ARGENTINA-
By Federico Mare-
Half a century ago, back in January 1973, an all-men Supreme Court of the United States, in which eight of the nine judges were white («caucasic» elders with surnames of a «highly respectable» aglosaxon or northern european origin), declared, by dictating their sentence on the Roe v. Wade case, that abortion is a constitutional right for all women.
A few hours ago, in the middle of the 21st century and postmodernity, the same collegial institution, with a much more varied and intercultural membership than yore -and much less gerontocratic in its average age- revoked said verdict. Between the six «pro-life» votes there is a woman, a black man of the suffered gullah minority, and italian american with humble inmigrant ancestors from Calabria and Basilicata, and two descendents of irishmen with no aristocratic lineage: Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts, five judges of catholic faith. It’s worth noting that the vast majority of the backwards Bible thumpers that have infringed upon the rights of United States citizens to voluntarily interrupt their pregnancy do not belong, for one reason or another, to the hegemonic yanqui canon of racist and/or puritan masculinity. Only Neil Gorsuch is a typical “WASP” man.
There is no doubt with respect to the ideology of those who voted against the reproductive autonomy of women, be it completely (Coney Barret, Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch) or with a separate verdict, partially dissident (Roberts, the president of the Supreme Court): christian fundamentalism associated with the neoconservative right of the Republican Party. In fact, the six judges militate in this political group. Three of them accessed the supreme robes through the Bush family, and three by Trump. Moral of the paradox: we should not essentialize identities, be it gender, «race», ethnic, or age based. Not even in the case of victims, nor in the case of those who belong to the oppressive or privileged group.
Diversity is not a guarantee of progressivism, something that had already been left in evidence with the foreign policy of the democrat Obama, as nefarious as the one from his predecessor (Bush son) and worse than the one from his successor (Trump).
A final comment: Thomas, the afroamerican primer of the Court, has publicaly stated that now’s the turn to settle scores with homosexuality, same-sex marriage and contraceptive methods, so brace yourselves…
The author is a Historian, essayist, teacher, communicator, in the province of Mendoza
Translation: Massimiliano Tron F