New poll: 55% of Americans say nominating a Black woman to the Supreme Court is not 'important'
Source: Yahoo! News
With President Biden set to announce a nominee to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer by the end of February, most Americans now say theyre lukewarm about his promise to pick a Black woman for the first time in U.S. history, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll while also saying the top three Black women on Bidens shortlist are qualified to sit on the court.
The survey of 1,628 U.S. adults, which was conducted from Feb. 3 to 7, found that a clear majority of those polled (55 percent) say nominating a Black woman is either not very (19 percent) or not at all (36 percent) important to them. Just 23 percent say it is very important.
Predictably, the overall number who say nominating a Black woman is either very or somewhat important is much higher among Democrats (80 percent) and 2020 Biden voters (78 percent) than among independents (35 percent), Republicans (16 percent) or 2020 Donald Trump voters (10 percent).
Likewise, just 36 percent of Americans say Bidens pledge was a "good idea," while the rest say it was either a bad idea (32 percent) or neither good nor bad (32 percent). And just a third of Americans say they have a great deal or quite a bit of confidence that Biden will select "the right kind of person" to replace Breyer on the court (33 percent), or that they themselves expect to support the nominee Biden puts forward (34 percent) noticeably lower than the 39 percent who said they expected to support "President Trump's Supreme Court nominee" in September 2020, just before he nominated Amy Coney Barrett.
Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/new-poll-55-of-americans-say-nominating-a-black-woman-to-the-supreme-court-is-not-important-100011137.html
FeelingBlue
(801 posts)former9thward
(33,424 posts)blue-wave
(5,130 posts)and I'm not black nor am I female. But it is overdue, therefore time we see a black woman on the Supreme Court.
IronLionZion
(51,269 posts)because her impeccable qualifications make her a good replacement for RBG.
But they already know that an unnamed black woman is unqualified without knowing her name or qualifications.
iluvtennis
(21,497 posts)hay rick
(9,605 posts)to find out what the 90% of Americans who don't know who Stephen Breyer is think about nominating a black, female justice. The entire point of these polls is to use them to crank out negative headlines about Biden and his administration. Got to keep the party of Trump Traitors competitive- they have eyeballs and wallets too.
Torchlight
(6,830 posts)"...the overall number who say nominating a Black woman is either very or somewhat important is much higher among Democrats (80 percent) and 2020 Biden voters (78 percent) than among independents (35 percent), Republicans (16 percent) or 2020 Donald Trump voters (10 percent).
"Yet the striking thing is that the vast majority of those same Americans polled and a smaller but still significant majority of Republicans agree that all three of the Black women reportedly at the top of Bidens shortlist meet the standards for qualification."
Harker
(17,785 posts)nevergiveup
(4,815 posts)that there are a plethora of titles he could have chosen. The one the author chose is very telling.
Ziggysmom
(4,123 posts)than factual truth reporting. You nailed it.
Gore1FL
(22,951 posts)We already know 22% of this country is composed of mouth-breathing racists.
DownriverDem
(7,014 posts)they asked mostly white folks. I'm white and know that we need diversity on the SC. repubs have angry white men who drag their women with them.
former9thward
(33,424 posts)Which was 13% of the sample and the percent of Blacks in the population.
brooklynite
(96,882 posts)Bear in mind, they didn't say they were OPPOSED to a Black woman; they said it wasn't important in the choice.
SunSeeker
(58,283 posts)75% of Black respondents thought a Black female Justice was very or somewhat important, while only 37% of white respondents thought so. But because there were so many white respondents, the poll concluded that 55% of Americans did not think it was important. Not a good look for the white people of America.

SharonClark
(10,497 posts)"The results of the poll are unambiguous. When shown a name, photograph and a brief résumé, including age, education and prior experience, the share of Americans who say that Ketanji Brown Jackson, Leondra Kruger and J. Michelle Childs are either very or somewhat qualified to sit on the Supreme Court hovers at around two-thirds."
In these knee-jerk times, 45% is actually good.
robbob
(3,750 posts)and relevant experience details once they saw the picture 😤
keopeli
(3,582 posts)"not important" means not headline-worthy. "Not important" does not mean "don't do it". Stupid question phrased stupidly. Here's a more honest way to phrase the same question:
Nominating a Black Woman is:
a - I'm not a racist.
b - I'm not a racist and I can prove it.
c - I'm not a racist (wink).
Result - Can you believe ONLY more than half of Americans said I'm not a racist?!
And only 10 percent of Trump voters answered "I'm not a racist (wink)!"
JUST a third of voters say Biden's pledge is a good idea! But if you add people who say it's NOT a bad idea with people who say it IS a bad idea, that's 64%!! OMG!!!
And get this: 34% said they expect to support Biden's pick (in a non-election year). But 39% said they expected to support Trump's pic of ACB! (right before a presidential election). Of course, the margin of error is 2.7%, which makes the difference moot, but why quibble about facts when Yahoo can make it sound like Biden is less popular than Trump (even though he won a direct election by 11 million more votes a year ago)!
Way to play up to your anti-democracy, racist base, Yahoo. How does your company survive?
DFW
(60,186 posts)It was blatantly (and cynically) because of his race. How did THAT work out for us?
i don't think it's vitally necessary to have the appearance of affirmative action on the Supreme Court, but nor do I think it would hurt our standing in world opinion, either. I just hope the choice is as much "affirmative" as it is "action." With Biden and Harris doing the choosing, I'm not overly worried. A black woman who thinks like we do would be just fabulous, but the "thinks like we do" is far more important than gender or race. A female version of Clarence Thomas would be as bad as Amy Phony Carrot being the female replacement for Scalia.
But, like I said, with Biden and Harris doing the choosing, I think we are in good hands.
Scalded Nun
(1,691 posts)former9thward
(33,424 posts)maxsolomon
(38,729 posts)1. It is a way to redress historic wrongs and create diversity in a historically white male institution. Kagan & Sotomayor are representative of that effort, too.
2. There are minorities that were explicitly excluded by Biden's commitment: Asians come to mind, and I'm sure there are several qualified Asian women jurists.
So, is it "important" that it is a Black Woman? Somewhat. Is it important that it is a woman? Somewhat. I have "a great deal" of confidence he'll select "the right kind of person", though.
The way these poll questions are framed, is, as usual, pretty fucked up, and designed to bring out the most prejudicial responses.
LiberalFighter
(53,544 posts)LenaBaby61
(6,991 posts)rogue emissary
(3,352 posts)The "not very" doesn't mean it has no importance to the respondents.
In fact, you could group the "not very" and the "very important" together and get 42% thought it was important to some degree against 36% that thought it wasn't important at all.
I recently saw a similar poll asking about COVID and they went out of their way to show a majority was against them. When you read the question and responses one group said they wanted some but not all mandates to continue.
The media is obsessed with negative news.
MacKasey
(1,519 posts)Having a black woman on the Supreme Court just might make Clarence Thomas retire!
Or even drive Ginni Thomas crazy!
ffr
(23,399 posts)And nobody but the 25% brainwashed idiots wanted them on the court. 55% is like a landslide.
IrishAfricanAmerican
(4,471 posts)RussBLib
(10,635 posts)tired of polls. Biden promised to nominate a black woman and he will deliver on that. EOS.
Polling Americans puts you on shaky ground, as Americans are some of the dumbest, most-racist people on the planet. In the aggregate, of course.
Midnight Writer
(25,410 posts)We need to lead from the front, not wait for favorable polls to give us permission.
Xoan
(25,570 posts)SunSeeker
(58,283 posts)
monkeyman1
(5,109 posts)jvill
(459 posts)
from the fanciest private schools on the court? Id wager, its lower.
Black folks, and black women in particular, made Bidens win possible, and they are the most disempowered established minority in this country. This is a no brainer.
Indyfan53
(529 posts)These people are just embarrassed rethuglicans.
rockfordfile
(8,742 posts)I confident when President Biden nominates that person will be fine judge. We remember trump putting up some judges that were junk.
cannabis_flower
(3,932 posts)He should have said he was going to do it. I think he should have just said he was going to nominate Someone qualified. When you say you are going to nominate any particular type of person someone gets triggered.
Scruffy1
(3,533 posts)A quick read shows that over 2/3 are not opposed to it.
Joinfortmill
(21,167 posts)cadoman
(1,617 posts)President Obama added diversity to the court without it feeling awkward. Just examine the basket of qualified candidates and pick one that isn't well represented currently.
If race and gender diversity are the two metrics to target improvement on, appointing a Hispanic/Latinx or Asian woman is actually the biggest diversity bang for the buck.
The current census data has us at:
# https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045221
White 60%
Hispanic or Latinx 19%
Black 13%
American Indian or Alaska Native 1%
Asian 6%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone < 1%
Two or more races 3%
So in terms of best matching that up to the Supreme Court, a Hispanic/Latinx woman would bring us most closely in line with the population, in fact if another of the white judges were replaced with an Asian man or woman it'd yield a nearly perfect match:
Alito
Thomas
ASIAN MAN OR WOMAN
HISPANIC/LATINX WOMAN
Sotomayor
Kavanaugh
Kagan
Gorsuch
Barrett
That'd yield a breakdown of:
White 56%
Hispanic or Latinx 22%
Black 11%
American Indian or Alaska Native 0%
Asian 11%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone 0%
Two or more races 0%
Asians are at a point where it's tough for them to be accurately represented, but given that they have zero historically, it feels like it's time they had a seat at the table.
EDIT: If there are multi-racial candidates that could help fill in some of the smaller percentage brackets in a fair way.
TheFarseer
(9,770 posts)Im really cautious against nominating someone that Lindsey Graham seems to LOVE ❤️ Really hoping it is not Michelle Childs.