As Seen on TV

For years Black Lady Judge has been a fixture in film and television, a negro of extra numinousity* and implied wisdom, as part of the more than half-century long and continuing propaganda campaign conveying black people as more capable and humane than they are in real life–the cultural tyranny long preceding the present social and political tyranny it has been essential in effecting, and which is now wildly, Wakanda-ly, out of control.

Those of us of a certain age have long known Black Lady Judge, near relation to Black Police Chief (gruff but fair) and Black High School Principal (familiar enough to be parodied, when such things were still allowed): here she is pursing her lips at an insolent attorney; there she is raising her eyebrows and lowering her glasses to warn a line of questioning is straying, but she’ll “allow it” for the moment. See her? Serenely dignified, she always has the best posture.

We grew up with this cast of virtuous characters; for our own good we had to be nurtured on this noble lie. So goes the charitable version–that it’s mere stupidity and not malice by which it was decided the least accomplished of us must be elevated, celebrated and privileged, precisely because of that lack of accomplishment, because it’s our fault, you see, because racism.

The remedy to the mediocrity we’ve somehow forced on black people has long been to ignore mediocrity and force blacks onto institutions, consequences be damned (whatever the case they won’t be known, since to suggest they exist would be racist). Biden’s clown-crash of an administration is a case study.

The practice of equal representation resembles the practice of a cargo cult, whereby the image of ability and character is expected to spontaneously produce the real thing–taking no account of how the real thing is produced, or even what it actually is. This notion occurred to me when considering the musical Hamilton. The rapidity with which that recent cultural phenomenon has lapsed into the quaint, well on its way to being considered problematic, follows the overall course of society–condescension and tokenism within “white systems” and values has yielded less, not more, peace and more, not less, anti-white resentment. Access to the institutions gives way to their destruction.

And we had every reason to see it coming–through the decades Hollywood and New York have been consciously applying a strategy on behalf of black Americans: we’ll-fake-it-til-you-make-it. They’re still faking it and blacks are still not making it. As blacks cannot be found wanting–not against anything–naturally our institutions and ideals must be found wanting. This is precisely where we are–though it would be naive to think, still, that the welfare of blacks is the end goal here. No; it’s the destruction of the institutions that is the end and black people–despite the religiosity of their worship–the means. But that’s a longer story.

Long before today’s seemingly sudden tyranny of color one reigned on TV. First you can’t represent things as they are, then you can’t have them as they are.

All of this came to mind when I saw the latest clown-burst taking out another institutional pillar:

President Joe Biden delivered remarks Thursday on the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer – and confirmed he would select a black woman to be Breyer’s replacement, which prompted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to immediately stoke fears the president would select someone endorsed by the ‘radical left.’ 

‘Our process is going to be rigorous. I will select a nominee worthy of Justice Breyer’s legacy of excellence and decency,’ Biden said. ‘While I’ve been studying candidates’ backgrounds and writings, I’ve made no decision except one: the person I will nominate will be someone of extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity.’ 

‘And that person will be the first black woman ever nominated to the Supreme Court,’ the president added…

Biden said it was ‘long overdue’ and noted how he had made that commitment during the 2020 campaign – as part of a pledge to secure a key endorsement from South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the most powerful black member of Congress. ‘And I will keep that commitment,’ Biden said. 

Whoever the nominee is, she’s got big shoes to fill. Black Lady Judge wears clown-size.

*This link is to an essay I wouldn’t normally recommend, for it’s actually kind of awful, but the “numinous negro” insight it made must be recognized–just, in reading it now it’s hopelessly naive and wrong in its argument; its original full title: “The Numinous Negro: His importance in our lives; why he is fading“–the author had no clue.