Look at the framing: “should Biden look at all qualified people for the bench or should he follow through on his promise to name a black woman. ” In other words, it’s unlikely he could find a black woman qualified enough for the High Court if he follows through on his promise.
I don’t recall any poll questions asking if Trump should name judges drawn up from the list of right wing tools provided to him by the Federalist Society, do you? Or if he should pick two Catholic judges? Or if he should “follow through” on his promise to pick a (white) woman — and then picked one who had never tried a case or made an argument before a court anywhere? He just did it and everyone shrugged.
By now you know that presidents of both parties have been choosing judges partly on the basis of diversity for many, many decades, whether it was religion, region or experience. Until recently, they were all white men, of course, which I guess makes it ok. And once a Republican (Reagan, who made the promise during his campaign as well) put a white woman on the court that became ok as well.
Justice Sotomayor got a boatload of grief, similar to what’s going on currently, so the real problem is choosing a racial or ethnic minority woman for the bench. Why else are they polling this question in this way? What’s the point of it? Just to demean the eventual nominee a “lesser black woman” as the right winger Ilya Shapiro said (and who has since because a right wing martyr for being criticized for his comments.)
This is one of the most blatant examples of a racist double standard I’ve seen in many years. In fact, I admit that I didn’t expect them to be so obvious about it in this day and age. My bad. I should never overestimate their decency.
Update: