Opinion | Kavanaugh hearings reveal a shared struggle
Daniel Espiritu, junior policial science major
President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, gave a testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Sept. 27. Supreme Court justices are appointed to a lifeterm and can affect the lives of millions of people, so it’s clear why many watched the Kavanaugh hearings.
The justice who is confirmed by the U.S. Senate will play a large part in shaping the course of U.S. politics for the rest of his or her life term. Kavanaugh’s nomination process has been unusual because he has been accused of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by four women.
A more reasonable leader might immediately begin looking for a new nominee to ensure that the highest court in the country will be occupied with people of integrity (or at least to avoid a scandal). But, as you may already know, Trump is no such president. Power struggles surrounding race and gender are arguably at the root of this entire ordeal.
Rather than trying to smooth the situation over, Trump almost immediately defended Kavanaugh, claiming that the allegations were part of a “a big, fat con job” and that Democrats intentionally “destroyed a man’s reputation,” even saying that he sympathizes with Kavanaugh because he has also been the subject of “false accusations.”
The president’s supporters might argue that Trump is giving his nominee the benefit of the doubt. Whether or not that is the case, where is that level of fairness for people of color?
“Central Park Five,” a 2012 PBS documentary, describes the aftermath of an incident where a woman jogging in New York City’s Central Park was assaulted and raped. Five black and Latino teenagers between the ages of 14 and 16 were found guilty of rape after the police were able to produce coerced confessions on video, according to the New York Times.
Evidence found later revealed that the boys were innocent. All five of the boys ended up serving between seven to 13 years in prison for crimes they didn’t commit, according to the article.
In 1989 when the boys were arrested, Trump took out a full-page ad in four New York newspapers calling for the death penalty.
While on the 2016 election campaign trail, Trump said that he still believes the Central Park Five guilty, despite the DNA evidence that proves their innocence. Later that year, Trump often mentioned an ongoing investigation into an undocumented immigrant who was accused of shooting and killing Kathryn Steinle, a Bay Area woman
After Trump won the election, the accused man was found not guilty and Trump called the ruling “disgraceful.”
Why, despite DNA evidence that proves these people of color are innocent, can’t Trump seem to let his contempt for them go? And why is it that even after the justice system found the accused undocumented immigrant innocent, Trump still characterizes the ruling as “disgraceful” while holding that Kavanaugh is being treated unfairly? Where is the justice for people of color?
The answer is simple. In the eyes of Trump and many of his supporters, there is no justice for people of color in the U.S. Since Trump is leading the effort to silence the women that came forward against his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, he is showing us that he doesn’t believe in justice for women, either.
As long as people like Trump stay in power, women and people of color will continue to be silenced, as well as subjected to violence and inequitable criminal scrutiny. As always, women of color will be forced to bear the brunt of these injustices.
As marginalized people, we should recognize that we’re stronger united. Race and gender play a role in how our political institutions operate.
If our goal is to have a government whose aim is to create a society where justice and equality are considered inalienable rights, society needs to come together and work to balance the systems of power within U.S. political institutions. And if that doesn’t work, we need to ask which systems of power are actually for the benefit of the people – and which only exist to benefit an exclusive group.