersion" experience? What if she had to spend a month in a dormitory at Bennett or Spellman College, spending time with the young Black women she seems not to have taken into consideration heretofore?


What


if her conversation with Roland Martin could be the first of many, and she was directed to spend time with Essence Editor Emerita Susan Taylor, with NNPA Chair Dorothy Leavell, with Jada Pinkett Smith, with Rev. Jesse Jackson, and with others. Might that make a difference for the ill-educated Megyn Kelly? Or maybe she should just read a book or two.


Commission report


Fiſty years aſter the Kerner it


is clear that


there are still two Americas, one Black, and one white. Two Americas, with two different realities, and few bridges to understanding. Tis is why, even in all-white communities, Black history must be taught. Tis is why our textbooks ought to speak, realistically about enslavement, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and lynching. Tis is why we need to bust the myth that lynchings were about sex – Black men lusting aſter white women. Actually, too many lynchings were about economic envy – white men lusting aſter Black people's property. Aſter white vandals destroyed the Greenwood section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, one report actually described the cause of the devastation as "Too Many N---rs Having Too Much Money."


Megyn Kelly is not the only


white person who is ignorant of American history (because the history of Black people really is American history). White ignorance is one of the reasons I look askance at some aspects of the #MeToo movement.


White ignorance is a


choice, especially among adults who can educate themselves and expose themselves to the totality of history. Megyn Kelly chose to expose herself to Roland Martin and Amy Holmes. Too bad she shot off her uninformed mouth before she got educated! Perhaps she will now remove the term "p.c." from her vocabulary unless she happens to mean perfectly civil.


BY REVEREND JESSE JACKSON, SR. Brett Kavanaugh is now a justice


of the Supreme Court. He is there only because he is what he showed himself to be in the Senate hearings: a vicious, partisan operative utterly committed to a right-wing judicial activism that will inevitably lead to a constitutional crisis.


Te Republicans ensured that


there would not be a full investigation of the charges against Kavanaugh, yet Maine Sen. Susan Collins dishonestly called the cribbed FBI investigation comprehensive.


Yet Kavanaugh revealed in the


hearings exactly who he is — and why Trump chose him and Republicans lined up to confirm him, no matter what the evidence. A close-minded partisan zealot, he bizarrely embraced the most fantastical of conspiracy theories, including somehow that all this was revenge hatched by the Clintons. He demonstrated stunning contempt for senators — yet Republican senators, led by Chairman Charles Grassley, no longer have any institutional pride. Te Senate be damned; they are purely into tribal partisan politics.


Tey stuck with Kavanaugh


because they know who he is. He claims to be an “originalist” and “textualist” who only applies the Constitution, but that is simply a threadbare cover. He was vetted and approved by the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation — both dedicated to promoting activist right-wing lawyers who will overturn precedent to serve conservative ends.


Kavanaugh’s ascension to the


court locks in a five-person majority for an extreme activist position. We’ve already seen what the conservative gang of five is prepared to do. Tey ignored unanimous Congressional intent to gut the Voting Rights Act. Tey overturned decades of precedent to empower corporations to pour money into elections. Tey trampled precedent to gut the ability of public employee unions to collect dues from the members they represent.


Te threat Kavanaugh poses to


Roe v. Wade, and a woman’s right to control her own body is clear. Less attention has been paid to his consistent effort to protect corporations from accountability. When faced with a choice between the polluter and the poisoned, Judge Kavanaugh stands with the polluter. When faced with a choice between the boss and the worker, he stands with the boss. When faced with a choice between a predator corporation


and a consumer, he stands with the predator.


Public Citizen did an analysis of


Judge Kavanaugh’s opinions on the U.S. Court of Appeals in cases where the court was divided. Tey found that nearly 9 of 10 times, Kavanaugh ruled against the public interest and for the corporate interest. In 17 cases involving worker rights, he stood with the employers 15 times. In 13 cases on the environment, he was with the polluter 11 times. In 22 cases between corporations and consumers, he stood with the corporations 18 times. On seven cases involving police abuse or human rights, he ruled against the victims in all seven.


In the Senate hearing,


Kavanaugh vowed to have a partisan frame. Blaming Democrats for challenging his nomination, he pledged that “what goes around, comes around.”


Te right wing has consolidated


a majority on the court. It is a gang of five that is increasingly out of step with a society that grows more diverse, more


inclusive, and is


increasingly challenged by corporate corruption, big money politics, obscene inequality and catastrophic climate change. Te gang of five is


likely to stand in fundamental reforms vital


the way of to this


country. Te only thing that can save


Democracy is the democracy. Even the Supreme Court responds to election returns. If Trump Republicans remain in control of the Congress and the White House, the gang of five will be emboldened. If voters rebuke them at the polls — if they elect progressive majorities focused on the changes we need — the gang of five will be more cautious.


Judge Kavanaugh is probably


impervious to the will of the people, too bitter, too ideological, too zealous to be reached. But Chief Justice John Roberts and perhaps Neil Gorsuch may understand that their own legacy and the court’s legitimacy will be at risk if they try to defend the rich and corporations from a people demanding justice. Our task is clear. Don’t mourn, organize.


With this appointment, the


Senate has traduced its reputation and abandoned its responsibilities. Now it is time for the people to speak.


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