It was a wild week in Georgia as the misconduct hearing for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis got underway, with special prosecutor Nathan Wade and Willis both taking the stand, and a former friend of Willis’ contradicting her on when Willis’ “personal relationship” with Wade started.
Willis’ testimony, as we previously reported, was explosive in nature, with Willis being highly combative with defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant, at one point saying she preferred Grey Goose vodka to wine, and at another point seemingly admitting to keeping some cash from her first campaign and holding onto it for personal use.
Because Willis did herself no favors with her testimony—and because she’s a powerful Democrat who is prosecuting former President Donald Trump, the mainstream media have swooped in to rescue her by doing one of the things they do best: trot out the victim/race cards as a way to suggest she’s being unfairly targeted based on her race:
In both the Associated Press and New York Times pieces, they quoted numerous black female lawyers who said they were deeply offended and “disgusted” over Willis having to answer questions about her personal life and allegedly being held to a double standard.
From the AP:
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is used to prosecuting high-profile, challenging cases. But as she parried questions about her own personal conduct from the witness stand against the legal teams for defendants her office has accused of election interference, many Black women recognized a dispiriting scene.“It absolutely feels familiar. There is no secret that the common sentiment among Black women in positions of power (is that they) must over-perform to be seen as equals to their counterparts,” said Jessica T. Ornsby, a family litigation attorney in the Washington, D.C., area.“Here, Ms. Willis is being scrutinized for things that are not directly related to her job performance, in ways we see other Black women regularly picked apart,” Ornsby said.[…]For many Black women, the inquiries into Willis’ romantic and financial life were rife with tropes and accusations often unfairly levied at Black women.Keir Bradford-Grey, a partner at the law firm Montgomery McCracken in Philadelphia, found the questions about Willis’ personal life “disgusting.” She also said the episode had disturbing implications for Black women in leadership roles: “I can’t imagine a world where we have to continue to be treated like this as we seek leadership roles, and we do them well.”
And from the New York Times:
Some lamented Ms. Willis’s conduct as a mistake, but not one that should remove her from the case against Mr. Trump. Others, thinking about their own experiences in the workplace, suggested another concern: They feel that Black women are held to a different standard and that Ms. Willis should have known that her identity, along with the enormous political stakes of the case, would create a white-hot spotlight on her personal conduct.
As I read these articles and the narrative that the attorneys—and the reporters themselves—were pushing about black women allegedly being held to a higher standard, I thought back to the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanugh and how their personal and professional lives were put under the microscope in extreme, brutal ways, and then I wondered “what alternative reality are Willis’ defenders living in?”
I mean, are we just supposed to just look the other way regarding Willis’ alleged offenses simply because she’s a black woman? Further, isn’t advocating that we do so a double standard and racist in and of itself?
Turns out, I wasn’t the only one:
Indeed.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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