On RBG and Liberalism
by Stephanie Webb
When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, everyone was up in arms, lamenting that the fate of the country was ruined. Her long legacy of being a supposedly liberal justice and an upstart made several women immediately fret over the strength of Roe v. Wade. Ironically, her death came at the end of a week when a Black nurse named Dawn Wooten blew the whistle on a doctor who was forcibly sterilizing women in ICE detention camps. Some people had just started discussing the acceptability of sterilizing women of color versus the unacceptability of withdrawing the right of White women to abortions. It seems that despite consistent maltreatment towards women of color, the sanctity of the pedestal of White womanhood is to be held sacrosanct, even as White female abuse towards those defined as “other” has begun being revealed or increased. A consistent problem that White women in power have in their interracial collaborations is their need for control on some level, either openly or subtly, and refusing to refrain from their need for supremacy, and Justice Ginsburg is no exception.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s behavior at the hearings for his appointment to the Supreme Court was so distinct that Matt Damon had a repeating cameo appearance on “Saturday Night Live” based on his interpretation of that behavior. This is humorous for many reasons, not least of which includes every Yale graduate’s suppressed urge to shout, “I went to Yale!!” at every job interview. However, his behavior has been ridiculed largely because it is women who are perceived as erratic and emotionally unaccountable for their behavior. In 2011, when Justice Kennedy suggested that Justice Ginsburg retire, she refused, which her followers celebrated as not letting a man tell her when she was finished. In 2014, Justice Ginsburg rhetorically asked, “So tell me who the president could have nominated this spring that you would rather see on the court than me?” Again, her followers rallied behind her, perhaps because Secretary Hillary Clinton was making her presidential plans known. While emotional behavior may not be limited to women, neither is entitled behavior limited to men, and the audacity to presume that there was no one who could have taken her place — especially after the appointments of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — was not a good look.
Because Justice Ginsburg is supposed to be a gold standard of liberalism, it is further disturbing to learn that she never hired Black clerks when she worked for the U.S. Court of Appeals, and only once hired a Black clerk when she was a Supreme Court Justice. Liberalism has come under attack by the left due to its complacency with racial injustice, with Justice Ginsburg stating to the Senate Judiciary Committee, “If you confirm me for this job, my attractiveness to Black candidates is going to improve.” Had anyone been listening, they would have recognize that she was speaking about Black candidates being attracted to her, not her promotion and mentorship of Black clerks. Zany Justice Kavanaugh has already hired a Black woman as a clerk, which speaks to the mentality that many liberal leaders have adopted: Black and brown people are not worthy of speaking or advocating for themselves, so White people must speak for them. Ironically, she is a gold standard of liberalism in that sense, which was indicated in the picture of her former clerks as her body sat in repose.
Perhaps the largest frustration that activists of color have with White women is the obsessive competition with White men for power, one of the prominent markers of the White Supremacy. Justice Ginsburg obviously participated in several notable cases, but very few outcomes consistently uplifted the status of women of color; in fact, many of those outcomes made life more stressful for non-White women. Making sure that women receive the same benefits in estate disputes hardly matters when families of color often have no estates, due to systemic racism. Receiving military spousal benefits would be more significant if there were more officers of color in higher ranks, another consequence of systemic racism. Getting credit cards in the names of women of color has led to consistent financial discrimination and a rise in credit checks, an extreme problem since Black and brown women are constantly paid less — even by White female supervisors. Therefore, most of her prominent cases were more effective in giving equal power between White men and White women, not all women, showing that she was focused on only her experiences, not those of her non-White colleagues.
Justice Ginsburg further made her apathy towards people of color known during the rise of Colin Kaepernick while speaking to another White woman, Katie Couric, who was interviewing Justice Ginsburg to promote My Own Words, written by Justice Ginsburg and two other White women, Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams. Several feminists would applaud themselves over than scenario, due to multiple women in power bringing light to the work of women. The reason for the backlash towards Justice Ginsburg was this: she felt it appropriate to comment on the behavior of a Black man while not allowing a Black president to choose her replacement? Later apologies do not erase the projected apathy, especially since her “apology” only demonstrated regret saying the words in public, not thinking or feeling them. It was clear that despite working for ACLU and her work with non-White clients, she still considered non-White people beneath her. Unguarded moments of disrespect are often more honest than carefully planned responses, and many Black and brown people were grateful to see the truth about an exalted icon revealed.
Justice Ginsburg demonstrated a marked disengagement with the plight of people of color around her because despite her work with the ACLU during the 1970s, the “progress” she was most concerned about was progress for her. As a married White lawyer and professor, she shared no vulnerability with her clients of color, and returned to her life of privilege after serving them. Being a woman did not make her recognize that she should be elevating people other than White people to positions of power, especially with her privilege and ambition to remain on the Supreme Court as long as a White man. “On the Basis of Sex” does not only show her rise to significance; it shows her power-hungry behavior refusing to acknowledge its long-term effects. Being the attorney in an attorney-client relationship is a position of power, and there are almost no mentions of women of color that she consistently worked with, demonstrating that she was more concerned about her image and winning for her sake, not her clients’.
With all interracial engagement, it is crucial to understand that control is an element of the dominant narrative, and does not lead to revolutionary change. Many Black and brown leaders emulated the dominant narrative and made many strides towards intersectional progress. Unfortunately, the dominant narrative — under which White supremacy flourishes — does not allow for anything other than hierarchies, and when hierarchies are established, there is inevitable conflict for control. Shared purpose and principles fly by the wayside when the system is only willing to engage with certain people and mindsets. What would the outcome be of Justice Ginsburg’s career if she had been a lawyer, but a single mother who worked for the ACLU without being a professor at Rutgers? What if she had developed a reputation for hiring men and women of color throughout her judicial career? What if she had cut off Katie Couric with a remark like, “Must be nice to disapprove of someone else’s fight for equality when we’re still working for ours”? After all, several articles have already commented on the notion that Justice Ginsburg had been cured of her radicalism long before being considered for the bench.
Many people are pleading with detractors to remember the legacy of Justice Ginsburg. As a Black woman, I am frequently reminded that it is my job to bolster others and remind them of their greatness, not to aspire to my own, should that have been my aspiration. Instead of considering our legacies, Black and brown women are limited to current affairs; if any were to be asked why they accomplished what they did, their answers would often be simpler than expected. Farm workers do not organize to assure themselves a page of history, but to ensure that they are not deprived of the literal fruits of their labor. Those who lived and died for labor rights did not do so for our educational enrichment, but to create the conditions for our current existence. Black women are barely able to fight for our survival without being the source of everyone’s scorn. Constant focus on a legacy is arrogance that assumes one will receive validation beyond the span of one’s lifetime, rather than focusing on how one’s presence has affected the conditions of others. Many of the ICE detainees might have a very different perspective of Ginsburg’s refusal to step down before the country’s decline into fascism.
If one meditates on historic moments to encapsulate social progress, there were eight years of opportunity for Justice Ginsberg to step down: during the presidency of Barack Hussein Obama. While there is a marked fixation on the denial of Merrick Garland, no one seems to remember that 2016 was but one year of his entire presidency. Of the current Supreme Court Justices, only Justice Clarence Thomas has been on the bench longer than Justice Ginsburg. Liberal feminist objectives had already been secured and protected in decisions past, and she could have taken advantage of the opportunity to let a Black man choose her replacement, especially a Black man who already appointed not just one, but two other female justices to the highest court in the nation. Instead, despite multiple cancers and indications that the nation was headed for decline, she refused to step down unless her replacement was appointed by the only kind of person she considered an equal — another White woman.
Whatever people believed about the possibilities of the current president and Secretary Clinton, it was pure White supremacy to believe that nothing would disturb the supposed picture of perfection that existed. Everyone, including Justice Ginsburg, clung to the notion that the White perception of the presidency and the White control of the system would override the corruption that existed within the system itself. I will be 40 years old in December, and even I had already lived through a presidency that never should have happened but for White supremacy, which was that of George W. Bush. Justice Ginsburg could have retired in grace and maybe even still been alive, like Sandra Day O’Connor, but the power and her legacy was more important than sustaining the integrity of the highest court in the nation. Now an avowed White supremacist will have the opportunity to choose three justices instead of two.
After doing something with or for women of color, most White women have behaved as though we should see them as above reproach; never holding them accountable or offering any criticism. We, however, are expected to endure countless microaggressions and subjugation efforts while reflecting on their “legacy.” In short, we are expected to be treated badly while making White women look good. Women of color no longer have the emotional strength or bandwidth to maintain the fiction of “solidarity in womanhood” when people like Justice Ginsburg continue to do things that oppress us. Often, after being bullied by false allies, we are forced to contend with each other’s demand to maintain that fiction even after being oppressed by White women. In this era, we have no reserves left from the ongoing racial trauma, so we work to heal each other at this point in time.
By the time Justice Ginsburg could have retired under President Obama and retained her legacy intact, she already had a library of achievements, not least of which was teaching at a university that was well-known enough to be embroiled in national controversy over the invasion of privacy and gay rights. There was no place she worked where she had not made a name for herself and exceled beyond expectations. In fact, because of her affirmation of conservative stances while on the Supreme Court, her precious legacy was in danger of being tarnished with her grab for power. Her behavior should serve as a cautionary tale, because at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is what the day looks like for everyone, not just one person. Her position of people of color could be summed up as this: “We’re friends as long as you’re beneath me.”
Because the country is in decline, there is no particular advice I can give since the leadership is unwilling to take direction. Lifetime leadership has meant a dictatorship of White supremacy within Congress and on the Supreme Court; if anyone is interested in reigning in that flaw, that person remains a mystery. Without addressing the underlying causes of this nation’s flaws, any actions taken will be like the purported women’s movement: incomplete, one-sided, and merely changing the face of the abusers. Justice Ginsburg could have had a great legacy if she had understood that; as it stands, her excessive focus on White women means that fascism will simply appoint a White woman to the highest court in the nation. We are all about to find out what that means for everyone, not just people of color.
