Today, the United States is experiencing a new moment of racial reckoning. A rapidly diversifying population is demanding systemic equity and meaningful access to constitutional freedoms.
This transformation for the better is neither complete nor progressing without resistance. In an historic first, an African American woman, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, has been nominated to the Supreme Court. Her nomination to the highest judicial body of the nation is rightfully seen as a product of the United States’ current moment of racial reckoning. Despite being well-qualified for the position, she has baselessly been accused of incompetence, faced heightened scrutiny and has needlessly been subjected to questions on Critical Race Theory – only because she is a Black woman.
Some within our nation, especially conservative politicians, however, still insist that moments of racial reckoning are a thing of the past and “race no longer matters in the US”.
Of course, regardless of what they may claim for political capital, as the racially charged hounding of Judge Jackson during her confirmation hearing once again laid bare for everyone to see, race does matter in the US – a lot.
– To read the full op-ed on Al Jazeera, click here.
