Commentary on Judge Brett Kavanaugh and the history of American violence

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Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another. Baby Suggs, in Toni Morrison's Beloved

He's a gentleman among gentlemen. With wealth and prestige, he's highly respected and highly regarded by family, friends, and neighbors. His young nephews look up to him, recognizing in his genius, let's say, a mentor, instructing the boys, who will grow up to be men of the world, in the important things of life, significantly the rudiments of sketching the human anatomy. Porn before the porn industry.

The nephews are drawing when he stops to take a look. Which one today? Sethe, the boys say.

"That's not the way. I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right. And don't forget to line them up."

Doubtful the woman being depicted in the drawings would recognize herself. Yet, it has to be a reality for the gentleman if he is to recognize himself as different by gender and race and, therefore, social standing. He passes on to his nephews his interpretation. It's the way this world works, interpreting the irrational as normal. Women, subhuman, second class. A lasting cultural commodity. Toni Morrison's intervention would have the reader of Beloved know that Sethe, nonetheless, wouldn't have recognized herself in the minds of these three males, or their relatives, friends, neighbors. But Schoolteacher and his nephews didn't ask for her opinion on the matter.

Since Fox News serves as instructor, in the vein of Schoolteacher, naturally Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh appears there, with his wife at his side. He reaches back to another cultural refers, the Shakespearean aside, to assure the King, the great dictator, a/la Charlie Chaplin, the Big Man, the Dear Leader, that all is well. He's in charge. He's the man of the hour. Men of America have nothing to fear. I guess that makes Fox News the court jester.

It's a narrative that has undergone some tweaking: Sethe isn't so visible. There's another woman present, however, with a history. There's an accommodating woman interviewer. With history, too. But Brett, back to Brett, describing himself as a good boy back in high school. A normal boy. An all-American boy who couldn't have sexually assaulted anyone because he didn't have sex until sometime late in college. And Brett Kavanaugh barely drank alcohol.

Brett, the teenage boy, described by Brett, the judge, eyeing what he knows to be his entitlement, is studious and religious in high school. Kept his nose in the books, unless he was in the gym or at church. Brett the good, Brett not bad! I'm one with the #1! I'm one among the boys! Georgetown Preparatory! Georgetown Preparatory!

And here's an aside: six FBI background investigations conducted on Brett Kavanaugh and not acknowledged, publicly. It would seem that some folks at the FBI "pinned" down that Yale yearbook!

And now in 2018, here is psychology professor, Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford, the first woman to accuse Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when she was 15 years old, referring to a seriously inebriated 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh, in addition to his entry in the Yale yearbook referencing the pornographic: "Devil's Triangle," conquered women. And, too, there's the "boofing," along with another goal for Brett to achieve: the consumption of a "100 kegs" of beer "or Bust"! At 17 years old, mind you! Not the legal age to drink.

Boys just being boys, on the way to being men entitled to power.

And then the women appear.

Dr. Blasey-Ford within the chamber walls and her supporters, protesting in the halls of the US Senate, and suddenly the old white men are seeing and hearing trouble ahead.

I try to scream, but Brett puts a hand over her mouth. "I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me."

The real Brett Kavanaugh must perform now--as Schoolteacher!

Powerful American men learned from the Anita Hill testimony some 27 years ago. More specifically, they didn't give a damn about Dr. Hill then, before or subsequently. Dr. Hill had proven herself to not be a team player, refusing to step aside when Big Man Clarence Thomas come through. Refusing to giggle silly at his lewd jokes. That Dr. Hill felt uncomfortable is of no concern to one granted by his fellow male colleagues a higher and consequential status. Dr. Hill is to stay in the position of subservience to Thomas Clarence and other male colleagues.

From where I stand, I'm not comfortable agree with others that women have come a distance since 1991. We live in a world where the young "nephews" are men like Ted Cruz, Stephen Bannon, Stephen Miller, and Brett Kavanaugh. Men in power. Men who take issue with women demanding to be recognized as human beings. Men for whom us people of color and our children need to be in the bedroom, behind walls, or bars.

These men have learned from the Thomas hearing what not to do, and, by that I mean, they've learned that there is no need to proceed with caution! In the face of the #MeToo movement, American women are becoming insolent! Fifty-one percent and counting now!

There's no evidence that the man who nominated Brett Kavanaugh is drunk when he speaks about sexually assaulting women. "I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't wait.

"And when you're a star, they let you so it."

Well, okay. Twenty women have accused this men, now in the White House, serving as president of the United States, of sexual assault.

"Grab them by the p---y... You can do anything." Nonetheless!

He has the court jesters appearing on television. He has the white nationalists, the white supremacists, the MAGA camp who just want jobs, and maybe that wall, shouting for him to intervene. Speak! Speak!

And Trump doesn't do Shakespearean asides. The choirboy thing is dead! Be brutal! They got Cosby! Remember, it's worked for me! Too many women are listening to her!

Before September 27, 2018, and the appearance of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the media couldn't recognize any demographics of women, except the group the media referred to as "suburban woman." The media couldn't see past these women out there, somewhere beyond reach. But good women, nonetheless. All-around American women to match all-around American men. Mostly conservative, religious, white. And then the narrative was interrupted for "breaking news": a Dr. Christine Blasey Ford is coming to Washington D.C. to testify against Brett Kavanaugh!

I should step back and say that from the moment Kavanaugh was announced as a nominee to fill the seat of retiring Justice Kennedy, I knew. It's not a question of being fair to the man. Who nominated him? He's nominated by a man not qualified to nominate anything, let alone a Supreme Court justice. The nominator isn't credible to me! In Kavanaugh, I didn't expect a politically conscious white man, a "woke" white man to be Brett Kavanaugh.

I recognized Brett Kavanaugh, however. The Brett Kavanaughs of the world manage to marry and have children and surround themselves with the appropriate entourage of friends and associates. And they remain Schoolteacher, spreading their ideology of white supremacy and positioning themselves as CEOs, doctors, lawyers, police, politicians, educators, deans, chairs, priests, pastors, professors, truckers, store clerks--upstanding gentleman. Pillars of the community. And women of color might be in his life as members of housekeeping, office maintenance or as nannies.

Some of us women recognize the Brett Kavanaughs by the lack of human spirit behind those gentlemanly mannerisms. The condescending posture that assures you you are not one of them--even if colleague. By the same token, it's impossible to connect to the swagger, the assertion of power on display emphatically stating, once and for, all that freedom is always a male's right of birth. We know these guys are not the least bit "nice." Or fair.

But what can we say with his hands over our collective mouths?

So I see the 15-year-old Christine, newly becoming acquainted with the force, the mindset that is the discourse within a body of knowledge collected over hundreds of years. As I've said many times before, when you live in a culture that values and privileges violence, physical and most important, verbal, then you can't expect to see a good man in the White House and certainly not down the way in the halls of the Capitol or over at the justice department.

Violence is the god America worships. Always has.

Brett is schooled. He's a pupil instructed to appear as victim while predator. And Brett, the former boy athlete, would be familiar with the rules spelled out in the play book! And so Brett Kavanaugh arrives, one lie stomping forward, followed by another and another. Kavanaugh's holding court: Those "Democrats," "Clintons," and "left-wingers" all in cahoots, conspiring with these women to bring me, deserving white man, down! In the minds of those older, white male senators, including the younger Jeff Flake (who will stand by the Man), the Fox News audience, and Trump's supporters, what could be more "left-winged" than the #MeToo movement!

And in the White House, a supporter of the more upstanding world leaders, "good" men, the overtly swaggering, anti-human-rights proponents, haters of difference, applauds the Brett, displaying an iron fist. This Brett echoing Clarence Thomas, calling the proceedings a "national disgrace," a "circus"! He doesn't want to be a part of this circus! He's worked hard to have his name come up for nomination to the US Supreme Court. He's not quitting.

And what about the yearbook, Prosecutor Rachel Mitchell asks. A fidgety Kavanaugh tries to contain himself. The yearbook? He didn't anticipate the boldness of the prosecutor. Brett, the man, appears to morph back to Brett, the schoolboy. The lies from a screeching child are lies nonetheless. Did you frequently blackout after heavy drinking? Who Won That Game Anyway? Schoolboy pivots with equal boldness, repeating again and again, how he loves beer. He drinks beer. He loves beer, and, yes, again, he drinks beer. Everybody drinks beer. Beer drinking is good.

Do you understand, says Senator Amy Klobuchar, that this line of questioning isn't about drinking, but "the concern is about truth"?

Truth! An indignant Kavanaugh turns red in the face. His rant cleans the air of any doubt about significance of this position on the Supreme Court for everything white-supremacy advocates and their supporters are attempting to achieve: He has been reasonable to women! What more do they want? Time's up, yeah--for women!

We've been treated to a "national disgrace"!

But the president loves it! He loves Brett Kavanaugh! Today, Brett Kavanaugh "showed America exactly why I nominated him." Good boy, Brett! Good theater!

It's all as familiar as apple pie.

Schoolteacher taught the boys to take turns on Sethe. She tells Paul D, she can't forget. Even "free," Sethe knows she is one who's escaped a particular plantation, for an indeterminate time, and given that condition, she can't afford to forget she's not really free. "I am full God damn it of two boys with mossy teeth, one sucking on my breast the other holding me down, their book-reading teacher watching and writing it up."

Authors Bio:

Activist, writer, American Modern Literature, Cultural Theory, PhD.