Women have a more narrow path than men for acceptable behavior to advance in private and public organizations. For Black women, it’s skinny.
Our newest Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson sailed carefully through this corporate Bosphorous during her career and during her often oppositionally aggressive questioning to prevail and be confirmed to her appointment to the highest court in the land last week.
LEAP Leadership couldn’t be prouder.
Persevere.
In her confirmation hearing, Jackson, her voice breaking, told a story of walking through Harvard Yard, so unsure of herself as a freshman at Harvard University. She said the worry must have shown on her face, because a Black woman she didn’t know said, “Persevere, ” as she passed. And she did, becoming a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer — the retiring justice whose place she will take — and eventually rising to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and now the Supreme Court. And she counsels young people to follow that advice — as she and so many before her persisted in the face of public hostility and private doubts.
– Los Angeles Times editorial board
