--- title: Ketanji Brown Jackson's Hearing Felt Familiar to Black Women description: The nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court should have a celebration of how far America has come. Instead, it was a reminder of the expectations too many Americans have of Black women. canonical: https://time.com/6160844/ketanji-brown-jackson-black-women-confirmation-hearings/ author: Mikki Kendall article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-03-25T14:50:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:56.107Z article:section: Ideas og:title: What Black Women Saw at Judge Jackson's Confirmation Hearings og:description: "It was maddening to watch, and yet I know that Jackson cannot express her frustrations outwardly." og:url: https://time.com/6160844/ketanji-brown-jackson-black-women-confirmation-hearings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt152297986d32f680/698a3048b21a9c2122505dcf/ketanji-brown-jackson-confirmation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: ketanji-brown-jackson-confirmation og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Black Women Saw at Judge Jackson's Confirmation Hearings twitter:description: "It was maddening to watch, and yet I know that Jackson cannot express her frustrations outwardly." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt152297986d32f680/698a3048b21a9c2122505dcf/ketanji-brown-jackson-confirmation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Black Women Saw at Ketanji Brown Jackson's Confirmation Hearings > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is Moved to Tears by Senator Cory Booker's Remarks During Hearing [Watch (HLS stream): Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is Moved to Tears by Senator Cory Booker's Remarks During Hearing](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1mME3E2a.m3u8) (2:58)  _Published 2022-03-24. Towards the end of a tense third day of Capitol Hill hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Democratic Senator Cory Booker delivered a speech on racial progress that drew tears from the nominee and held the attention of his colleagues on both sides of aisle._ by [Mikki Kendall](https://time.com/author/mikki-kendall/) ## Mikki Kendall Mar 25, 2022 2:50 PM UTC  Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson listens as she is asked a question from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., front left, during her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 23, 2022, during her confirmation hearing. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson listens as she is asked a question from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., front left, during her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 23, 2022, during her confirmation hearing. Susan Walsh—AP by [Mikki Kendall](https://time.com/author/mikki-kendall/) ## Mikki Kendall Mar 25, 2022 2:50 PM UTC [Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson](https://time.com/6151590/ketanji-brown-jackson-supreme-court-profile/) took a long pause. Senator Ted Cruz had just showed blown-up images from [Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888207/ibram-x-kendi/) _Antiracist Baby_ and asked her if she believed that babies were racist. Beyond the fact that he was twisting the ideas of a children’s book intended to help kids understand the insidious role of racism in our society and trying to link it to [critical race theory](https://time.com/6075193/critical-race-theory-debate/), which is taught in law schools, he was also clearly trying to score points. You could see her thinking about how to respond to the obvious provocation, to show him the respect that he wasn’t showing her. She then calmly explained that she didn’t believe that any child should be made to feel racist or that they are victims or oppressors. The exchange was extraordinary in its circumstances – Jackson was the[ first Black woman](https://time.com/6146624/history-first-black-woman-supreme-court-justice-nominee/) to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee as a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court – but to Black women across the country, it was also familiar. An occasion that should have been a celebration of how far America has come since the end of slavery was instead a reminder of how far we have to go. Jackson is many ways a perfect Supreme Court candidate. She’s well educated with a stellar record both as an attorney and as a judge. There’s nothing questionable in her personal life, no indications of any ethical flaws. In fact, Senator Lindsey Graham, one of her most aggressive questioners, voted to confirm her to her current seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Jackson has spent more time on the bench than [Justice Amy Coney Barrett](https://time.com/5902166/amy-coney-barrett-confirmed-supreme-court/) had when she was nominated, and unlike Justice Clarence Thomas or Justice Brett Kavanaugh, she has never been accused of sexual harassment or assault. (Both Justices have denied the allegations.) **_Read More:_**[_Joe Biden’s Nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson Wasn’t Just About Delivering on a Campaign Promise_](https://time.com/6158335/ketanji-brown-jackson-presidential-constitutionalism-supreme-court/) Yet despite her impressive credentials, Jackson has faced an onslaught of microaggressions, outright falsehoods, and demands for irrelevant information, both in the lead-up to and during [her confirmation hearings](https://time.com/6160149/what-we-learned-ketanji-brown-jackson/). From Tucker Carlson’s obsession with her LSAT scores to Cruz’s bizarre contention that she should have to answer for the work of another Black scholar simply because she serves on the board of trustees of a day school where his book is taught, the attacks have not been your typical partisan fare. Senator Marsha Blackburn, for instance, insisted that Jackson’s support of the [1619 Project](https://time.com/5889051/history-curriculum-politics/) means that she wants to teach children that America is a fundamentally racist country. Blackburn’s arguments were particularly offensive as she positioned herself as a strict adherent to the Constitution despite her [own inability to tell the difference between it and the Declaration of Independence](https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1506772336812429319). Meanwhile, other Senators repeatedly pressed Jackson on her sentencing of sex offenders, suggesting that this Black women would be soft on crime and maybe even put children at risk. It was maddening to watch, and yet I know that Jackson cannot express her frustrations outwardly. She’s going to be expected to eat this indignity with a smile and never speak of it publicly after her confirmation. She knows, as does any Black woman in America, that if she gets upset, displays anger, or reacts with outrage, she will be immediately labeled an Angry Black Woman and all her credentials and hard work will not matter. The hearings made plain what so many of us already know — that even the politicians who are supposed to represent everyone have been conditioned to expect Black women to be less than them. In this way, they are like many Americans. They expect Black women to work hard, but not be too successful, or to acknowledge the obstacles they’ve overcome in their pursuit of success. It’s an expectation that harks back to Mammy, the stereotype of a happily disenfranchised Black woman devoted to caring for the family that enslaved her no matter the personal cost, and to [Jim Crow era etiquette](blank), which prescribed that Black people refrain from showing too much emotion in public as it might make white people uncomfortable, and it is still present in workplaces and schools today. **Read More:** [_I’m a Black Woman Who’s Met All the Standards for Promotion. I’m Not Waiting to Reward Myself_](https://time.com/5958844/black-woman-self-care/) Black women in American society are effectively expected to fill two roles at work, the one they were hired to do and another role of making their coworkers comfortable at their own expense. It’s not enough to be educated, accomplished, and professional. To navigate the obstacles created by racist stereotypes, they must also hide their emotions. They cannot be too talented or assertive, lest they be perceived as a threat. Like Jackson, they are in a no-win situation and must simply persevere as she has. Politics will be held up as an excuse for the atrocious behaviors on display in these hearings, but one of the reasons so many Republican senators have turned to this toolbox of bigotry is that they know there will be no consequences. Many of their constituents will laud this behavior, and even those who don’t are likely to celebrate Jackson’s strength and never consider what these hearings have cost her emotionally. There is a saying in the Black American community that we must work twice as hard to get half as far. Senator Cory Booker spoke to this idea in his emotional tribute to Jackson when he told her, “You got here how every Black woman in America who’s gotten anywhere has done, by being, like Ginger Rogers said, ‘I did everything Fred Astaire did but backwards in heels.'” What we do not often say out loud is that for those of us who reach great heights, we have not only worked twice as hard, but we have also been hurt twice as much, and probably more. For Jackson to reach this place, she has had to weather a lifetime of this treatment and not let it stop her. Partisan pundits will continue to try to dehumanize her, scrutinizing her every decision despite having absolutely no idea of what it feels like to walk this singular path to the highest court in the land as a Black woman. She is the first, she will not be the last, and as with all trailblazers, her impact will be seen in the Black girls and women who too will learn to share their feelings in private and present a calm, composed face in public. Booker told her, “It is so good to see you here.” And it was. I just wish she were given the welcome she deserves. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6160844/ketanji-brown-jackson-black-women-confirmation-hearings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6160844/ketanji-brown-jackson-black-women-confirmation-hearings/"},"headline":"What Black Women Saw at Ketanji Brown Jackson's Confirmation Hearings","datePublished":"2022-03-25T14:50:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:56.107Z","description":"The nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court should have a celebration of how far America has come. 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