| "It is a glance that every successful African American is familiar with," Gene Robinson writes in his latest column. "It says: I know what you went through to get here. I know the hoops you had to jump through, the hurdles you had to surmount, the obstacles thrown into your path. I know you saw less talented White colleagues rise smoothly and steadily to the top while you had to prove your excellence time and again. I know that you could never let your bosses and colleagues see you get angry, never let them see you sweat." Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) spoke of this glance late on Wednesday, when it was his turn to question Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. It was a glance, Booker said, that he and Vice President Harris had often shared as fellow senators, and more recently when they were in the room as President Biden was trying to decide whom to nominate to the court. They were in the room. That's the thing. In the room after such a long history of oppressive racial discrimination, after "the challenges and indignities" that Booker pointed out are still faced by so many African Americans. Jackson herself, Robinson writes, has had to endure these indignities in extraordinarily public fashion this week, over the course of hearings "rife with racism, sexism, feigned outrage and general ugliness." Booker's embrace of Jackson was an inspiriting contrast, a "moment of such powerful eloquence," Robinson says, "that it brought Jackson, and me, to tears."  (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post) Republican senators have turned these nomination hearings into a grandstand. Sen. Booker refused to let them steal the joy of the occasion. By Eugene Robinson ● Read more » | | | | To win prominence in the modern GOP, just show up with a stout willingness to look foolish in public. By Michael Gerson ● Read more » | | | | Even more evidence that Trump's influence is fading. By Henry Olsen ● Read more » | | | College campuses — particularly law schools — should be places where all ideas and views can be expressed. By Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman ● Read more » | | | | That so many of its students don't understand the First Amendment is a massive admissions failure. By Marc A. Thiessen ● Read more » | | | | Has there ever been a better time to convince people of the need to move away from fossil fuels? By Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent ● Read more » | | | Home budget tweaks aren't going to make a real dent. By Helaine Olen ● Read more » | | | | Welcome skilled workers to the United States, particularly if they have significant economic and national security value to Russia. By Catherine Rampell ● Read more » | | | | They know it won't keep her from getting confirmed. But this is what they think will rile their base. By Paul Waldman ● Read more » | | | |
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