“They say African Americans have to be twice as good, especially women. I’m perfectly OK with having to be twice as good.”
Serena Williams said that. I’ve been thinking about it a lot this month, and it’s part of the reason I got mad with her at the U.S. Open. You don’t set your standards that high, and then lower them to act like John McEnroe. Yuck.
I’ve been thinking about it for the last few weeks because we’re about to get an irresponsible, dishonest frat boy who likes beer for a Supreme Court justice. That’s just the stuff we know about him for sure. He’s about to get this job because we lower the bar for privilege so low in this country that all he has to do is have a tantrum, and poof! He has what he wants.
I would suspect that if you’re a woman, this week has been tough. If you’re a black woman, it’s been even harder. It’s not just the light treatment of sexual assault accusations by our political leaders. I once had an internship at Family Circle, and the girl I interned with showed up to work one day severely hung over. I’m not exaggerating. She asked me to smell her breath to make sure it didn’t smell like liquor. It did. I told her it didn’t. Her grandfather owned a printing press. She couldn’t even turn on the computer. I’m not exaggerating.
So yeah, this has been a lot. It will continue to be a lot. It’s not fair to watch someone get a job they don’t deserve because of their privilege.
Still, there is something to having to work for what you’ve gotten. So maybe he becomes a justice. The career I’ve had, I worked for it. I endured comments about my race, my clothes, my smile — and that was before we even got to the quality of my work.
I had to be twice as good. It’s not fair. But it’s OK. I’d rather be twice as good than half anyway.