Senate Democrats serving on the Congressional Coalition on Adoption are turning a blind eye to pundit attacks on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s adopted children as the federal judge faces hearings for the high bench this week.
On the day of her Rose Garden nomination ceremony, critical race theory scholar Ibram X. Kendi, author of the bestselling book, “How to Be an Antiracist,” condemned President Donald Trump’s nominee as a white supremacist for adopting two children from Haiti.
“Some White colonizers ‘adopted’ Black children,” Kendi wrote on Twitter. “They ‘civilized’ these ‘savage’ children in the ‘superior’ ways of White people, while using them as props in their lifelong pictures of denial, while cutting the biological parents of these children out of the picture of humanity.”
Some White colonizers "adopted" Black children. They "civilized" these "savage" children in the "superior" ways of White people, while using them as props in their lifelong pictures of denial, while cutting the biological parents of these children out of the picture of humanity. https://t.co/XBE9rRnoqq
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) September 26, 2020
Kendi was responding to a tweet featuring parents with black children that didn’t even depict Coney Barrett. Kendi said it didn’t matter.
“Whether this is Barrett or not is not the point. It is a belief too many White people have: if they have or adopt a child of color, then they can’t be racist,” Kendi wrote, because according to his own philosophy, absolutely nothing can abdicate white people of their inborn racism.
Every single Democrat serving on both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Congressional Coalition on Adoption denied The Federalist’s repeated requests for comment, including Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Dianne Feinstein of California, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who co-chairs the bicameral bipartisan caucus alongside Florida Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala, who also denied The Federalist’s request for comment.
Republican caucus leaders on the other hand, roundly condemned Kendi’s racist smears.
“The attacks on Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s faith and family are absolutely disgraceful,” said Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, who also co-chairs the caucus. “The adoption caucus is the largest bipartisan, bicameral caucus in the Congress for a reason. Supporting adoptive families shouldn’t be a divisive issue. It’s shameful that anyone would make it one when there are millions of children in the world in need of a safe home and loving family.”
“In an attempts by Mr. Kendi to attack Amy Coney Barrett, he also attacked families across our country who are made up of adopted children from other races than the parents,” House Republican caucus co-chair Robert Aderholt of Alabama said in a statement to The Federalist. “To imply that white parents should only adopt white children and black children should only be adopted by black parents, is the pure definition of racism. The love a parent has for a child, whether biological or adopted, is color blind.”
The attacks also drew the ire of Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, a consistent champion for pro-adoption policies.
“Every child deserves a safe, stable and loving home, regardless of where they are born or what they look like,” Grassley told The Federalist. The insinuation that Judge Barrett’s family represents anything less than a loving example of care and compassion is disgraceful. Those cheap political attacks should be condemned by all sides.”
Confirmation hearings to consider Barrett’s nomination kicked off Monday to replace the vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who passed away last month at the age of 87.
