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I want to cheer for President Barack Obama. I want to believe that his decisions are sound, intelligent and good for our nation, but that trust is undermined at times, and to the ire of some of my friends, I can't help but share what's truly on my mind. My discomfort with Obama's decision-making ability comes to the forefront of my conscience when I evaluate Elena Kagan, Obama's most recent nominee to the Supreme Court.
On the surface, Kagan seems okay. She presents herself as the standard liberal who we would expect Obama to nominate, someone who might be a small step toward filling the incredibly large shoes of retired Justice John Paul Stevens. As they say in the military, "Check." Kagan has also shown the ambition and focus necessary to make herself into a star in the legal profession, opening doors for women everywhere she went. "Double-check." Finally, her experience as solicitor general means that she has worked closely with the Supreme Court in the past, and that she would also be good at building a consensus among other members of the court. "Check, check, check."
But there is something disturbing about Kagan's resume, something that is almost irritatingly redundant about her path to the top of American politics. The Obamaesque"nature of her resume honestly wreaks of the elitist cronyism that most of us have come to expect from President Obama's less-than-stellar appointments during his presidency. Let's start from the top, shall we?
1) Kagan was a professor at the University of Chicago: Isn't Obama also out of Chicago and didn't he also teach at that same university? Didn't he recruit nearly half of the city of Chicago to Washington when he was elected? Does that mean that every qualified politician must live in Chicago at some point in his or her life?
2) Kagan was dean of Harvard Law School: Didn't Obama also graduate from Harvard? Wasn't Kagan appointed by Lawrence Summers, Obama's chief economic adviser (the same guy who disrespected the scholarship of Cornel West and said that women might possibly be intellectually inferior to men)? Does this mean that we sought out the best person for the job or the best Obama crony for the job? It appears that either attending school or playing basketball with President Obama is more important than actually having solid credentials.
Also, did we make a law stating that Harvard and Yale are the only legitimate law schools in America? Does it make any sense whatsoever that eight out of nine of the current justices went to Harvard or Yale for their law degrees? If Kagan is selected, that will be a Harvard-Yale sweep, completely undermining the ability of the court to connect to the common man and woman in our country. If you somehow think that every bright person in the United States comes out of Harvard or Yale, you should only remember that former President George W. Bush graduated from both of these schools. Yes, my friends, getting all of our justices (and most of our presidents) from the same two universities means that we are not interested in finding the best people for the job. Excluding 99 percent of America from these opportunities severely weakens our nation.
3) Did you know that Kagan has ties to Goldman Sachs, the company now accused of ripping off investors? In 2008, Kagan was a member of the Research Advisory Council for the Goldman Sachs Global Markets Institute. No, this doesn't imply that Kagan is as dirty as the rest of the dirty bankers, but we are reminded of (again Obamaesque redundancy) the Wall Street ties of many of Obama's best political buddies. As Obama claims to fight Wall Street during his time as president, just wait to see how many members of his team take Wall Street jobs when their political careers are over.
4) No experience on the bench? Are you kidding me? Again, I am not here to say that Kagan is incapable of serving as an adequate Supreme Court justice. After all, Clarence Thomas can do the job, so pretty much anyone can handle it. But don't you think for one second that there might be another brilliant legal mind out there who has actually served on the bench who might also be an adequate or perhaps (surprise!) better nominee than Kagan? But this hypothetical candidate doesn't have the benefit of hanging out with President Obama at Harvard or the University of Chicago, which makes her inherently unqualified for the job. Unfortunate.
5) Here's the kicker - Kagan didn't hire one single African American professor while serving as dean of Harvard Law School. Yes, my friends, that's racist. Given all the racism in academia (black professors are always passed over for positions for which they are qualified, since the elitism of academia is very Jim Crow-like in nature), it is quite telling that President Obama would be willing to nominate someone who has shown a clear bias against hiring people of color. Ethnic diversity was clearly at the bottom of the Kagan priority list, since you can't convince me that Harvard University isn't receiving scores of applications from top black attorneys and law professors from throughout the nation. According to Duke University Law professor Guy-Uriel Charles, Kagan had 29 hires during her tenure, and none of them were black, Latino or Native American (28 were white and one was Asian). So we can either believe, as Kagan appears to think, that there is no black person on earth qualified to be hired at Harvard Law School or that she sat idly and allowed a racially discriminatory set of hiring practices steal opportunities from promising young legal minds. Given that only Harvard and Yale grads need apply for the Supreme Court under Obama, Kagan (like Thomas) will gladly accept the benefits of affirmative action, and then pull the ladder up behind her. As a black man, it does me no good to support the idea of having yet another Harvard-educated liberal on the Supreme Court who seems to think that black and brown people are second-class citizens. I've seen enough of that.
The White House is in defense mode, attempting to argue that Kagan is the best that black folks can expect to receive. An article by black Harvard Law professor Randall Kennedy tries to defend Kagan's abysmal hiring record by explaining the intricacies of the Harvard Law School hiring process. I honestly wonder if Kennedy's arguments are focused on seeking racial justice or about maintaining the political power of the Harvard University Law School. A deeper investigation of Kagan's hiring record, though, shows that she hired, "one white man, three white women, one Asian man and one Indian man." So, if we buy in to the idea that Kagan was somehow the most powerless Harvard Law School dean in history (and thus had no power to decide who the school chose to hire), I would presume she had some say in the hiring of her staff when she served as solicitor general of the United States.
Also, if Kagan was not able or willing to promote diversity for underrepresented minority faculty while serving as (in the words of Randall Kennedy) "the single-most influential member of the faculty," why would she be expected to get the job done while serving on the Supreme Court? Salon.com does an excellent analysis of Kagan's poor hiring record, explaining why the White House really has no defense on this issue. The truth is that Kagan may have cared for black and brown people in her heart, but she didn't have the courage or desire to risk her personal success for the sake of supporting people of color. That makes her no different from Thomas Jefferson, who despised slavery but did not have the moral courage to fight it. I am tired of African Americans simply taking what we can get. We deserve the same respect as everyone else.
I do not support the nomination of Kagan to the Supreme Court. Perhaps next time, we can find the best person for the job. If America is truly a melting pot and meritocracy, then why does the brown stuff always seem to get left at the bottom? Perhaps if I were a white male from Harvard University, I might understand the secret.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the new book, "Black American Money." To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. 
Comments: (50)
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By: Brenda Adrine on 5/16/2010 8:15PM
Jay & Jada,
I don't consider myself narrowminded or racist. I have been involved in politics for many years and this is the frist time in my life that I've heard or seen such disrespect for the president of the US. I believe that God is in control of everything. When Bush was elected the second term (by means we won't mention)I knewthat he wouldn't be there unless God intended him to be there. The same holds true for President Obama. If Bush had not gotten in and messed up so bad, President Obama probably would never have gotten in office.
As for him cleaning up the mess he was left with, look at what he has tried to do and all the things he has accomplished even with every republican fighting everything he tries to implement. I say God bless our president. And anyone who can't be a help in getting things done, get out of the way.
I did not vote for him because he's black (as a matter of fact, he's the best of both worlds, black & white)I voted for him because he was the best candidate. You two are the ones who sound racist. You both seem oblivious to what it takes to run tis country. The president cannot run it by himself. Stop hating and see what you can do to make it better.
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By: Xavier Carter on 5/14/2010 5:07PM
I am in total agreement with the person who wrote the following. "How often have you expressed your dislikes to the white presidents, governors and legislators who have ruled you? And I say, ruled, advisedly? You're kicking President Obama, because a lot of whites are doing it and you want to show that you won't spare him just because he is black. If you want him to be a one-term president, so you can have Mit Romney or Sara Palin in 2013, keep it up. Think about who they'll put on the suptrme court."
This is my comment:
America has been America for more than five-hundred years. It's about time some of us discover what that means, rather than criticize selected leaders because this country is not what "they" think it ought to be, or that leader does not do what he or she thinks the leader ought to do.
America is a land of equal access, not equality. The missing link is "Liberty" not "Freedom." If you don't like the laws of this country, rise up and go to Congress and change them. If you don't like what a given leader is doing, rise up, get elected to that office, kick out the one who is in there and take his or her place.
I believe Obama was the first African American to rise to the level of Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Where are our brilliant black brothers and sisters to whom Dr. Boyce was referring--and we do have some--but who chose not to precede him? Cronyism, Dr. Boyce? I believe the term is reciprocity. Obama had help to get where he is, and he did what YOU and anyone else would do in a like and similar situation. Like you, Dr. Boyce, I chose my university for reasons of my own, earned and paid for my Doctorate like the many who came before me. I chose the school to which I wanted to go, and where I wanted to work after I finished. Others have the same opportunity. To say that they were highly qualified in all areas of their life, but were denied entry to Harvard because they were black, is a stretch, even in a racist system such as ours. That's my opinion, and among those who are not cognitively challenged, opinions are never open to argument. And I am Dr. Xavier C.
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By: Mike C. Okereke on 5/15/2010 1:59PM
Dr. Boyce,
While I agree with your argument about Elena Kagan not hiring a Black or Latino professor during her tenure as dean at Harvard, I kind of backslide a little bit, and ask: what if there were no Black/Latino applicants. Not really coming to grips wih all the facts concerning those 29 hirings, I will be hesistant to pin that ignoble "racist" label on her.
You did raise another interesting point which, for this and other matters, I will encourage you to make it have a national following:that Harvard or Yale education should not be the only defining parameter/standard in deeming one to be truly educated as to leave our Supreme court to be a virtual breeding ground for those educated in those insitutions. This is a trend which past Presidents help create, and for which President Obama, ominiusly or ironically enough, is assiduously following. Has the President forgotten that a law degree from a UC - University of California, say can fetch the same measure of academic meaningulness as say one from Yale, Uiversity of Ohio,if has a Law school, Harvard or University of Tennessee?
President Obama should make Americans to reason that there is scholastic egalitarianism in the United States, especially when it comes to high profile appointments or nominations.
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By: M on 5/15/2010 2:32PM
I love your comments and informal analysis of this lady and another Obama appointment. Unfortunately, this is exactly what I expected of him. I was afraid that he would continue to be an elitist. This was quite clear as he ran for office. Remember when he didn't have a word to say about Jena 6 but was happy to join the anniversary March on Salem. Do recall how fast he responded on the Henry Lewis Gates issue. There was even a Beer Summit. "Hmm!" We should not just take what is given. He should remember where a large part of his support base was in the last election.
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By: B Adrine on 5/16/2010 8:23PM
God bless you Doctor Carter!
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By: amy wilson on 5/17/2010 3:42AM
All I can say is that that poor thing is one ugly white woman! She makes the pelosi ho look good. That is mean and I know it but you know good and well you are all thinking it too.
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By: Hotep on 5/17/2010 6:58PM
Dr sometimes we disagree, but this time i am in your corner.There is something about this woman that makes my mother wit stand up..I have researched her long before Slim Shady chose her and yet that "WIT THANG" has not revealed itself..But my good Doc..it will trust me and when it does all of amerikkka will overstand my point..
Doc, there is something more sinister about the woman than i can explain..So for now i will simply watch and listen
More light
MilagrosGarciaVillamil Still standin and inyaface;)
PS: People..i use the small i to say that there are NO! big U's or small i's?
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By: L.A. Watkins on 6/02/2010 8:23PM
It is clearly a breath of fresh air to see a brotha/professor/activist providing us with the skinny on issues that we may have not understood or overlooked. It seems that cronyism is running rampart these days; especially with people who are in high powered positions. Professor things are so crazy now, what should we be seriously examining and preparing for now?
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By: Mirza on 6/28/2010 3:49PM
To be fair, Perhaps the reason that Elena Kagen did not hire more Blacks is that maybe there aren't enought qualified blacks to be hired. While blacks are about 10% of population, they are below average when it comes to income and employment, with black men being far behind black women. Company where I work has about dozen black women and only one black guy who is African and not African-American. On the other hand, there is a fair number of asians holding high paying jobs.
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By: Vaughn on 8/10/2010 12:11AM
It does appear that Obama is only interested in Ivy League people to be involved in his govt. What ever happened to finding people who went to HBUs?
Kagan does not have a good right with civil rights unless you are a gay women. She is Jewish, so I guess she has no Black friends and knows nothing about Black people, hence no hiring of Black Law professors. Will the next person Obama names to the Supreme Court be Black or another white phony liberal? This is why the first Black President should have slaves in his family and be 100 per cent Black and not a Mullato. At times he acts like an Uncle Tom.
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