When I speak, many of you stop listening because of the color of my skin. Period. I read the comments…. “All Black all the time Lynne Hayes-Freeland” …. or the ones that really make me laugh….” Lynne Hates Freedom” …” Always bringing up race”.
Yet more often than not I am talking about fairness, representation, leveling the playing field, which seems to tap into others obsession with race. Not mine!
The current conversation about the Supreme Court is a perfect example. In the history of the Court, there have been 114 Supreme Court Justices, 108 have been White men.
There have been two Black men.
One woman of Latin origin.
Whether you like it or not…. that make up for the highest court in the land is not representative of the United States of America.
People want to respond, “it should be about the most qualified nominee, best person for the job, blah blah blah”.
But guess what, if you aren’t even being considered for the job, who would even know if you ARE qualified if not or more so qualified than other nominees.
If the door is NEVER opened, you don’t get to walk through.
And why would any of us want a Supreme Court that doesn’t reflect ALL of us…. unless of course, there are some deep-rooted issues related to race and gender that are your issues. Not mine.
This growing debate isn’t about qualifications. It’s not even about identity politics or President Biden trying to bring Black voters back before the midterms. And it certainly isn’t about Black Lynne Hayes-Freeland being Black again.
It is about fairness. It is about representation and maybe most importantly it is about time!