Black Women Groups to Obama: White Male SCOTUS Pick Is ‘Slap in the Face’

The Associated Press reports Wednesday that many of the black women’s groups they spoke to are upset with President Barack Obama‘s nomination of white male Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, saying the position should have been filled with a qualified black women instead.

“The fact that he would once again look over black women for this specific appointment is an absolute slap in the face to his top supporters,” Exceptional Leadership Institute for Women founder Avis A. Jones-DeWeever said.

Jones-DeWeever said that the support from black women for Obama’s pick will be considerably lessened. “I’m not motivated to lift one finger to get his nomination through,” she told AP.

Barbara Arnwine, executive director at the Transformative Justice Coalition, also said the Garland pick “does not give the respect to his most ardent supporters. The passion you saw around [Sonia Sotomayor] you will not see around this pick.”

Leading women advocates for the Hispanic and South Asian communities echoed these concerns. But some black female leaders like the National Council of Negro Women’s Janice Mathis said black women are “extremely pragmatic voters and I think when they look at the situation the activist community will support the president’s effort to fill this vacancy.”

[Image via screengrab]
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