Biden's choice for the SC

[cherrypoptart]

"If Biden picked a nominee because of their skin color he's a racist."

True enough but the inverse is also true. Not only does he boast about picking the nominee because of their skin color, he is also at the same time saying that he will absolutely not under any circumstances be considering any Asian Americans for the job.

Biden is racist even by the definition of the woke crowd where it is not racist to discriminate against whites, in fact the only way in their minds to not be racist is to be racist against whites, because we need to get diversity and representation but they fail even at that mathematically on the Supreme Court when it comes to Asian American representation which is and always has been one big round goose egg.

[Wayward Son]

The point of having 9 members is not to have token representatives from all races, it's to have 9 members who are capable of applying the law without regard to race and ethnicity.  Skin color is  not critical for interpreting the law, to imply that it is, is also racist thinking.  I agree that having people of different backgrounds is something that is useful, but skin color is only a poor (and offensive) proxy for the actual relevant characteristics.

While it is true that skin color is not critical for interpreting the law, it is a factor.  Because in this country, people of different skin color and gender have different experiences.  People simply are not treated the same regardless of their skin color.  So in determining the facts of  a case, especially when it deals with society at large, it is helpful to have members of different skin colors and genders.

And while Biden is limiting himself to only black women for this particular pick, I don't see it as being that big a factor.  There are many excellent choices for him to choose from.  And it's not like Supreme Court justices are chosen purely by their judicial qualifications.  Every one of Trumps three picks for the Supreme Court were from the Heritage Foundation lists.  In fact, Trump promised only to choose from that list when he was campaigning.  If it is entirely acceptable to limit the choices for a justice from a highly-conservative organization list, why is it so, so terrible to limit it to a list of a type of candidate that has never been represented in the High Court in it's entire history, and has only been acceptable to consider in the last 50 years or so?  Why has the nation only thought that white males could interpret the law for most of its history? 

Sure, Biden is limiting his choices based on race and gender.  But it's not because he considers any other race to be somehow inferior, which is the real definition of racism.  It's because he wants an representative of that race and gender to finally have a seat at the bench, something that was denied them for over 200 years in this country.

[cherrypoptart]

"But it's not because he considers any other race to be somehow inferior, which is the real definition of racism."
 
Oh my... I'm pretty sure a lot of Asian Americans would disagree about that being the real definition of racism.

If you consider Asian Americans to be superior in terms of academic achievement, lower incarceration rates, higher income, home and business ownership, greater rates of double parent households, better health and longevity, and so on and then you say well I'm not going to hire any Asians for this job and I'm going to racially discriminate against them in college admissions but don't worry as there is no need for concern and it's not racism at all because I'm not doing it because I think they're somehow inferior. It fact, it's exactly the opposite. I'm going to racially discriminate against all of them because as a whole they are doing quite well for themselves and so not only is that not racism but in fact it'd be racist not to racially discriminate even if for example they are actually under-represented such as at the Supreme Court.

[Mynnion]

I wouldn't be surprised if his next pick was an Asian American but who knows.  I would certainly not have an issue with Biden specifically choosing one for the next opening (assuming another opening occurs during his presidency).  As I mentioned earlier Asian Americans represent a significantly smaller demographic in our population than African Americans.  Women have been underrepresented and white males over represented.  We live in a diverse country.  Our SC should mimic the nation it represents.

[cherrypoptart]

"As I mentioned earlier Asian Americans represent a significantly smaller demographic in our population than African Americans."

African Americans make up 14.2 percent of the population and 11.1 percent of the Supreme Court.

Asian Americans make up 5.7 percent of the population and 0.0 percent of the Supreme Court.

[cherrypoptart]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/biden-administration-asks-us-supreme-court-decline-harvard-affirmative-rcna8274

"President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to decline to hear a case against Harvard University challenging the ability of it and other schools to consider race as a factor in student admissions to boost diversity.

... SFFA accuses Harvard of discriminating against Asian-American applicants by engaging in impermissible “racial balancing” to make it easier for Blacks and Hispanics to win admission at the expense of Asian-American applicants."

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I guess it makes sense that Biden wouldn't want an Asian American on the Supreme Court. Having Asian Americans represented could seriously jeopardize Biden's apparent priorities, which are blatantly, starkly anti-Asian American. We talk about a lot of anti-Asian hate on the streets and we can see some of it coming all the way from the highest levels of our government.

[Wayward Son]

"But it's not because he considers any other race to be somehow inferior, which is the real definition of racism."
 
Oh my... I'm pretty sure a lot of Asian Americans would disagree about that being the real definition of racism.

If you consider Asian Americans to be superior in terms of academic achievement, lower incarceration rates, higher income, home and business ownership, greater rates of double parent households, better health and longevity, and so on and then you say well I'm not going to hire any Asians for this job and I'm going to racially discriminate against them in college admissions but don't worry as there is no need for concern and it's not racism at all because I'm not doing it because I think they're somehow inferior. It fact, it's exactly the opposite. I'm going to racially discriminate against all of them because as a whole they are doing quite well for themselves and so not only is that not racism but in fact it'd be racist not to racially discriminate even if for example they are actually under-represented such as at the Supreme Court.

That's an interesting scenario, cherry, but completely made-up, from what I can tell.

Mainly because no one that I know of wants to discriminate against Asians because they are superior.  No one says, "I'm going to racially discriminate against them because as a whole they are doing quite well for themselves."  I have never heard of someone using that reasoning, and I suspect you haven't, either.

Rather, someone would say, "our [business, university, etc.] is becoming too racially homogeneous, and we need more diversity, because our [business, universtiy, etc.] will be better with a variety of views, including those associated with race.  We don't want to have an all-Asian [business, university, etc.] just like we don't want to have an all-White [business, university, etc.].  We would not be as good if that happened."

Now, it may seem to someone who is rejected that they are being discriminated against because they are doing well, but not really.  And usually it is not that harmful, since superior people usually have other job/university prospects that they can get.

But I do agree it would be a good thing to have an Asian on the Supreme Court.  I see no reason Biden would be against such an idea, do you?  Perhaps you should try to get Trump, or whoever the Republican candidate will be, to make that promise come the next election.  It would be nice to see the Republicans make a strong, anti-racist stand like that.

[ScottF]

But I do agree it would be a good thing to have an Asian on the Supreme Court.

Do you have an opinion on what kind of Asian would be best? "Classic" Asian like Chinese, Japanese or Korean? Or something more like Thai or Laos?  It's a pretty big category.

[Wayward Son]

So is Latino.

I would say just about any would be fine.  Probably choose the one who is the best among the candidates.

It's not that we'll ever have a representative of every minority sitting on the courts.  But we want a nice diversity so as to include as many views as possible, in order for the Supreme Court to have a broad perspective.  Not a view that is defined by a single class or race or whatever.  Our nation is too large and diverse to have our laws adjudicated by a single perspective.