"I’m fairly certain womenfolk everywhere saw themselves in that statement and felt something deep inside their souls."

Writes Michele L. Norris, in "The timeless truth Ketanji Brown Jackson said out loud" (WaPo). 

Here's the statement in question (part of Jackson's opening statement): "I know it has not been easy as I have tried to navigate the challenges of juggling my career and motherhood. And I fully admit that I did not always get the balance right. But I hope that you have seen that with hard work, determination, and love, it can be done."

Norris's statement struck me as ludicrously sententious. I've steeled myself for all the usual boosting of a President's nomination, so I would normally slough this off. But something about that "womenfolk" and "soul" combination bothers me. Is there some talking down going on that's related to Jackson's race? (I can see that Michele L. Norris is identified as African American.)

It's quite odd to say "womenfolk" other than jocosely. I searched the WaPo archive for recent uses and came up with:

1. "Why is it that the guys who look as though they’ve never so much as pushed a lawn mower are always the ones who want to saddle up and save the womenfolk?" (from "Opinion: Josh Hawley is unfit to raise the flag on behalf of males" by Kathleen Parker, November 12, 2021).

 2. "Owners and general managers, apparently, don’t want to hire a guy who looks like he’s about to pillage a hamlet and steal the pigs amid the lamentations of the womenfolk" (from "Sports Thursday: Brady better than Manning?" by Joel Achenbach, January 16, 2014).

3. "These will be the womenfolks’s gifts until 2015, and I am TOTALLY the favorite, I’ve gotten all the big ones so far" (from "Carolyn Hax Holiday Hootenanny Guide to: Gift-giving" by Jessica Stahl, December 12, 2013).

"Just so we are clear on this, being black is an immutable characteristic — a physical attribute that is entrenched and innate."

"Blackness doesn’t change based on your income, musical tastes, choice of life partner, intellect or level of education. And it doesn’t fade or disappear based on how you vote. And yet we all know there is often an effort to police blackness … to determine who is really black, fully black, authentically black, conveniently black, naturally black, unapologetically black, conservatively black, asymmetrically black or blackity black. It’s a minefield of emotion, oppression, aspiration, judgment, backlash, pain, history and pride. Really complicated stuff. And so why would Joe Biden decide to step into this space like a deputized member of the soul patrol?"

So begins Michele L. Norris in "Joe Biden’s hill just got steeper. That’s a good thing" (WaPo). Norris is the founding director of The Race Card Project. Is Norris black? I looked at thumbnail photograph of her at the top of the article and it was not obvious, but if she's the director of The Race Card Project and she feels free to write "blackity black," I presume she is black.

Beginning a statement with "Just so we are clear on this" doesn't mean that what follows is true. It's not clear to me that "being black is an immutable characteristic — a physical attribute that is entrenched and innate." Whatever happened to the idea that race is socially constructed?

But what I hear Norris saying is that there's already a question of what part of what we call race is inborn and what is a social construct, and why does anyone think it's their calling to get into the details of what's what and what matters? Why does Joe Biden think he should talk about that?

Democratic candidates who have earned the backing and trust of top black party leaders too often tend to coast on their adjacent-to-blackness bona fides.... Biden’s flippant attempt at humor sounds like it was meant to underscore what’s at stake in the upcoming election, and it is indeed hard to overstate the prospect of another four years of Donald Trump’s bungling and callous leadership. But the “Vote Blue No Matter Who” line of thinking can be dangerous and cavalier. Black votes have to be earned both on the whole and through individual and targeted efforts.....

Interesting that Norris used the word "cavalier." Biden himself called his remark "cavalier" when he apologized for it. She also calls it "flippant." Notice the assumption that Biden was just feeling loose and blabby and splurted it out. I wonder. I think it was a joke somebody wrote for him, and he was looking for the place to insert it. That's why it was so awkward. It didn't fit the conversation that Charlamagne Tha God was trying to have, which was about Democrats expecting black people to vote for them without giving much of anything in return. Biden did not want to have that conversation, cut it off with a joke, and said he had to get going because his wife needed to use the phone.