For example, though Kirk never said that
all Black women lack “
the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously,” he did accuse Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Ketanji Brown Jackson as “lacking” such brain processing power. All these women are Black and all of them graduated from Ivy League schools. So, what was the basis for Kirk’s insult? He can’t simply make such an egregious claim without that claim being mediated by the history of anti-Black racism. Indeed, his accusation was loaded with white racist overtones. So as not to miss Kirk’s nuance, he says these women lack such brain power because they have benefited from affirmative action. He says they stole “a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.” The assumption that because they may have benefitted from affirmative action they are therefore not bright enough is a blatant non sequitur. He assumes that affirmative action involves the automatic lowering of standards. Affirmative action was never designed to discriminate, but to create an equitable playing field. To hold this position about brain power and affirmative action, it would follow, based upon Kirk’s reasoning, that white women,
the group that has benefited most from affirmative action, are also cognitively incompetent.
