by J. Pharoah Doss, For New Pittsburgh Courier
A minor controversy ensued after the 2022 Critics Choice Awards over remarks directed at superstar tennis players Venus and Serena Williams. The Williams sisters were in attendance because their biopic King Richard was nominated for best picture. New Zealand film director Jane Campion won for best director.
During Campion’s acceptance speech, she acknowledged the male directors she beat for best picture. Then said, “Serena and Venus, you are such marvels. However, you do not play against the guys like I do.”
Since actresses have complained about pay disparities for decades, it’s not hard to believe that women behind the camera have their own difficulties. In 2018 Glamour (the women’s magazine) complained about the constant lack of female best director honorees at the Critics’ Choice Awards.
Industry insiders knew what Campion meant, and the Williams sisters weren’t bothered. However, a grave offense was taken on behalf of Venus and Serena.
“The offended”—people who weren’t hurt but derive pleasure from knocking “the privileged” off their pedestal—felt Campion “whitewashed the racism/misogyny/elitism” the Williams sisters endured playing professional tennis. Their harsh criticism led to a swift apology from Campion.
But the kicker was when White screenwriter Holly Sorensen said, “We all know what Jane Campion has done and how unbelievably sexist Hollywood still is. But if Jane Campion won ten Oscars, it would still be wrong. She can’t compute what being Black in this culture is like.”
The interesting part is no one was offended by Sorensen’s comment.
“The offended” argued Campion didn’t need to put Venus and Serena down to praise herself, but if that logic is sound, it should also apply to Sorensen. She didn’t have to imply that being Black in this culture was an existential nightmare in order to put a peer’s privilege in check.
Sorensen wasn’t defending the Williams sisters because of their greatness, she defended them because she pitied their blackness, but since her pity was used in defense of the “underprivileged”, it was tolerated for “the greater good”.
President Biden was given the same leeway for his Supreme Court nomination.
After Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement, President Joe Biden declared, “I’ve made no decision except one: The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience, and integrity.”
The President didn’t need to continue.
That was all the public expected. The public knew the conservatives held the majority on the Supreme Court, and it was imperative for President Biden to nominate the most gifted legal mind to contend with the ideological imbalance.
President Biden should have nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson for the imperative reason alone which would have indicated she was the best of all possibilities, and the historical fact that she was the first Black woman to be nominated for the highest court would still have been a great moment for the country but happenstance.
Unfortunately, President Biden didn’t do this. He destroyed the authenticity of the historical moment by stating his nomination “will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It’s long overdue, in my view.”
But there’s a lot more to the President’s view.
Shelby Steele once wrote, “Liberal paternalism gave rise to a new kind of White supremacy by making White liberals the driving force behind social change, which cast them as morally superior to non-liberals.” The President viewed the nomination as a moral opportunity to make up for historical injustices inflicted on Black Americans, which made Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination symbolic instead of substantive. The President’s view also took the significance off of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s individuality and placed it completely on her double minority status.
More importantly, the nomination was his accomplishment, not hers.
The left doesn’t believe in progress unless they give it permission. This is wrong, but it’s tolerated for “the greater good”.
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