Blackburn Blows the CRT Dog Whistle

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Marsha Blackburn, a GOP senator from Tennessee, is operating well beyond her competence level.    Blackburn has a seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, a perch which gives her an irresponsible amount of time before press cameras, especially when there is something of interest before the committee, such as a proposed impeachment or the appointment of a Supreme Court Justice.

Today the ambitious senator from the Volunteer State had the opportunity to question Joe Biden's first nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Blackburn, of course, was quick to unleash a GOP bogeyman and sic him on the jurist.  Her particular bogeyman, a vague concept that the Republicans use to scare the bejeezus out of their racist base, is something they refer to as "Critical Race Theory," or CRT.

Although Republican politicians, or any politicians for that matter, are unable to specify exactly what Critical Race Theory actually is, or name anyplace where it is taught, they know that it has something to do with teaching about the actual racial strife that has been occurring in the United States since just after the first slave ships from Africa began arriving on American shores.   It is a story of the sordid aspects of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the long struggle to integrate society, and it is not a story that some people, such as those who feel threatened by the empowerment of racial minorities, want told.

Some Republican politicians and voters say they are  very concerned that the teaching of America's history of racial strife will make some students feel bad - or even humiliated.    They are really concerned that educating children about racial conflicts of the past will lead to a more equitable future for those who have long suffered from the effects of oppression - and when the lower classes rise, there will be fewer people to look down upon.

So enter Marsha Blackburn and turn her loose on the first Black woman in history to be nominated for a seat on the US Supreme Court.  The American Bar Association had already given Judge Brown Jackson its highest possible rating to serve on the Court, so it would be pointless to waste too much time on questioning her qualifications.  The Fraternal Order of Police had also endorsed the black jurist, so painting her as a radical, even if she is black, would also require a careful approach so as not too backfire.  Blackburn referenced a few of the judge's past decisions and did her best to paint the jurist as a radical, but those decisions were not the senator's major thrust

In the end the Senator chose to primarily attack Judge Brown Jackson with Critical Race Theory, something that is ethereal in nature but nevertheless a triggering factor for the rural white voters - like those in Iowa, New Hampshire, and even Tennessee - the people to whom she was actually speaking.  Blackburn asked Judge Brown if she intended to insert CRT into the nation's legal system.

By attacking with that weapon, Blackburn was also reminding her base that the nominee is a black woman with a strange sounding first name - one of the "others" and not one of "us."  It was not a serious question, just a statement disguised as a question - and it did not have to make sense.

Dog whistles are like car alarms - they serve no purpose whatsoever except to get people angry and excited.