Just asking questions

For years when I was a youth, I was unaware that one of my all time favourite classical pianists, Andre Watts, was a black man. Not a single one of his record albums had a photo of him on the cover, and there was no mention of his race in the liner notes. It never crossed my mind to wonder why. I knew what my other favourite pianists look like โ specifically Lazar Berman, Rosalyn Tureck and Daniel Barenboim. Their photos were always on their albums, but then, they were white. But I was just a kid at the time, so what did I know? I learned later that a common question put to Mr. Watts by reporters was, โDo you ever play other kinds of music, like jazz?โ
Iโm told by people of color who attended Harvard that a common question white people ask is, โDo you mean the Harvard in Massachusetts?โ The implication being, of course, that no, they really meant Harvard, Nebraska. Iโm fairly sure itโs a question no white person would ever be asked.
These are examples of the death-by-a-billion cuts people of color must endure all the time. They are, infuriatingly, too often the kind of situations that, taken by themselves, can have other, non-racist explanations. Mr. Watts, for example, could have just been camera shy, or unphotogenic. (He was and remains neither, by the way.) Taken individually they donโt mean much. Taken together over the span of a single lifetime must be nearly unbearable. I donโt know from personal experience what that is like. And I never will.
So when Tucker Carlson wants to know what Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jacksonโs LSAT score was, I know exactly what heโs asking. Tucker isnโt stupid, heโs just evil, so he knows hes appealing to his racist base, the vast majority of people who watch him and love him, and demanding to know how a woman of color could possibly get admitted to Harvard Law. It must be affirmative action, heโs implying. It couldnโt be anything else.
Well I can tell you without looking what Ketanji Brown Jacksonโs LSAT score was. It was brilliant. I know this precisely because it got her into Harvard Law. And itโs further obvious because anyone listening to her speak knows right away that sheโs also a brilliant woman. Thatโs good enough for me. Whether or not her score was better or worse than someone elseโs is academic. Itโs just one of the many things that defines her, and one of the things of lesser importance.
But Tucker is โjust asking questions.โ The kind of questions Barack Obama was asked. Like can he prove he was born in America. The kind of questions people of color used to be asked in white diners in Mississippi, like, โDonโt you think youโd rather have soul food from the diner down the street?โ Just questions.
I find such things infuriating. And if they infuriate me, I can only imagine how it would feel if I had them directed at me all the time. Itโs how we know racism is endemic and institutional in America. And it will never stop. What it will do instead is get subtler and harder to prove. But make no mistake, Tucker Carlson wants to know Ketanji Brown Jacksonโs LSAT score because heโs a loathsome bigot. He knows perfectly well that he can get away with it. Because heโs โjust asking questions.โ And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.

Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.