Although Willis showed Herculean strength in bringing RICO charges against the perpetrator of the “Big Lie” and ultimately indicting Trump and 18 of his closest friends and political allies, her professional conduct has become the cornerstone of the entire ordeal.
RELATED: 5 Black Women on the Frontlines of Saving Democracy
Judge Scott McAfee, 34, is expected to rule by the end of this week whether, as The New York Times put it, “to disqualify Ms. Willis on the grounds that a romance she had with Nathan Wade, the lawyer she hired to run the case, created an untenable conflict of interest.”
But the vigor with which Trump and his supporters have sought to disqualify Willis from the legal proceedings against him and his co-defendants is next-level political theater designed to discredit Willis by leaning into racist stereotypes of Black women as hypersexual, hostile, aggressive, incompetent, and unprofessional.
“I’m never surprised when I’ve seen Donald Trump attacking women, especially Black women. This is who he is,” Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Indeed, Black women in positions of power — like Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and former Harvard University President Claudine Gay — are often targets in America.
The standard is suddenly different now because Willis is pursuing charges against Trump.
A statement released on Monday by a coalition of more than 100 prominent Black women, including former Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin and civil rights leader, Helen Butler called out how “When Black women ascend to positions where their voices can be heard, their presence seen, and their power felt, it often unsettles certain individuals in this country.”
The coalition noted, “We knew that the first Black woman to become the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, would face challenges, especially when…
Read the full article here
