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Disinformation and SCOTUS · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Steff.
0:07
Speaker 1: I've never told your production of I Heart Radio. Today,
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Speaker 1: we are once again thrilled to be joined by the amazing,
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Speaker 1: award winning, fantastic Bridget Todd, who we account ourselves so
0:29
Speaker 1: lucky to know and call her friends. Congratulations Bridget on
0:34
Speaker 1: your recent award for Best Technology Podcast at the I
0:37
Speaker 1: Heart Radio Podcast Awards. Well deserved. That's so awesome. Congratulations
0:41
Speaker 1: to you and your whole team. Oh my goodness, thank
0:44
Speaker 1: you so much. Yeah, and you know what I'm gonna say,
0:47
Speaker 1: it feels freaking good to win. I was kind of like, oh, like,
0:52
Speaker 1: you know, just being nominated as nice, but I deep
0:55
Speaker 1: down kind of you ever have one of those times
0:57
Speaker 1: in your life where you just really need to win.
0:59
Speaker 1: I'm That's where I was at. So um I have
1:02
Speaker 1: to like briefly shout out my team. Tara Harrison is
1:06
Speaker 1: my producer and engineer. She's phenomenally talented. Jonathan Strickland is
1:10
Speaker 1: our EP. Phenomenally talented. Dr Michael Amato is our chief
1:14
Speaker 1: Science officer and uh producer, so talented. I could not
1:19
Speaker 1: have one without them. They're so awesome. Yes, thank you, Yes,
1:24
Speaker 1: I love Owen, especially when it's our personal friends. Yeah,
1:29
Speaker 1: I said it. I'm claiming he was a personal friend.
1:32
Speaker 1: I know, Bridget, thank you. I mean I feel the
1:35
Speaker 1: same way about you. I feel very onward to to
1:38
Speaker 1: know you all in real life. Yes, yes, um. And
1:42
Speaker 1: in case you don't know listeners, which I'm assuming you do,
1:45
Speaker 1: this is for the podcast There Are No Girls on
1:47
Speaker 1: the Internet, which is You've got a new season coming right, Yes, yeah,
1:51
Speaker 1: I probably should have said the name of my own,
1:53
Speaker 1: but I'm trying to get better at like self promotion. Yes,
1:58
Speaker 1: the podcast is called There No Is on the Internet.
2:00
Speaker 1: We just want an I Heeart Award and we're coming
2:03
Speaker 1: back for a brand new season on March one. So um.
2:06
Speaker 1: We've kind of been high on hiatus for a bit
2:08
Speaker 1: while we've been retooling, and I'm so excited that we're
2:10
Speaker 1: finally launching. So it would mean a lot to me
2:12
Speaker 1: if you'll checked it out. Thank you for mentioning and Annie,
2:15
Speaker 1: I obviously cannot be trusted to remember to see the
2:18
Speaker 1: name of the thing I meant to be promoting, but yeah,
2:21
Speaker 1: please check it out. We have all kinds of interesting
2:24
Speaker 1: conversations about how women and queer folks and trans folks
2:27
Speaker 1: and black folks and other marginalized voices. How we show
2:30
Speaker 1: up or don't show up online and in technology? So
2:33
Speaker 1: uh yeah, please check it out. If that sounds like
2:35
Speaker 1: something you're interested in, you absolutely should. I'm still waiting
2:38
Speaker 1: for the fan fiction episode. I'm ready. Oh yes, tv D.
2:43
Speaker 1: Also just a fun fact about Tar, who's also a
2:46
Speaker 1: good friend of ours. She always sings sitcom jingles at karaoke. Yeah,
2:50
Speaker 1: it's the thing I adore about her. H She refuses
2:54
Speaker 1: to seeing anything else and when someone interrupts her, she
2:57
Speaker 1: gets very annoyed. Rightly so, because this is her thing
3:01
Speaker 1: and she wants it and has claimed it and has
3:04
Speaker 1: done well with it. How is it wring about? How
3:06
Speaker 1: have I worked with Sari for two years? And if not,
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Speaker 1: I mean, I guess COVID as hell, but know this,
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Speaker 1: I need to kick her out that for karaoke to
3:14
Speaker 1: see this in action? Or you know what, what's a
3:16
Speaker 1: better bridget? We need you to come to Atlanta and
3:19
Speaker 1: hosts a big karaoke night. H if. There's several great
3:22
Speaker 1: locations that we love, including my favorite spot towards before
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Speaker 1: It Highway ran by a Korean family who was as
3:28
Speaker 1: Korean as you think, and we adored them and they
3:31
Speaker 1: bring us fruit place is a delight while we're seeing
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Speaker 1: karaoke to our hearts content. Yeah, please put that on
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Speaker 1: the agenda. The last time I was in Atlanta, I
3:39
Speaker 1: went to what is that spot called Church of Church Church.
3:46
Speaker 1: There was some karaoke happening. It was pretty fun. So yeah,
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Speaker 1: Atlanta karaoke date. Literally anytime I am in, I need
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Speaker 1: to see producer Tari in action singing the singles one
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Speaker 1: time and she was like, we're singing cheers together. It's okay.
4:03
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it, I love it, I
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Speaker 1: love it. Okay. So this topic you're bringing to us today, Bridget,
4:09
Speaker 1: is extremely timely. We're very excited to talk about it. Uh,
4:13
Speaker 1: and we have a lot to get into. So let's
4:15
Speaker 1: let's get into it. What are we talking about today?
4:17
Speaker 1: So today is Friday, February two, and I want to
4:22
Speaker 1: talk about the just recently announced new nominee for the
4:27
Speaker 1: Supreme Court, Judge Katangi Brown Jackson. So I have to
4:31
Speaker 1: admit I was putting together all my notes for this
4:33
Speaker 1: episode last night, and so the notes were all like, oh,
4:36
Speaker 1: the potential nominee, Like when we have the nominee. It
4:39
Speaker 1: was all very like hypothetical, and then this morning the
4:42
Speaker 1: news just dropped that she is indeed the White House's
4:45
Speaker 1: pick to be the first ever black woman Supreme Court
4:49
Speaker 1: justice on our Supreme Court. So very historic, very important,
4:52
Speaker 1: very exciting. But we know that it also comes along
4:56
Speaker 1: with racist attacks, sexist attacks, miss and disinformation, and that
5:00
Speaker 1: women of color who are in public office unfortunately tend
5:05
Speaker 1: to face. And so today today I really wanted to
5:07
Speaker 1: talk about how we got to this place of having
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Speaker 1: this historic black woman being nominated for the Supreme Court,
5:12
Speaker 1: and what kind of attacks she's likely to be facing,
5:15
Speaker 1: what kind of attacks she's already been facing, and how
5:17
Speaker 1: we can sort of all work together to create the
5:19
Speaker 1: conditions to have a better conversation about her nomination. Yes,
5:24
Speaker 1: and as you said, this is very ongoing. We're trying
5:28
Speaker 1: to get this episode out as quickly as possible because
5:30
Speaker 1: things are changing very quickly. But we've already seen some
5:34
Speaker 1: of these attacks. I know we're gonna get into that
5:36
Speaker 1: in a minute, but before we do that, can you
5:38
Speaker 1: give us some some history and background on what's going
5:42
Speaker 1: on here? Absolutely, So here's a little bit of background
5:44
Speaker 1: about the call to nominate a black woman for the
5:46
Speaker 1: Supreme Court. Um, I have to shout out that she
5:49
Speaker 1: will rise campaign organized by a great organization called Sister
5:52
Speaker 1: Scotus UM and their whole coalition is full of dynamic
5:56
Speaker 1: black women, women like April Rain who created the hashtag
6:00
Speaker 1: scars So White sixteen nineteen project creator Nicole Hannah Jones,
6:03
Speaker 1: Allencia Johnson, who I love. I used to work with
6:06
Speaker 1: her at Planned Parenthood Broadway, Multi Tony Award winner Audra McDonald. UM. So,
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Speaker 1: just a huge coalition of dynamic, badass black women who
6:15
Speaker 1: have been advocating to put a black woman on the
6:18
Speaker 1: Supreme Court. And so in the over two hundred year
6:21
Speaker 1: history of the Supreme Court, not one black woman has
6:24
Speaker 1: ever been confirmed or even nominated to serve on the
6:27
Speaker 1: Supreme Court. There have been a hundred and fifteen men
6:29
Speaker 1: and women who have served on the Supreme Court, and
6:31
Speaker 1: only three of them have been people of color. There
6:33
Speaker 1: have only been two Black American members of the Supreme Court,
6:36
Speaker 1: Justice through Good Martial and Justice Clarence Thomas. And so
6:40
Speaker 1: that's obviously not a very inclusive track record in terms
6:43
Speaker 1: of representation. And you know, this idea of I thought
6:47
Speaker 1: this was kind of a new precedent. You know, a
6:50
Speaker 1: presidential candidate saying like, oh, if I'm elected, I will
6:53
Speaker 1: put this kind of person on the Supreme Court. However,
6:55
Speaker 1: there is actually a long history and president for presidents
6:59
Speaker 1: peg in to pick a Scotus nominee who represents a
7:02
Speaker 1: certain demographic of our population. So this is from a
7:04
Speaker 1: really great New York Times op ed by Walter Dellinger,
7:07
Speaker 1: who was the acting Solicitor General of the United States
7:10
Speaker 1: under Bill Clinton. He writes, there is a long and
7:13
Speaker 1: important tradition of presidents taking into consideration the demographic characteristics
7:18
Speaker 1: of perspective justices, including geographic background, religion, race, and sex,
7:22
Speaker 1: to ensure the Supreme Court is and remains a representative
7:25
Speaker 1: institution in touch with the very facets of American life.
7:28
Speaker 1: More fundamentally, our history shows the process of reaching out
7:31
Speaker 1: to expand the personal backgrounds of the justices has often
7:35
Speaker 1: produced stellar jurists who make historic contributions to our court
7:38
Speaker 1: and judicial system. So he goes on to describe how
7:41
Speaker 1: President Reagan promised to nominate a woman of the Supreme
7:44
Speaker 1: Court and even though a bunch of his Republican colleagues
7:47
Speaker 1: were very vocally against it and kind of forced him
7:50
Speaker 1: to add some man to his shortlist. President Reagan was
7:53
Speaker 1: really adamant about picking a woman and eventually nominated Sandra
7:56
Speaker 1: Day O'Connor, making for the first ever female Associate Supreme
8:00
Speaker 1: Court justice. Um. And so that's some like history that
8:02
Speaker 1: I didn't even know about. You know how other presidents
8:05
Speaker 1: have set this precedent to make the Supreme Court up
8:08
Speaker 1: more inclusive. Yeah, and I think, I mean it's kind
8:12
Speaker 1: of a way to pract to call a lot of
8:15
Speaker 1: news organizations and Republicans perhaps if you're critical, but they
8:19
Speaker 1: would have you believe that this is a new thing, like, oh,
8:22
Speaker 1: this is never having before and it's ridiculous, right, And
8:27
Speaker 1: this is not just an issue of representation, correct, absolutely,
8:33
Speaker 1: so representation is important. People often say like, representation matters,
8:37
Speaker 1: and it absolutely does. I'm not, you know, disagreeing with that. However,
8:40
Speaker 1: it's not just a problem because representation matters. It's also
8:44
Speaker 1: a problem because we deserve a representative democracy, a democracy
8:48
Speaker 1: with the people who are governing actually are able to
8:51
Speaker 1: meaningfully represent the people they are governing on behalf of.
8:54
Speaker 1: And you can't have that if your Supreme Court is
8:57
Speaker 1: mostly men, mostly white, because then you have a Supreme
9:00
Speaker 1: Court is not actually able to, you know, meaningfully represent
9:04
Speaker 1: the people that are meant to be advocating on behalf
9:07
Speaker 1: of or working on behalf of. A biographical database from
9:10
Speaker 1: the Federal Judicial Center shows that of the three thousand,
9:13
Speaker 1: eight d forty three federal judges, less than two percent
9:16
Speaker 1: have been black women. And so again it's not just
9:18
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court. It really does go to show that
9:21
Speaker 1: we have a long way to go and making sure
9:23
Speaker 1: that the people who are actually representing us in the
9:25
Speaker 1: courts actually are able to meaningfully represent us and like
9:29
Speaker 1: look like the population that they're actually meant to serve. Yes, yes,
9:33
Speaker 1: And I think right now a lot of us, for
9:36
Speaker 1: good reason, I would say, are on edge when it
9:39
Speaker 1: comes to the Supreme Court and decisions that they're tackling
9:44
Speaker 1: or thinking about, including abortion. So this is very, very
9:47
Speaker 1: very important that we are representing accurately our country, the
9:51
Speaker 1: people in our country. So can we talk a little
10:08
Speaker 1: bit about the promise Biden made when it comes to
10:13
Speaker 1: nominating a black woman to the Supreme Court. Absolutely, So
10:16
Speaker 1: this is one of those instances where Biden made a
10:19
Speaker 1: very clear campaign promise. Certainly the administration has made other
10:24
Speaker 1: campaign promises and tb D if they will come to fruition.
10:28
Speaker 1: But this was a very clear one. So this is
10:29
Speaker 1: sort of making good on a very exuplicit promise. You
10:32
Speaker 1: might hear black women referred to as the backbone of
10:34
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party, and that's because we are reliable voters
10:38
Speaker 1: who tend to vote Democrat, and we tend to go
10:41
Speaker 1: out there and organize our friends and our family and
10:43
Speaker 1: our communities to also vote as well. Uh, if you
10:46
Speaker 1: look at the numbers, you know, black women, I think
10:48
Speaker 1: it was like less than one percent of Black women
10:50
Speaker 1: voted for Trump. So we pretty much we are pretty
10:53
Speaker 1: reliable voters for for the Democrats has helped limit it
10:58
Speaker 1: that way and for awhelming majority of Black women. I
11:01
Speaker 1: think it was supported Biden during his presidential bid, right
11:05
Speaker 1: before voting began in South Carolina, during South Carolina's primary,
11:09
Speaker 1: Biden made a very clear campaign promise to nominate a
11:12
Speaker 1: black woman to the Supreme Court. And so yeah, this
11:15
Speaker 1: was a a very clear promise that he made to
11:18
Speaker 1: a constituency that is reliable, that is really did a
11:23
Speaker 1: lot of the work and a lot of the ground
11:25
Speaker 1: game of getting out the vote and organizing their our
11:28
Speaker 1: communities to get out the vote as well. Right, and
11:31
Speaker 1: and going back to what you mentioned, when it comes
11:34
Speaker 1: to all of these sexist racist attacks that a lot
11:39
Speaker 1: of women and women of color, and especially black women
11:41
Speaker 1: face when it comes to elections like this or nominations
11:45
Speaker 1: like this, and then also misinformation and disinformation, It's one
11:49
Speaker 1: thing to kind of say that like, Okay, let's elect
11:52
Speaker 1: a black woman, and then another to provide the necessary support. Absolutely, so,
11:58
Speaker 1: you know, we hear, like I have a shirt that
12:00
Speaker 1: says trust black women. You know, we hear a lot
12:04
Speaker 1: of slogans about, you know, the importance of electing black
12:06
Speaker 1: women and really amplifying our political leadership. And again I
12:10
Speaker 1: feel like that that is great. Representation is so great. However,
12:15
Speaker 1: it really does need to go along with the work
12:17
Speaker 1: of creating the conditions so these these women will be supported.
12:21
Speaker 1: That they're not it's going to be, you know, fodder
12:24
Speaker 1: for unfair, sexist racist attacks purely based on their identity
12:29
Speaker 1: who they are. And so I don't want to just
12:32
Speaker 1: have black women or women or women of color. I
12:35
Speaker 1: don't want to just have us be amplified as leaders
12:39
Speaker 1: if we're going to be set up to fail, if
12:41
Speaker 1: we're going to be set up to compete in a
12:42
Speaker 1: completely unequal playing field. I want to amplify the leadership
12:48
Speaker 1: of women, but I also want to create the conditions
12:51
Speaker 1: that we actually can thrive. Um And so I think
12:54
Speaker 1: that that's really what I want to get into today
12:56
Speaker 1: about some of the ways that our media landscape are
13:00
Speaker 1: kind of set up to ensure that this person will
13:03
Speaker 1: not get a fair shake. I have to say, like,
13:05
Speaker 1: I wasn't really thrilled watching Jen Psaki from the White
13:08
Speaker 1: House kind of give this tepid acknowledgement of the kind
13:11
Speaker 1: of racism and sexism that would go along with picking
13:14
Speaker 1: a black woman for the Supreme Court nominee. She said
13:16
Speaker 1: that Biden's intention to pick a black woman for the
13:19
Speaker 1: Supreme Court presented quote specific challenges, But in my opinion,
13:23
Speaker 1: that really doesn't go far enough in naming and lifting
13:26
Speaker 1: up the kind of racist, sexist attacks and media climate
13:29
Speaker 1: that are setting this person up to face. And that
13:32
Speaker 1: can really be tricky because, as I'm sure a lot
13:35
Speaker 1: of people listening can probably attest to, it can be
13:38
Speaker 1: sometimes difficult to call out the kind of unfair attacks
13:42
Speaker 1: that we face as marginalized people. So if you're a
13:44
Speaker 1: woman who is facing sexism. Sometimes if you if you
13:48
Speaker 1: are the one to vocalize that, that only kind of
13:50
Speaker 1: goes against you, because then you're the complainer, you're the nag.
13:54
Speaker 1: And so if you're in a climate where you can't
13:56
Speaker 1: really call out what you're facing and the people around
14:00
Speaker 1: you aren't going to explicitly call out what you're facing,
14:02
Speaker 1: then it's just allowed to fester like uncalled out. Yeah.
14:07
Speaker 1: I found it interesting because as you had brought this
14:10
Speaker 1: to our attention, I hadn't realized he had made an announcement.
14:12
Speaker 1: We just knew the promises that President Biden had given.
14:16
Speaker 1: Finally naming a name and trying to look her up
14:18
Speaker 1: and seeing who she was. Of course, one of the
14:21
Speaker 1: top things that I saw was a congressman going in
14:24
Speaker 1: on attacks and being repeatedly attacking them, just obviously already
14:28
Speaker 1: ready to go. Oddly enough, the same congressman was the
14:31
Speaker 1: one that had been one of three Republicans who had
14:33
Speaker 1: voted her in her federal seat, and we were like, wait,
14:35
Speaker 1: so how is she qualified then and not now? But
14:38
Speaker 1: we know the answer obviously of why they are very
14:42
Speaker 1: upset about this pick. In general, in all of the
14:45
Speaker 1: game of politics, we understand that, but as it comes along.
14:50
Speaker 1: That is part of that conversation where I'm like, I know,
14:52
Speaker 1: I don't even want to mention who it is because
14:54
Speaker 1: I don't want to amplify that even more. Instead, let's
14:57
Speaker 1: talk about her qualifications and why she is qualified to
15:00
Speaker 1: lead us in this type of position. Absolutely so, even
15:04
Speaker 1: before Judge Jackson was named as the nominee, people were
15:08
Speaker 1: wasting no time lobbying these completely ridiculous, unfair sexist attacks
15:14
Speaker 1: on her. Just we don't even know who she is,
15:16
Speaker 1: she was just a hypothetical person. Senator John Kennedy he
15:19
Speaker 1: told Politico, I want a nominee who knows a law
15:22
Speaker 1: book from a J Crew catalog. I want a nominee
15:24
Speaker 1: who's not going to try to rewrite the constitution every
15:27
Speaker 1: other Thursday to advance a woke agenda. And he was
15:30
Speaker 1: saying this, we didn't even know who this person was yet,
15:33
Speaker 1: and they were already lobbying these racist, sexist attacks, like
15:38
Speaker 1: why do you assume that she's not going to know
15:40
Speaker 1: what a legal brief from a J Crew catalog? Like
15:42
Speaker 1: that's like reading between the lines. That is obviously meant
15:45
Speaker 1: to be a sexist swipe. Because Biden had already expressed
15:48
Speaker 1: his intentions to nominate a black woman. Why do you
15:51
Speaker 1: assume this person is going to be, you know, pushing
15:53
Speaker 1: awoke agenda? And what does that even mean? I think
15:56
Speaker 1: when you really pull apart some of these dog whistles
15:59
Speaker 1: that are used, it just reveals itself as unfair attacks,
16:04
Speaker 1: rooted in identity, or just complete hypocrisy. Like just like
16:08
Speaker 1: what you were saying, were you referencing Lindsay Graham? Who
16:11
Speaker 1: was you know? And I think it was Literal. So
16:14
Speaker 1: so I've been up working on this since like like
16:16
Speaker 1: all day right where I watched the announcement come in,
16:18
Speaker 1: I watched all the all the responses. Lindsay Graham tweeted
16:22
Speaker 1: Literal minute after she was announced, saying, quote, the radical
16:26
Speaker 1: left had won over Biden. Yet Graham also voted to
16:29
Speaker 1: confirm Judge Decks into the DC Federal Appeals Court, which
16:33
Speaker 1: is the second most important court in the country, just
16:35
Speaker 1: eight months ago, this past summer. So which is it
16:37
Speaker 1: is this win for the woke left? And like what
16:41
Speaker 1: was different eight months earlier when you voted to confirm her.
16:43
Speaker 1: So it is very interesting at this point, I wouldn't
16:46
Speaker 1: even like the hypocrisy is so clear that it's almost
16:50
Speaker 1: sort of like not worth plating out. It's like, of course,
16:53
Speaker 1: you were only interested in a bad faith assessment. You know,
16:57
Speaker 1: you don't even expect people to look back at your
16:59
Speaker 1: own ooting record to see where you actually stand on
17:02
Speaker 1: this issue. You're just counting on people not actually spending
17:05
Speaker 1: a little bit of time and thinking about what you're saying. Right, Yeah,
17:09
Speaker 1: we're both shaking our head. Was It's true, though. It's
17:13
Speaker 1: so frustrating because it's like every time I point out
17:16
Speaker 1: something that's hypocritical, it doesn't matter anymore. They're like, yeah,
17:21
Speaker 1: I mean, essentially, it's kind of what we were talking
17:23
Speaker 1: about when um Amy Barritt Cohen was confirmed as well
17:27
Speaker 1: as Kavanaugh, about the ridiculous hYP hypocrisy that happened between
17:31
Speaker 1: Obama and administration and the Trump administration. And now we're
17:35
Speaker 1: back again. Now we're here again to the same conversation,
17:38
Speaker 1: and literally half of the Republican candidates or the conservative
17:43
Speaker 1: politicians will agree, yeah, this is hypocritical. This is what
17:46
Speaker 1: we do, and they kind of just leave it at
17:48
Speaker 1: that and assume that nobody will notice. And typically people
17:52
Speaker 1: who are already dug their hills in don't notice, won't
17:55
Speaker 1: notice because they want what they want in whatever agenda
17:58
Speaker 1: it is that they have planted themselves firmly. And but yeah,
18:01
Speaker 1: let's talk about the fact this is a whole different conversation,
18:04
Speaker 1: but that we have different types of terms, and words
18:07
Speaker 1: like woke that have been used as a positive has
18:10
Speaker 1: now flipped so hard to a negative that everyone is
18:13
Speaker 1: automatically like, oh, he said that, he's right. It's bad.
18:17
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I could talk all day, I'll say. So,
18:21
Speaker 1: I have two things to say about this. One is
18:23
Speaker 1: that you are so right. There are so many words
18:26
Speaker 1: that have just become meaningless. Right. So, if you're talking
18:30
Speaker 1: about a hypothetical Supreme Court nominee and you're like, oh,
18:34
Speaker 1: we don't want somebody who's woke, you don't know any
18:36
Speaker 1: This person doesn't is a hypothetical person, so you're not
18:38
Speaker 1: You don't know anything about their record, you don't know
18:40
Speaker 1: anything about like where they stand on the issues. So
18:43
Speaker 1: saying woke it almost just just the only thing we
18:46
Speaker 1: know about this person is that she's going to be
18:47
Speaker 1: a black woman. You're saying you don't want someone who
18:50
Speaker 1: is woke. Reading within the lines, you're using that as
18:52
Speaker 1: a stand in for the word black. Right, And so
18:55
Speaker 1: I think that we see that time and time again
18:57
Speaker 1: where these words become stand ins for identity, and they
19:06
Speaker 1: also kind of become meaningless, right, Like cancel culture is
19:08
Speaker 1: another one I remember reading this is this is sort
19:10
Speaker 1: of silly, But there was this story a while ago
19:13
Speaker 1: where this um guy who had been running a racehorse
19:17
Speaker 1: in the Kentucky Derby. His racehorse had been I don't
19:20
Speaker 1: know that, I'm sure there's more details to it, but
19:23
Speaker 1: essentially his racehorse had been drug tested and he had
19:27
Speaker 1: been like found to have drugs in a system, so
19:29
Speaker 1: he was disqualified. And then an interview he was like, oh,
19:32
Speaker 1: this is cancel culture strikes again, And I was like,
19:35
Speaker 1: what are you even talking about, Like, how is the
19:37
Speaker 1: cancel culture? Like in what way? Yeah, dopen your horse
19:43
Speaker 1: and your horse was disqualified. That's not cancel culture. Even like,
19:47
Speaker 1: I just have a lot of questions about the way
19:50
Speaker 1: that these words are being used. But I think and
19:52
Speaker 1: that's kind of the second point that I want to
19:54
Speaker 1: make about this is that one of the reasons why
19:57
Speaker 1: I am so adamant about things like disinformation and misinformation
20:01
Speaker 1: and just having a healthier, more honest conversation and a
20:05
Speaker 1: media landscape that facilitates those kinds of conversations. Is that
20:09
Speaker 1: we are no longer able to have substitutive, thoughtful conversations
20:14
Speaker 1: about the issue when our ecosystem is flooded with bad faith,
20:20
Speaker 1: clearly hypocritical rhetoric and discourse. And so, you know, even
20:24
Speaker 1: if you're someone let's say that you're listening and you
20:27
Speaker 1: are very conservative, you know, you probably have hated this
20:30
Speaker 1: conversation that we've been having. But you know, like even
20:33
Speaker 1: if you're someone who is very conservative, you deserve to
20:36
Speaker 1: be able to, you know, talk about your your issues,
20:39
Speaker 1: talk have have a substitutive conversation and a substitutive debate
20:43
Speaker 1: about where you stand on the issues. And so I
20:45
Speaker 1: believe that when the discourse and the space is just
20:49
Speaker 1: flooded with you know, charged rhetoric where we're talking where
20:53
Speaker 1: we're talking about race or identity but using different words,
20:58
Speaker 1: everybody loses because you're not able to have a substitutive
21:01
Speaker 1: conversation about where you might agree or disagree with the
21:04
Speaker 1: Supreme Court nominee, right, you're the And so I think
21:07
Speaker 1: that that's my biggest issue is that we have a
21:09
Speaker 1: media ecosystem that really amplifies the most extreme, the most
21:14
Speaker 1: over the top statements, or the most nonsense statements, and
21:18
Speaker 1: so everybody loses. Democrat, Republican, conservative, lefty, whoever. Everybody loses
21:23
Speaker 1: when we have an ecosystem that amplifies the least substitutive
21:28
Speaker 1: takes because that takes away from the ability to have
21:31
Speaker 1: an actual substitutive, thoughtful debate or conversation about the actual issues.
21:36
Speaker 1: And so I don't want to create the conditions for
21:39
Speaker 1: Judge Jackson to only be judged by racist, sexist tropes
21:44
Speaker 1: or caricatures or unfair attacks, because I want to talk
21:47
Speaker 1: about her actual credentials. I want to talk about her
21:50
Speaker 1: actual record. I want to talk about her actual character.
21:52
Speaker 1: But disinformation and misinformation does not allow for the actual
21:57
Speaker 1: issues to take the center stage that they should. Right
22:00
Speaker 1: you just kind of explained my whole conversation with my
22:03
Speaker 1: parents over the holidays, but we won't get into that
22:06
Speaker 1: right now. I'm just gonna put that there. Um, it
22:09
Speaker 1: was interesting, but you know, and then thinking about this
22:12
Speaker 1: because when we talk about these terms and automatically just
22:15
Speaker 1: becoming used by media as an ecosystem to bring in
22:19
Speaker 1: the shock value, Uh, it makes me also realize that
22:23
Speaker 1: in terms of what they're talking about in woke, it
22:26
Speaker 1: is a black term that was created by the black
22:29
Speaker 1: community to kind of gift non black people with, Hey,
22:34
Speaker 1: you woke up. Congratulations, you're finally seeing what we have
22:37
Speaker 1: been going through all of our generations. Welcome you have woke. Like,
22:42
Speaker 1: that's kind of that term, and I hate that it
22:45
Speaker 1: has been weaponized to this point of being used against people,
22:49
Speaker 1: and when they're using it. When Kennedy used this, he
22:53
Speaker 1: was weaponizing this terms to a woman, to an official,
22:56
Speaker 1: to a judge, to a professional who didn't need to
22:59
Speaker 1: be woke. She was already there. This was her life
23:02
Speaker 1: and not only that. If we do look at her
23:05
Speaker 1: backgrounds and credentials, she has been doing this work. There's
23:09
Speaker 1: no conversation about her being woke. She just is. So
23:12
Speaker 1: with that. Because I'm angry about this, can we talk
23:14
Speaker 1: about some of those qualifications? Oh? Absolutely? So. One of
23:18
Speaker 1: the best ways to counter all the kinds of bs, racist,
23:21
Speaker 1: sexist attacks that you're definitely going to hear about Judge
23:24
Speaker 1: Jackson is to flood the space to counter that with
23:28
Speaker 1: accurate information. So I'm super excited to talk about her
23:31
Speaker 1: actual qualifications. So a little bit of background information about
23:34
Speaker 1: Judge Jackson. She was born in Washington, d C. Shout
23:36
Speaker 1: out to d C, where I am also from. She
23:39
Speaker 1: grew up in Miami, Florida. Her parents started their career
23:42
Speaker 1: as public school teachers and then later became administrators in
23:45
Speaker 1: the Miami Dade County public school system. I love this
23:48
Speaker 1: little fun fact about her. Judge Jackson was a star student,
23:51
Speaker 1: but she was told not to set her sights too
23:53
Speaker 1: high by a guidance counselor when she told that guidance
23:56
Speaker 1: counselor that she wanted to go to Harvard. And guess
23:58
Speaker 1: where she ended up going to college Harvard. That's right,
24:07
Speaker 1: so she definitely like shut that guidance counselor right up.
24:10
Speaker 1: She studied government at Harvard University and attended Harvard Law School,
24:13
Speaker 1: where she was the supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review.
24:16
Speaker 1: So her educational credentials are pretty solid. Yeah, I would say, so.
24:22
Speaker 1: I love that too. I hope that the guidance counselor knows.
24:28
Speaker 1: Oh he knows now. So something else about her is
24:33
Speaker 1: that she is absurdly qualified and experience. So this is
24:36
Speaker 1: from Steve Ladek. Judge Jackson has eight point nine years
24:40
Speaker 1: of prior judicial experience. That's more than four of our
24:43
Speaker 1: current justices Thomas, Roberts, Kagan, and Barrett had combined. It's
24:48
Speaker 1: also more than four of the last ten justices had
24:51
Speaker 1: at their confirmations, nine of the last seventeen, and the
24:53
Speaker 1: forty three of fifty eight appointed since nineteen hundred. So
24:57
Speaker 1: anybody who tells you she is not experienced, anybody that
25:01
Speaker 1: tells you that she's not qualified, anybody that tells you
25:04
Speaker 1: that she only got this position because she's a black woman,
25:07
Speaker 1: it's just misinformed, and they're spreading misinformation because as we
25:10
Speaker 1: can see, she's a very qualified more qualified than you know,
25:14
Speaker 1: some of the current Supreme Court justices, right, which is infuriating.
25:19
Speaker 1: But yes, also, as you mentioned, she's already gone through
25:24
Speaker 1: a lot of vetting, right absolutely, So this is something
25:26
Speaker 1: else that I think people really need to understand. She
25:29
Speaker 1: has been vetted a ton, she has a proven track
25:32
Speaker 1: record of attracting bipartisan support in the Senate. She's already
25:36
Speaker 1: been confirmed three times on a bipartisan vote, So there
25:39
Speaker 1: is no reason to not expect the same now that
25:42
Speaker 1: she's being considered for the Supreme Court again. Lindsay Graham
25:45
Speaker 1: voted to confirm her, Murkowski voted to confirm her, and
25:48
Speaker 1: Collins voted to confirm her. Right, So these are Republicans
25:50
Speaker 1: who broke ranks with their party to side with Democrats
25:53
Speaker 1: to vote to confirm her, and so, having already gone
25:56
Speaker 1: through this process, I would really want, you know, some
26:00
Speaker 1: on Mike Lindsay Graham to sit down with me and
26:01
Speaker 1: explain what changed over the last eight months when he
26:04
Speaker 1: voted to confirm her to the second most important court
26:06
Speaker 1: in the country. Uh to now if he is saying
26:09
Speaker 1: that she is not an appropriate choice, I'm the same
26:12
Speaker 1: with Collins and Murkowski. There's no reason to expect that
26:15
Speaker 1: she should not be able to be confirmed by the Senate,
26:19
Speaker 1: considering she's been vetted and gone through this process three
26:22
Speaker 1: different times before. There are certain people that like thinking
26:26
Speaker 1: about talking to them makes my skin crawls one of them.
26:30
Speaker 1: But yes, I do find it interesting, and this is
26:46
Speaker 1: a whole different conversation again. You know how I love
26:48
Speaker 1: the sidetrack that it is an interesting strategy that Biden
26:52
Speaker 1: and his administration has pulled, not only because this is
26:55
Speaker 1: obviously telling it's like, Okay, this is one of the
26:57
Speaker 1: most qualified people that we could find that we think
27:00
Speaker 1: is deserving and has earned a place in this position.
27:04
Speaker 1: If you who opposed everything we do, are so gonna
27:07
Speaker 1: start arguing, is gonna be a telltale son of who
27:10
Speaker 1: you are and what you're doing. So it's an interesting turn. Again,
27:14
Speaker 1: that's a whole different conversation because I've always interested in
27:17
Speaker 1: good political thriller, and this feels like, you know, I
27:20
Speaker 1: have to do everything a little fictional or movie. Yeah,
27:24
Speaker 1: it's so true because, like you know, and thinking I
27:27
Speaker 1: was thinking about that this morning. I do think it's
27:30
Speaker 1: clear to me that the administration picked someone who had
27:33
Speaker 1: already been like gone through this process a few times,
27:36
Speaker 1: just so that it would be you know, test sort
27:38
Speaker 1: of shut down any kind of you know, consternation there
27:42
Speaker 1: might be in terms of like you know, like vetting
27:45
Speaker 1: her and all of that. And I think it really
27:47
Speaker 1: demonstrates something. I'm not totally sure. This is not a
27:51
Speaker 1: completely fleshed out thought, and I'm not totally sure how
27:53
Speaker 1: it fits into this conversation, but I do think there
27:55
Speaker 1: is this standard for women, women of color and black
27:59
Speaker 1: women where we have to be extra special qualified kind
28:03
Speaker 1: of that standard of women have to do a hundred
28:06
Speaker 1: and thirty more than men in general. And then when
28:10
Speaker 1: you're part of the marginalized community, add on another twenty percent.
28:14
Speaker 1: And then if you're a black woman, add on another
28:17
Speaker 1: of exceeding the standard, exceeding the qualifications because for some reason,
28:23
Speaker 1: you have to be on that level in order to
28:26
Speaker 1: be seen as um serious. So that's just in general.
28:30
Speaker 1: So let's put that in this federal level where they
28:33
Speaker 1: are putting her under a microscope in every way, and
28:36
Speaker 1: not only putting her in micro under a microscope to
28:38
Speaker 1: twist and turn truth. They're going to tell flat out wise.
28:41
Speaker 1: We know this, It's already happening. That's what they're doing. Uh.
28:45
Speaker 1: And we saw this with Kamala Harris, which I really
28:47
Speaker 1: found fascinating because Kamala Harris has a track record as
28:50
Speaker 1: the Attorney General. They lasted her rightfully. It's so for
28:55
Speaker 1: her track record in criminalizing people in general. And when
28:59
Speaker 1: I found out Judge Jackson comes from the public defender,
29:04
Speaker 1: that's right, so super super exciting. Not only would she
29:07
Speaker 1: be historic as the first black woman on the Supreme Court,
29:10
Speaker 1: but also the first public defender to serve on the Court,
29:13
Speaker 1: which is a big deal. She has a long personal
29:16
Speaker 1: history of working as a public defender. While she was
29:18
Speaker 1: at Harvard, A relative was sentenced to life in prison
29:21
Speaker 1: for a non violent drug offense, and she helped convince
29:23
Speaker 1: a law firm to take his case pro bono, eventually
29:26
Speaker 1: leading to having President Obama commute his sentence. And so
29:29
Speaker 1: it is a big deal to have somebody on the
29:31
Speaker 1: Supreme Court who has this legacy of public service in
29:35
Speaker 1: this way. My brother is a lawyer. He got his
29:36
Speaker 1: start as a public defender in Durham, North Carolina. I
29:39
Speaker 1: just love the idea of having someone who has this
29:41
Speaker 1: history because it's it's important, you know. I think that
29:44
Speaker 1: it's often easy to forget that public service should be
29:51
Speaker 1: a pipeline into bigger things, you know, like I want
29:55
Speaker 1: to see more teachers, public educators, public servants be elevated
29:59
Speaker 1: on in a national way like this. So I love
30:02
Speaker 1: that aspect of her Amen former social worker A men.
30:11
Speaker 1: We have this attitude where it's like, if you choose
30:14
Speaker 1: to serve the public, you're some kind of like I
30:17
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't think. I don't think we give
30:19
Speaker 1: people who serve the public that like prompts they deserve
30:23
Speaker 1: and they deserve a lot, and you know what, I
30:26
Speaker 1: have been feeling some emotions for our people in Texas
30:30
Speaker 1: who are social workers, that we know what's happening. They
30:33
Speaker 1: are most people do, I think, especially our listeners. And
30:35
Speaker 1: my heart has been breaking because I already know how
30:38
Speaker 1: divisive that type of conversation is. But going back to
30:41
Speaker 1: Judge Jackson and her public defense, like, Yeah, I have
30:45
Speaker 1: worked with many public defenders, and a good public defender
30:49
Speaker 1: is invaluable in the way that they have to advocate
30:52
Speaker 1: and push for truth and justice. True justice meaning that
30:56
Speaker 1: we are hearing the side and that they are not
30:59
Speaker 1: guilty till even otherwise. And how oftentimes, especially in I'm
31:04
Speaker 1: assuming DC Atlanta was very similar, how often it that
31:07
Speaker 1: gets wrong, and that when we would find as social
31:11
Speaker 1: worker who worked in the judicial system, when I found
31:14
Speaker 1: a good defender, I would and talk to them personally
31:17
Speaker 1: to try to get them onto cases for my kids
31:19
Speaker 1: specifically to make sure that they got what was fair.
31:23
Speaker 1: And that is so huge, So I do my heart
31:26
Speaker 1: is soaring to know that we have someone in that
31:29
Speaker 1: field coming to this point. Yeah, it's it's a pretty
31:33
Speaker 1: historic thing. And yeah, people who serve the public like
31:37
Speaker 1: thoughtfully and meaningfully, they really care about people and so
31:42
Speaker 1: I I applaud you for for you know, going the
31:45
Speaker 1: extra mile to create the conditions for your kids to
31:48
Speaker 1: get real justice and to have a real advocate, because
31:50
Speaker 1: that's not everybody is like that. That's like a special thing. Yeah,
31:54
Speaker 1: this is something that's been on my mind and I
31:55
Speaker 1: think a lot of our minds lately. Which is a
31:57
Speaker 1: separate podcast, but I'll mention it here is I feel
32:01
Speaker 1: in this country we have a real problem with glorifying
32:03
Speaker 1: like male asspilary as being successful, like oh, you manage
32:10
Speaker 1: the system, get your money, like it doesn't matter. Kind
32:13
Speaker 1: of like what we're talking about here, with the hypocritical
32:15
Speaker 1: nature of all these arguments being made, and it's more
32:18
Speaker 1: to me, it feels more about the show and like, oh,
32:20
Speaker 1: I'm a politician, I'm on TV, like it's glorified, whereas
32:24
Speaker 1: we have people who are working for the public, and
32:26
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, these are kind of more
32:28
Speaker 1: gendered as feminine and therefore lesser in nature, like not
32:33
Speaker 1: worth the attention, not worth the accolades, not worth the money,
32:36
Speaker 1: even though it's so critical to a functioning society. But yeah,
32:45
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I mean I could talk all day
32:47
Speaker 1: the way that we have harmed everyone a deep, deep
32:52
Speaker 1: societal harm is our legacy of not respecting jobs that
32:57
Speaker 1: we code as feminine, that traditionally femin and so care work,
33:01
Speaker 1: you know, social work, education, all of these things that
33:05
Speaker 1: we have coded as feminine. The de prioritization and just
33:09
Speaker 1: like outright degradation and disrespect of those I think that
33:12
Speaker 1: the ramifications we will never fully be able to contend
33:16
Speaker 1: with as a society. How much that has harmed us.
33:18
Speaker 1: The way that you know, people who do care work
33:21
Speaker 1: are are underpaid, if they're paid at all, just the
33:24
Speaker 1: just the way that we don't even factor it in
33:27
Speaker 1: and it just falls on unpaid women, right, Like, this
33:31
Speaker 1: is what I mean when I say women are the
33:32
Speaker 1: backbone of our country and our society, and oftentimes that
33:36
Speaker 1: work is just completely not just unpaid, but unseen, unacknowledged.
33:40
Speaker 1: It's just like the cost of society functioning. And so
33:44
Speaker 1: I think that this country sometimes the only thing that
33:47
Speaker 1: is standing between our our country and like complete collapse
33:51
Speaker 1: is the effort and labor of some exhausted women. Is
33:57
Speaker 1: let's be honest at this point in time, is black
33:59
Speaker 1: women like I been thinking, Like when we talked about
34:01
Speaker 1: the elections before Biden, the Biden administration, the amount of
34:05
Speaker 1: work that has to be done. When we talked about
34:08
Speaker 1: cases like Aubrey Ahmed and all of those, how women
34:11
Speaker 1: have been forefront in protesting and bringing up all of
34:14
Speaker 1: these conversations and the continued work that they have to do.
34:18
Speaker 1: But not only that, like, not only are they working
34:20
Speaker 1: to do good, but they're often having to combat all
34:24
Speaker 1: of the disinformation and harmful things that are being set
34:26
Speaker 1: about them because they are doing the hard work exactly.
34:30
Speaker 1: I mean that really leads us back to, you know,
34:33
Speaker 1: Judge Jackson. Just so so, Judge Jackson, I think I
34:36
Speaker 1: got the email that she was going to be the
34:38
Speaker 1: pick at like eight thirty this morning, and so we're
34:41
Speaker 1: talking at two pm and so already to send in
34:44
Speaker 1: a couple of hours. Here are some of the unfair
34:47
Speaker 1: or just completely misleading attacks I've seen on her. One
34:50
Speaker 1: is that you know, her decisions have been overturned, when
34:52
Speaker 1: in reality, of her roughly six hundred decisions that she
34:55
Speaker 1: has authored, she has been overruled just two percent of
34:59
Speaker 1: the time, right, And so if someone is telling you
35:01
Speaker 1: that in her career as a judge, her decisions have
35:04
Speaker 1: been routinely overruled, or overturned. That's just not true. It's
35:07
Speaker 1: happened two percent, less than two percent of the time. Uh,
35:10
Speaker 1: the idea that she's an affirmative action higher, that she
35:12
Speaker 1: only got the job because she's a black woman, when
35:14
Speaker 1: in reality, she is clearly absurdly qualified. To the point
35:17
Speaker 1: we're even talking about it seems ridiculous. Um, this idea
35:20
Speaker 1: that she's too woke or too radical. One thing I
35:23
Speaker 1: would say is really be wary of people throwing things
35:27
Speaker 1: like that around without being able to point to a
35:30
Speaker 1: specific ruling or policy or argument that she makes. Right, So,
35:34
Speaker 1: just saying somebody so and so is too radical and
35:37
Speaker 1: then not having it be attached to any kind of
35:40
Speaker 1: actual policy that you think demonstrates that. Be wary of
35:43
Speaker 1: people who are who are saying that, because, in my opinion,
35:46
Speaker 1: nine times out of ten, when someone is saying that,
35:48
Speaker 1: what they actually mean is this person is a black woman.
35:51
Speaker 1: And then this idea of just sort of kind of
35:54
Speaker 1: connecting her to things for no real reason, with no
35:58
Speaker 1: real explanation as to like why you are connecting her
36:01
Speaker 1: to these things. And so earlier today, miss McConnell tweeted,
36:05
Speaker 1: the Senate must conduct a vigorous exhaustive review of Judge
36:08
Speaker 1: Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court. This is especially crucial
36:11
Speaker 1: as American families face major crises that connect directly to
36:14
Speaker 1: our legal systems, such as skyrocketing violent crime and open borders.
36:18
Speaker 1: So what does Judge Jackson have to do with open
36:20
Speaker 1: borders exactly? What does she have to do with violent crime? Exactly?
36:23
Speaker 1: You know, the fact that he's just throwing her in,
36:26
Speaker 1: you know, connecting her to these these things. I think, really,
36:30
Speaker 1: I think this is a moment where we will really
36:32
Speaker 1: be rewarded by really thinking critically about what people are
36:36
Speaker 1: saying and what they're saying in between the lines. And
36:38
Speaker 1: I think that really, to me, demonstrates a tricky truth
36:43
Speaker 1: about the nature of racialized and gender disinformation. I think
36:46
Speaker 1: most people can tell you that there is misleading or
36:49
Speaker 1: an accurate information out there about like COVID or vaccines.
36:52
Speaker 1: But misinformation can be a lot trickier to spot and
36:55
Speaker 1: talk about when it relies on dog whistles, you know,
36:58
Speaker 1: the same way that someone say like, oh, a woman
37:01
Speaker 1: is too emotional to lead, and that's just code for
37:04
Speaker 1: being a woman. Oftentimes people are using dog whistles or
37:08
Speaker 1: coded language to attack women, women of color, and other
37:12
Speaker 1: marginalized folks with this kind of like highly coded language
37:16
Speaker 1: that can be so tough to to really call out
37:18
Speaker 1: and talk about for what it is. Yeah, and it's
37:21
Speaker 1: such a Again, it's one of those things. It's such
37:24
Speaker 1: a double standard and it's so hypocritical. But I think
37:27
Speaker 1: back to Kavanaugh. He's like crying these angry tears. He's
37:31
Speaker 1: like confirmation, Wait, this is what you're not going to
37:36
Speaker 1: call him emotional notes. He's being awarded for being emotional
37:40
Speaker 1: as a man because that's difficult for them because he's trying,
37:44
Speaker 1: because he's being accused of sexual assault. Right, Yes, isn't
37:51
Speaker 1: it funny how like we've been we've branded anger as
37:55
Speaker 1: not an emotion, so like whomen are too emotional? It's like, well, men,
37:59
Speaker 1: if men get angry in public, is that not an emotion?
38:02
Speaker 1: And how come the two emotional? You know, banner is
38:05
Speaker 1: not used to identify that as an emotion. Yes, oh,
38:09
Speaker 1: I could talk about that forever. What is the cartoon
38:15
Speaker 1: with all the emotions inside out? And well inside out
38:20
Speaker 1: taught me different anger's emotion. I saw it. I'm surprised,
38:24
Speaker 1: just saw that. You avoid those said, so do I cried,
38:28
Speaker 1: well good. I was sad last night. My partner trying
38:32
Speaker 1: to made me watch Paddington again. I was like, how
38:33
Speaker 1: dare you know? It was Paddington too? I didn't trust
38:37
Speaker 1: them after the first one. Anyway, that's fair. Uh. Something
38:43
Speaker 1: else that I has been on my mind, and it
38:47
Speaker 1: has been a source of frustration for a lot of
38:49
Speaker 1: as in that we've talked about on your segments when
38:51
Speaker 1: you come on Bridges is this kind of what you
38:53
Speaker 1: mentioned is like, not only is Judge Jackson facing all
39:00
Speaker 1: of this like job interview that's very intensive, but then
39:05
Speaker 1: there's all of these attacks online that are racist and sexist,
39:09
Speaker 1: and I we've talked about it. It's not unique to
39:14
Speaker 1: this area because we've talked about it in terms of
39:16
Speaker 1: video games and we've talked about in terms of entertainment.
39:18
Speaker 1: But I feel like that's already a term of gatekeeping.
39:20
Speaker 1: This is already an extra thing you're asking people and
39:23
Speaker 1: the people that know them, like their families and friends,
39:26
Speaker 1: to deal with, and we just seem to accept that
39:29
Speaker 1: as the status quo of being a marginalized person that
39:33
Speaker 1: exists in our media landscape. Absolutely, you know I I
39:40
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you put it that way because
39:42
Speaker 1: I think that we have this understanding that it's just
39:44
Speaker 1: the cost of doing business as a marginalized person. And
39:47
Speaker 1: if you don't want this kind of thing to happen
39:49
Speaker 1: to you, then just don't speak and don't express opinions,
39:53
Speaker 1: and don't strive, and don't put yourself out there and
39:55
Speaker 1: don't become a public figure and don't serve your public
39:57
Speaker 1: and don't like it's just a whole list of don'ts.
39:59
Speaker 1: And so I really want to urge people to have
40:02
Speaker 1: a shift around their understanding of that and said and
40:04
Speaker 1: say like, we deserve to have a media landscape where
40:07
Speaker 1: everybody can speak up, everybody can participate, and that you're
40:10
Speaker 1: not going to be attacked on fairly based on your
40:13
Speaker 1: identity just for putting yourself out there. And so I
40:15
Speaker 1: want to quickly talk about some research from the Institute
40:17
Speaker 1: for Strategic Dialogue, and they analyze social media abuse of
40:20
Speaker 1: candidates and found that women of color candidates are targeted
40:23
Speaker 1: on social media at alarming rates. UM. They analyze all
40:26
Speaker 1: these different messages that UM these candidates were getting, and
40:29
Speaker 1: they found that abusive messages accounted for more than fifteen
40:32
Speaker 1: percent of those directed at every female lawmaker they analyze,
40:35
Speaker 1: compared with around five to ten percent of the male candidates.
40:39
Speaker 1: Women of color were particularly likely to be targeted. Representative
40:42
Speaker 1: il Han Omar got the highest proportion thirty nine percent
40:45
Speaker 1: of abusive messages of all the candidates, and AOC got
40:48
Speaker 1: the highest ratio of abusive comments on Facebook. And when
40:51
Speaker 1: you're talking about women, uh, the abuse directed towards women
40:55
Speaker 1: is much more likely to be about their gender than
40:57
Speaker 1: the abuse has targeting men. Abuse targeting men was much
41:00
Speaker 1: more generalized and focus on their political stances, while messages
41:03
Speaker 1: directed at women were much more likely to focus on
41:06
Speaker 1: either appearance or general competence. And so, yeah, I mean you,
41:10
Speaker 1: if you are a woman or a marginalized person who
41:13
Speaker 1: is putting yourself out there in this way, you deserve
41:15
Speaker 1: to be judged on your merits, your record, your words,
41:18
Speaker 1: your deeds, your values, not your identity, not racist sexist tropes,
41:23
Speaker 1: not you know, nonsense about women or women of color
41:26
Speaker 1: not being good leaders, are being unqualified. You deserve to
41:29
Speaker 1: really have your record speak for itself. And I have
41:32
Speaker 1: to say it's not just sort of I talk a
41:35
Speaker 1: lot about you know, online bad actors. It's not just
41:39
Speaker 1: fringe extremists. We also see mainstream media outlets playing a
41:43
Speaker 1: huge role in legitimizing and mainstreaming racist sexist attacks on
41:47
Speaker 1: women of color in public office. And so you know,
41:50
Speaker 1: you might see things like an article about some complete
41:53
Speaker 1: racist nonsense or a complete racist attack being quoted in
41:58
Speaker 1: the headline of an article. So when people share it
42:00
Speaker 1: on social media, it provides the impression that this is
42:03
Speaker 1: a legitimate grievance that somebody might have instead of just
42:06
Speaker 1: a racist attack. Right, And so we are really calling
42:09
Speaker 1: on media to not create the conditions for these kind
42:13
Speaker 1: of racist sexist attacks to fester and spread. Right. I
42:16
Speaker 1: think that this is a time that really requires everybody,
42:20
Speaker 1: whether you are a journalist or an editor or just
42:22
Speaker 1: a regular person on social media, to really be careful
42:26
Speaker 1: and thoughtful about how you are talking about this very
42:31
Speaker 1: visible black woman who is going up for this very
42:34
Speaker 1: visible position in the Supreme Court. Okay, I feel like
42:37
Speaker 1: you just let us into this. So tell us the
42:39
Speaker 1: listeners and US voters and UH constituents who are here
42:44
Speaker 1: to not only look and see and view and be
42:48
Speaker 1: the audience, but participate in help stopping this harmful disinformation.
42:52
Speaker 1: What do we need to do to make sure that
42:55
Speaker 1: we are not only engaging in that, but not being
42:58
Speaker 1: a part of that, but not spreading that. I'm so
43:00
Speaker 1: glad you asked. So first, it's just you know, if
43:02
Speaker 1: you see like a harmful racist, sexist attack or a
43:06
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory, first and foremost, don't spread it. Nine times
43:10
Speaker 1: out of Tenant you see this kind of thing, if
43:12
Speaker 1: you retweet it or like comment on it, you're actually
43:15
Speaker 1: just helping it grow and spread. Because of the algorithmic
43:18
Speaker 1: nature of most of our social media platforms, and so
43:20
Speaker 1: the platform is going to think like, oh, this person
43:22
Speaker 1: is engaging with this, it must be good content. I'm
43:24
Speaker 1: going to surface it for more people. So don't do that.
43:27
Speaker 1: Focus instead on sharing accurate, timely information about the issues
43:32
Speaker 1: and the candidates. Right, So, talk to people about Judge
43:35
Speaker 1: Jackson's actual record, talk to people about her actual positions
43:39
Speaker 1: and where she actually stands. That that will kind of
43:41
Speaker 1: provide a little bit of taking the oxygen out of
43:45
Speaker 1: the kinds of racist, sexist, gendered attacks we are shut
43:48
Speaker 1: to see. You can go to we are ultra violet
43:50
Speaker 1: dot org and check out our media kit. Really asking
43:53
Speaker 1: for the media to create the conditions for this person
43:56
Speaker 1: to be you know, fairly judged and fairly talked about
43:59
Speaker 1: and and and fair assessed by the American public. And
44:02
Speaker 1: also the last one I would say is like, just
44:05
Speaker 1: really ask questions and be I think this is a
44:08
Speaker 1: time where we will really be rewarded if we are
44:10
Speaker 1: interested in being critical thinkers. Right, So when someone says like, oh,
44:14
Speaker 1: she's too radical, but can't give you a single thing
44:17
Speaker 1: that backs up what they're saying, or when someone says like, oh,
44:20
Speaker 1: she's just gonna be really woke, you know, really being
44:22
Speaker 1: able to ask, you know, what do you mean by that?
44:24
Speaker 1: What is? What? What? What? When you say woke? Like,
44:26
Speaker 1: what does that mean? What are you trying to say?
44:27
Speaker 1: I have found that to be really useful when I'm
44:30
Speaker 1: having conversations, particularly with people that may not be aligned
44:33
Speaker 1: with me politically, you know, really getting down to what
44:37
Speaker 1: is the substitutive thing that you are trying to say.
44:39
Speaker 1: And if the answer is well, I just don't like
44:42
Speaker 1: her because she's a black woman and I don't like
44:43
Speaker 1: black women, then say that so we can so we
44:46
Speaker 1: can you know, address that for what it is. Be
44:50
Speaker 1: loud about it, because you know you're already pretty much
44:52
Speaker 1: saying it, right, Like say it with your chest. If
44:54
Speaker 1: you're gonna say just do it, you're already doing it.
44:58
Speaker 1: It feels hypocritical for me to ask this, so I
45:00
Speaker 1: apologize from the jump, But as non black women and
45:05
Speaker 1: for our male identifying listeners, what can we do to
45:10
Speaker 1: make sure because we know we already know black women
45:13
Speaker 1: are just the out. But the fact of the matter is,
45:17
Speaker 1: with this is going to come on to so many
45:19
Speaker 1: more attacks is visceral. We we know what's gonna happen.
45:23
Speaker 1: We know it, and it's gonna be harmful and it's
45:25
Speaker 1: gonna be gross. And not only should we do all
45:27
Speaker 1: the things that you told us to do, but what
45:29
Speaker 1: can we do to ease load a but help fight
45:35
Speaker 1: for y'all? In general? I love this question. I would say,
45:40
Speaker 1: first of all, it's probably a tall order, but I
45:43
Speaker 1: would love to see a shift where we understand that
45:47
Speaker 1: this fight is all of our fight, like we are
45:50
Speaker 1: that you know, the more marginalized you are, the more
45:52
Speaker 1: you are a target. But this kind of thing really
45:55
Speaker 1: harms us all as I think seeing this work as
45:58
Speaker 1: all of our work to create a how healthy democracy
46:01
Speaker 1: is really key, and so these kinds of attacks, they
46:04
Speaker 1: don't just hurt the women that are subjected to them.
46:07
Speaker 1: They really have a meaningful impact on the health and
46:11
Speaker 1: well being of our democracy, because we can't have a
46:14
Speaker 1: fully functioning representative democracy if everybody is not able to
46:19
Speaker 1: use their voice, if everybody is not able to participate.
46:21
Speaker 1: And so step one of that really comes with having
46:24
Speaker 1: a healthy media ecosystem and a healthy climate for everybody
46:28
Speaker 1: to be able to participate. And so I would say
46:30
Speaker 1: really working to see these attacks on marginalized people as
46:35
Speaker 1: all of our fight, because all of us are invested
46:37
Speaker 1: in having a healthy democracy, whether you are a man,
46:40
Speaker 1: a woman, black, white, like, it is all of our fight.
46:43
Speaker 1: And so really being able to to see this as
46:48
Speaker 1: something that you're meaningfully invested in, not just because it's
46:51
Speaker 1: the right thing to do, which it is, but because
46:53
Speaker 1: we all deserve to have a functioning democracy. Yes, I
46:58
Speaker 1: love it, well said as always, bridget any other resources
47:01
Speaker 1: you want to shout out, any final thoughts, Yeah, I
47:04
Speaker 1: would I I have to just again shout out the
47:07
Speaker 1: work of Sister Scotis. They have been really doing a
47:10
Speaker 1: lot of the work of building this infrastructure to hold
47:13
Speaker 1: by an accountable for this campaign promise that he made.
47:15
Speaker 1: So their their website is awesome. The women who run
47:18
Speaker 1: it are awesome, so definitely check them out. You can
47:20
Speaker 1: check out Ultra violets work. You know, we are doing
47:22
Speaker 1: a lot of the work of trying to inoculate folks
47:26
Speaker 1: against disinformation and like help people spot it when they
47:29
Speaker 1: see it and identify it. So you can check us
47:31
Speaker 1: out at we are ultra violet dot org. And of
47:33
Speaker 1: course you can always check out my podcast There Are
47:36
Speaker 1: No Girls on the Internet. Check out our new season
47:38
Speaker 1: which is dropping March first, and yeah, we would love
47:42
Speaker 1: to have you there. Yes, yes, award winning podcast. You
47:47
Speaker 1: haven't that subscribe button already? Why? Yes? Yes, I agree?
47:53
Speaker 1: Why what are you waiting for? What are you doing? Yes?
47:59
Speaker 1: Which as this episode releases, that should just be airing
48:03
Speaker 1: so perfectly timely, very exciting and we can't wait to
48:07
Speaker 1: talk to you again. Bridget Thank you, thank you, thank
48:10
Speaker 1: you so much as always for being here. You are
48:12
Speaker 1: the best. We love you. Thank you so much for
48:14
Speaker 1: having me. It's been kind of fun talking about this
48:16
Speaker 1: like very timely issue that is like happening today as
48:19
Speaker 1: opposed to looking back on it. So thank you for
48:22
Speaker 1: giving me the space to do that. Yes, absolutely, anytime,
48:26
Speaker 1: and thank you listeners for listening. If you would like
48:28
Speaker 1: to contact us, you can our emailus, stuff to your mom,
48:31
Speaker 1: stuff that I hurted me, you dot com, you find
48:32
Speaker 1: us on Twitter at mom, s to podcast or Instagram,
48:34
Speaker 1: and stuff I've never told you. Thanks as always to
48:36
Speaker 1: our super producer Christie, we love you. To Chris Data,
48:39
Speaker 1: Yes you're the best. We love you, and thanks to
48:42
Speaker 1: you for listening. Stuff one ever told the instruction of
48:43
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