Let’s Talk About Amy Coney Barrett’s Description of Her Black Children
SCOTUS nominee Amy Coney Barrett (who is likely to be confirmed very soon) is the adoptive mother of two Black children born in Haiti. In the early days of her confirmation hearings, Barrett spoke fondly of all seven of her children, but the words she used to describe her Black kids were eerily reminiscent of harmful stereotypes. She spoke mostly of her adoptive children’s physical attributes as opposed to the intellectual and emotional achievements she ascribed to her biological children.
“Amy’s words, while dressed in maternal affection, did not paint her Black children as whole humans,” writes Medium contributor Bonsu Thompson. “When the words of White people fail to paint Blacks with dimension or as fully developed thinkers — especially next to the fairer-skinned — it leaves room for sharecropping nightmares, Homestead Act exclusion, and mass incarceration ushering in the New Jim Crow.”
While there’s no reason to doubt that Barrett loves and cares for all of her children, the fact remains that her Black kids are going to navigate a very different world than their White siblings. The Black children will encounter harmful stereotypes about their physicality and intelligence. Words matter, and a future Supreme Court justice (and mother of Black children) should remember that.
