Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson encouraged people to address and confront "uncomfortable lessons" about race during a speech in Birmingham, Alabama, on Friday.
Jackson, who wrote a dissent on a recent Supreme Court ruling that restricted race-conscious admissions practices in higher education, said some U.S. history lessons are hard to think about but are often the ones that need remembering.
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“If we are going to continue to move forward as a nation, we cannot allow concerns about discomfort to displace knowledge, truth, or history. It is certainly the case that parts of this country’s story can be hard to think about,” Jackson said. “We cannot forget because the uncomfortable lessons are often the ones that teach us the most about ourselves. ... We cannot learn from past mistakes we do not know exist.”
The comments come a few months after the historic ruling that overturned affirmative action in colleges and universities. In her 29-page dissent, Jackson accused the court's conservative majority of suffering from “let-them-eat-cake obliviousness" and warned that deeming "race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”
Justice Clarence Thomas, a black conservative on the Supreme Court, rebuked Jackson's dissent, claiming Jackson's "race-infused worldview" fell flat at each step.
"Individuals are the sum of their unique experiences, challenges, and accomplishments," Thomas wrote. "What matters is not the barriers they face, but how they choose to confront them. And their race is not to blame for everything — good or bad — that happens in their lives. A contrary, myopic worldview based on individuals’ skin color to the total exclusion of their personal choices is nothing short of racial determinism."
The speech, which took place at a Baptist church that was the victim of a bombing by the Ku Klux Klan in 1963, also comes as the country debates the role of racial history in education. Conservative school districts and states have banned the teachings of critical race theory in public classrooms, but critics argue trying to control the discussion on race is attempting to "whitewash" history.
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Jackson's address coincided with the 60th anniversary of the KKK's attack on the church, which resulted in the deaths of four black girls.
“I know that atrocities like the one we are memorializing today are difficult to remember and relive,” Jackson said. “But I also know that it is dangerous to forget them.”