During Tuesday’s confirmation hearing, Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett addressed repeated vile attacks on her family and her adopted children.
“They are my children who we love and who we brought home and made part of our family,” Barrett said, “and accusations like that are cruel.”
Sen. John Kennedy asks ACB about Boston University's @DrIbram saying that she is a "white colonist" for adopting two Haitian children:
"They are my children who we love and who we brought home and made part of our family and accusations like that are cruel." pic.twitter.com/tgrhUe2zM4
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 13, 2020
“Some butthead professor at Boston University says that because you and your husband have two children of color, that you’re a white colonist,” said Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy to Barrett. “The implication is that you’re a racist. And that you use your two children as props,” he added. “Do you use your children as props?”
Barrett responded, “It was the risk of people saying things like that, which would be so hurtful to my family, that… I had to really weigh the costs of this.” Barrett said that the “deeply offensive” attacks on her adoptions are not only hurtful to her but also to her children, “who we love and who we brought home and made part of our family.”
WATCH: Here’s What We Think About Amy Coney Barrett
The “butthead” who labeled Barrett a white supremacist for adopting two children from Haiti is the left-feted critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi. Kendi, author of the bestselling book, “How to Be an Antiracist,” wrote on Twitter: “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.”
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 (@ibramxk) September 26, 2020
Kendi was responding to a tweet featuring parents with black children just hours after Barrett’s nomination was announced.
“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 tweeted.
“Next Gen America” managing director John Lee Brougher was another critic of Barrett’s adopted family. “As an adoptee, I need to know more about the circumstances of how Amy Coney Barrett came to adopt her children, and the treatment of them since,” Brougher wrote. “Transracial adoption is fraught with trauma and potential for harm, and everything I see here is deeply concerning.”
Democratic activist Dana Houle said he would “love to know which adoption agency Amy Coney Barrett and her husband used to adopt the two children they brought here from Haiti.”
“Does the press even investigate details of Barrett’s adoptions from Haiti,” Houle asked. “Some adoptions from Haiti were legit. Many were sketchy as h-ll. And if press learned they were unethical and illegal adoptions, would they report it? Or not, bc it involves her children.”
The Federalist reported Tuesday that Senate Democrats serving on the Congressional Coalition on Adoption are turning a blind eye to these attacks on Barrett’s adopted children.
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.
On the other side of the aisle, Republican caucus leaders resoundingly condemned the vile smears against Barrett, her husband, and their adopted children.
“How low can you go,” said Kennedy at the hearing Tuesday. “I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he told Barrett.
