Black Women Feel Replaced by Elena Kagan on the Supreme Court

To the disappointment of the Black Women's Roundtable, Elena Kagan was the latest white American to leapfrog in front of black women for a chance to serve on the Supreme Court. The second-class citizenship of African American women has been consistently enforced by our nation, going back 221 years to the date that the Supreme Court was founded. This nomination was especially disheartening for those who felt that the year of Dorothy Height's death would be the perfect time for the nation's first black President to do what should have been done long ago and nominate a black woman for the highest court in the land.

"Needless to say, we are disconcerted by the perceived lack of real consideration of any of the extremely qualified African American women as potential nominees," reads the statement released by the Black Women's Roundtable.

After this is over, President Barack Obama will have serious trouble re-inspiring the millions of African American women who left the Hillary Clinton camp to back his "Hope and change" campaign. There was no logical reason for him to pass over a black woman for consideration for this post, only political reasons. Kagan was the nominee that could shore up the white female vote for mid-term elections and help the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party stop the bleeding set to occur in November. Roland Martin does a wonderful job of breaking down the losses within the black female demographic that are set to occur as a result of the Kagan snub on the Supreme Court.

One also has to wonder how black women collectively feel about the many African American men and professors who've been working with the administration to actively campaign on behalf of Kagan, when most of them know that it's time for a black woman to be on the Supreme Court. Forgive me if I am mistaken, but I haven't seen one prominent black female standing strongly in support of Elena Kagan (I noticed that Harvard Law Professor Lani Guinier was conspicuously absent from the slew of black male Harvard Law Professors sent onto the campaign trail to defend their colleague, Kagan), so my unscientific assessment of things is that black women are angry with both black men and white America. They are being handed the double-whammy of racism from the outside and sexism from the inside. Out of respect for my mother, sister, and daughter, I simply cannot join the chorus: it's time to stop playing politics and actually stand for what's right.

Not to say that I can peer into the heart of a black woman, but I can only speculate that part of the asymmetry in Obama's relationship with African American women may be linked to the fact that they've loved him even when his political power was weak, while Obama has chosen to overlook black women when their political power is not as strong as white females. While no one can argue that a black woman should not be on the Supreme Court (we've never had one), one can only claim that the choice of Kagan over more qualified African American women was due to the fact that white women have greater political leverage on Obama than black women do. If black women had sufficient political power, one would surely have been nominated. This situation is merely a microcosm of the frustration of millions of black women across America, who see themselves unemployed because less qualified whites are able to get jobs instead. Elena Kagan contributed to this problem during her tenure at Harvard University, where she did not hire one single Black, Latino or Native American woman to the tenured or tenure-track faculty. There is one professor who was hired this semester, but that doesn't change much of anything.

Black women are incredibly loyal, even when black men do not return the favor. They date black men even when we don't want to marry them. They are the first in line to see every Tyler Perry movie. They buy books from black authors even when black men aren't buying their books. They cheer for rappers who disrespect them with every other lyric. They show up to vote more than the rest of us even when their candidates ignore them. Obama is really testing this loyalty in his choice of Kagan, and many black women are feeling the same sting they feel when they're left at the alter by a man who thinks that black women simply aren't good enough for a commitment.

President Obama should understand that the love and loyalty of black women should not be taken for granted. With the nomination of Elena Kagan, Obama owes them a serious apology. But even an apology is just a pile of words, and talk is always cheaper than action.

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.