Lace on Race

Racial Equity Anti Hero: Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Intro to Series: laceonrace.com/2021/02/04/racial-equity-anti-hero-series/

Tiffany Washington talks her shit from the backwoods of Alabama. Her work appears on Facebook because she’s already been rejected by The Root.

Today, in Black History, we tackle everyone’s favorite white person given an honorary black title (by who, I don’t know), the Notorious RBG, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Liberal white people tend to show their colors when black folks get out of the imaginary fences they put up for them. Rap a little? That’s cool. Go to college and get educated? Fine, fine. Kneel to protest police brutality? That’s the goddamn line.
“Would I arrest them for doing it? No,” Ginsburg elaborated. “I think it’s dumb and disrespectful. I would have the same answer if you asked me about flag burning. I think it’s a terrible thing to do, but I wouldn’t lock a person up for doing it. I would point out how ridiculous it seems to me to do such an act.”
I mean, never mind that you aren’t hurting anyone, and never mind that the anthem is racist to begin with….y’all negros betta stand and like it!
“If they want to be stupid, there’s no law that should be preventive. If they want to be arrogant, there’s no law that prevents them from that. What I would do is strongly take issue with the point of view that they are expressing when they do that.”
So damn arrogant for a bunch of black men to get together and decide to peacefully protest injustice.
There was a half-hearted apology thrown out somewhere after all this, but black folk still see you, Ruth.#TodayinBlackHistory

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3 responses to “Racial Equity Anti Hero: Ruth Bader Ginsburg”

  1. Emily Holzknecht Avatar
    Emily Holzknecht

    Thank you for sharing about what you learned about the honorary Black title

  2. Rebecca McClinton Avatar
    Rebecca McClinton

    I wasn’t sure what was meant by the ‘honorary Black title’…so went to hunt around what that was referencing, and learned that her affectionate nickname RGB is “a riff on the late rapper Biggie Smalls, aka The Notorious B.I.G”. The article I read talked about how Ginsburg “epitomized white feminism – a failure to recognize or champion causes that affect women of color and other marginalized groups”. I’m remembering back to our conversations here at LoR After Ginsburg’s death and how while she did some wonderful, good things, there were some things she did (and didn’t do) that caused harm. I always need to hunt for and recognize the AND.

  3. Emily Holzknecht Avatar
    Emily Holzknecht

    It seems to me that in these quotes Justice Ginsburg is showing a lot of contempt. She keeps trying to reframe it as a liberal stance by saying they shouldn’t get arrested for it, but the contempt comes through anyway. And she makes sure it comes through. Did she have to say any of that? No. I assume someone prompted her by asking what her view on football game kneeling is. She could easily have given a supreme court justice statement about how right to protest is protection or something like that that is driven by her occupation and not her personal views. People do that all the time in legal matters, so of course she knows how to do it. But she didn’t. She used her position of power and influence as a venue for showcasing her contempt, for spreading her contempt.

    As a white person, I am apt to think my opinion is wanted and needed and relevant many places where it is not. I also am apt to think that acting or speaking from a place of contempt is a reasonable thing for me to do. I must keep working on seeing eye to eye and on recognizing what contempt looks like when I employ it and when others do. It is such a well-worn tool that it takes effort to see what is so ordinary.

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