| Michele Norris watched Joe Biden nominate Ketanji Jackson Brown to the Supreme Court last Friday and was struck both by how unprecedented the moment was — and by the many ways it signaled how far we still have to go. "My first instinct," she wrote, "was to cheer this historic appointment. But what soon followed was an instinct to dream of the moment when the elevation of such a supremely talented person would be more routine than remarkable." Michele was moved by the imaginary limits placed on Judge Jackson — and so many other young people — by the subtle assumptions so many make about "what authority should look and sound like." "I hope to see a world where braids and passion twists or kinky, curly, fuzzy, nappy, 'grow as God gave me' hair styles are as common as side-part, soft-fade, executive haircuts in CEO suites and anywhere people exert influence over life, learning, longevity and the engines of our economies. I hope to see a world where names like Ketanji and Kamala and Kizzmekia roll off the tongue as easily as Ashok, Xiomara or Eun-Woo. A world where more NFL football coaches have names like Kwame and Francisco. A world where college students do not feel like they must Anglicize their names, so their résumés don't go to straight to the piles labeled, 'not ready' or 'not sure' or 'not now.'"  (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) Judge Jackson was not the only young woman told to lower her sights. Audio Article ● By Michele L. Norris ● Read more » | | | | The only democratic superpower needs a similar course correction on defense and security. By Henry Olsen ● Read more » | | | I stopped talking with White people about the racist things that happen to me. It's not worth the frustration. By Brian Broome ● Read more » | | | | Recall where we were on the day Joe Biden took the oath of office. By Eugene Robinson ● Read more » | | | | If he paints his first year as a series of major successes, Biden will fail. And at such a time of international crisis, we cannot afford to have the president fail. By Marc A. Thiessen ● Read more » | | | | Biden has been criticized for tiredness and lack of focus. Time for a reset. By Michael Gerson ● Read more » | | | On Fat Tuesday in Mobile, Ala., the last float depicts a court jester pursuing his skeletal foe around a broken column symbolizing the fragility of life. By Audrey McDonald Atkins ● Read more » | | | | The corporate raider's quixotic animal welfare crusade gets at the problem with billionaire social activism. By Helaine Olen ● Read more » | | | | Greene should be held responsible for what she says, at a neo-Nazi confab or elsewhere. By Catherine Rampell ● Read more » | | | | The State of the Union is an opportunity for him to reframe the economic debate. By Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent ● Read more » | | | | A democratic renaissance. By Jennifer Rubin ● Read more » | | | | They can try to repudiate him or change the subject, but history will not be so easily rewritten. By Paul Waldman ● Read more » | | | |
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