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Judith Scheinlin, also known by her television name Judge Judy, has come under fire from social media folks for supposedly telling Black Americans to leave her country.
At least, that is how the story goes, according to the folks raging about the television judge’s statement.
In a USA Today interview, Ms. Sheindlin encouraged people to protest what they don’t like about the system: “If you don’t like this country, go somewhere else,” Judy said.
Many interpret her comments as dismissive of marginalized groups’ struggles and rights.
Understand how critics view Judge Judy’s comments as dismissive, and how this fits into a pattern some say targets marginalized groups.
It appears that her statement was meant more for marginalized people than just Black people per se.
This is not the first time the conservative Judith Sheindlin has been recognized for expressing bigoted views, as her past comments and actions reveal a consistent pattern of dismissiveness toward marginalized communities.
Judy wants to conserve the old ways while negating change. Judy’s opposition to change negates a constant of life, for example. Her once-smooth face has changed to look like that of a 4,000-year-old Egyptian mummy.
In 2007, one of Judge Judy’s show producers (Jonathan Sebastien) sued her and the show’s executive producer (Randy Douthit) for racial discrimination.
They settled the lawsuit with Sebastien for an undisclosed amount.
Jonathan Sebastien’s lawsuit claimed that when he proposed certain cases for the show involving Black litigants, they turned them down.
The reason for not wanting too many Black litigants, Judy’s team said, was that Blacks were too ghetto.
They suggested Black litigants were better suited for Judge Joe Brown, and they needed more pretty, upscale White people.
However, since Black people feel marginalized, and in many cases Black people are pushed to the side, they took offense to her statement.
Dr. Claud Anderson labeled Black People as the permanent underclass, and there are many, including some other Blacks, who work at keeping them in that underclass.
It is understandable why many found the statement hurtful, especially for conservative Judy. America has been good to Judy, as a Johnny Come Lately to the country.
Judy’s experience is a wonderful feat that she should celebrate.
However, America hasn’t been that good to everyone, especially those who were brought here to be enslaved – not to be equals in the system that they protest for redress of their grievances.
Judith Scheindlin’s lived experience in America is diametrically opposed to that of most Black people.
"Judge Judy" the leather faced jurist posing for pictures
Granted, sometimes protests become a fallback reaction to everything, every atom of disagreement, because they have nothing else to do.
And many times, demagogues rally and foment their anger, making a living by stirring up the misguided.
At face value, it’s not quite clear that Judith Scheindlin referenced Black in her ignorant statement about protesting in America.
It would be preposterous for Judy to tell Black people to a house that she did not build.
She’s just enjoying the fruits of the forefathers’ labor, built on the backs of people who worked for free.
One can only surmise that Judy meant the invasion during Joe Biden’s presidency.
Judy’s statement does point to a subtle longing to return to the old Jim Crow days when Black people knew their place and stayed in it.
It was protests (protests that Judith Scheindlin so despises) that opened the doors for Black people to escape the restraint of Judy’s Jim Crow era.
Protests afforded Judy the privilege and right to vote in the United States of America. Judy willfully ignores the historical facts that helped put her on a show that paid her $30 million annually.
When Judy’s parents moved to America, women had just gained the right to vote.
The Egyptian Mummy-faced jurist also pointed out scientific facts during her USA Today rant.
Judy tried to “explain” that no two people are equal. Judy lamented the people who are trying to create a ‘gray zone.’
On “stagnant change,” Judy is correct.
A Gray Zone is a dead zone.
The only change that happens in a gray zone, or dead zone, is death changing from one form to another.
They earned the right to vote by protesting a discriminatory system they felt worked against their best interests.
Much of France is on red alert right now because high school and college students are protesting widely.
So far, President Macron hasn’t asked the protesters to leave.
And if they leave, where would they go? If Black people leave America, where would they go, Judy?
Protesting in America is as American as mother and apple pie.
“Think globally, act locally.”
It is crucial to be forward-thinking but not a forward person. “Be kind to everyone you meet because each carries his heavy burden…” Plato.
Embrace the three Constants: change, justice, and rightness.
The thought police are busy at work trying to suppress free speech. If allowed their march to madness, they will arrest your very thoughts.
“Free speech, but not free reach.” — Social media titans.
Free speech is thy Lord.
