Black People Shouldn’t Have To Be Barack or Ketanji to Excel

Jackie Robinson wasn’t the best Black baseball player in the U.S. when he became the first Black player in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, 71 years after the first MLB game.

Catcher Josh Gibson hit more than 800 home runs during a career spent with the Negro Leagues. He was said to have a hit a ball out of Yankee Stadium, a feat even Mickey Mantle never accomplished. Buck Leonard was a first baseman with a career .342 batting average. A fellow teammate once remarked, “If he’d gotten the chance to play in the major leagues, they might have called Lou Gehrig ‘The White Buck Leonard.’”

Negro Leaguer John Beckwith was a prolific .347 lifetime hitter about whom Babe Ruth said that “not only can Beckwith hit harder than any Negro ballplayer, but any man in the world.”

You don’t know these names because they didn’t have the perfect composure Jackie Robinson had. Before Robinson was signed to an MLB contract, scouts at the time posed several scenarios to him to see how the eventual Hall of Famer would respond. To see how well Robinson would behave in the face of abuse.

That was 75 years ago, yet here we are again with Judge Ketanji Jackson needing to channel her inner Jackie Robinson in the face of unacceptable abuse by several senators at her confirmation hearing.

Twitter was abuzz about Judge Ketanji Jackson’s composure:

“How Ketanji Brown Jackson can maintain composure while racist jackasses impugn her integrity and posture and perform for Fox News is just beyond me. I would have throttled somebody.”

Her class under the most disgusting and twisted questioning. Her responses to the most absurd and insulting questions. Calm, poised, thoughtful and intelligent.

I’m not saying her class isn’t something to be admired. It is.

But the message it sends to young Black women and men that you’d better be Jackie or Ketanji. That you need to always keep your composure, be near perfect and always be on your best behavior to excel is a bad lesson to teach. Judge Jackson had to be perfect. And she was.

Still, this isn’t a healthy way to guide our young Black and Brown kids. To not leave room for mistakes is no way to promote growth.

Judge Ketanji Jackson has an impeccable record. An outstanding career. A record of public service and compassion. One of the most well-qualified nominees in the history of the court. And yet, when the vote tallies are in, she’ll be narrowly confirmed largely along party lines. Despite her near flawless life and near perfect confirmation hearing performance, with her supportive husband and daughter by her side, she will have barely made it through the confirmation process.

Now let’s imagine how this may have played out if Judge Ketanji Jackson had dare stumbled. Or reflected on some youthful beer drinking days. Imagine if she had been accused of engaging in inappropriate actions toward the opposite sex earlier in her career like a few other current Supreme Court judges.

Just imagine if Judge Jackson, in response to horrific, disrespectful questioning by Senators Hawley and Cruz, had simply disagreed with them. Imagine if she asserted herself more. Think about how things might have gone down had she called out their racism and double standards, both having already confirmed other judges who didn’t always follow the non-binding sentencing guidelines.

We’ve seen this before.

In 2008, we elected Barack Obama to the presidency, who then endured relentless abuse for eight years. Criticized for everything from wearing a tan suit to on one sole occasion carrying a latte when he saluted soldiers. Breaking news!

Despite the unending attacks on Obama and despite what we now know was a Mitch McConnell concerted effort to block everything President Obama tried to do no matter what. Obama remained poised, classy, composed and respectful. Nearly flawless if you were paying attention.

But let’s try to imagine if Barack Obama had a sexual relationship in the White House with a young intern. Then imagine he lied under oath about it. Imagine if dozens of women had come forward. Think about how long he would’ve survived had a Paula Jones or Gennifer Flowers hit the news. Imagine if President Obama had paid off a porn star to keep quiet so he wasn’t outed for cheating on his wife while she was pregnant. Imagine if dozens of contractors came forward to say that Obama had stiffed them.

What if Barack had done things even way less offensive? What if he had just made some regular human mistakes in life? What if he just got some Cs in college like George W. Bush?

But Barack was a passionate grassroots community organizer. A lawyer. A graduate of Columbia, with a law degree from Harvard. Perfectly spoken. Charismatic. A great father and husband. Almost always inserting a sense of humor into his difficult position. He was a role model to our youth to the nth degree.

Make no mistake. Jackie Robinson, Barack Obama and Ketanji Jackson all deserve their successes.

No doubt we should all aspire to achieve their level of greatness. They show us that no matter who you are or what roadblocks you may encounter, you can achieve wonders.

But since most of us of any color can’t always live up to their level of near perfection and greatness, we should stop demanding Black folks meet that level while the rest of us don’t need to.

Instead, we should celebrate our Black brothers and sisters for their individual skills and accomplishments. And to cut them the same level of slack we cut white folks when they act human.

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This post was previously published on Equality Includes You.

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