Why are rightwingers so opposed to a Black woman supreme court nominee? | Thomas Zimmer

The right's alarmed reaction to Biden's pledge to nominate a Black woman to the supreme court reveals the conservative siege mentality

When Joe Biden publicly pledged to nominate a Black woman to the US supreme court, conservative politicians, activists, and intellectuals certainly didn't try to hide their disdain. The announcement was offensive," Texas Senator Ted Cruz argued, proof that the President didn't care about 94% of Americans (everyone who is not a Black woman); and even though it's unclear who the candidate will be, Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker already knows he won't support this affirmative action beneficiary." Tucker Carlson railed against Biden's casual racism," and the conservative legal establishment also vowed to fight against this lesser Black woman," as Ilya Shapiro, the vice president of the Cato Institute, put it. Legal scholar Jonathan Turley, finally, bemoaned exclusionary criteria of race and sex" - which apparently is a problem only if and when they result in the selection of someone who is *not* a white man. Let's remember: 115 people have been appointed to the court in its 232-year existence - seven have not been white men. Seven.

This rather alarmed response tells us a lot about how the right views the political conflict, precisely because it is seemingly at odds with the fact that the conservative majority on the court is not in jeopardy. Any assessment of these reactions must start by recognizing their racist and sexist nature. They are revealing precisely because they were so reflexive, so visceral. Misogynoir - anti-Black misogyny - forms the basis of this conservative scorn.

Thomas Zimmer is a visiting professor at Georgetown University, focused on the history of democracy and its discontents in the United States, and a Guardian US contributing opinion writer