The US Supreme Court is threatened by rumours of Justice Kennedy’s retirement and Israel has made shocking revelations about Iran’s nuclear programme that could deal a deathly blow to the reputation of American intelligence gathering. Meanwhile, the famous character of Apu in “The Simpsons” is acknowledged as stereotypical.
US Supreme Court imperiled
Rumours of the departure of United States Supreme Court Justice, Anthony Kennedy are sweeping Washington for the second year in a row.
However, his departure will not bode well for the court or the nation, the New York Times editorialises.
“Justice Kennedy has long held the decisive vote in many of the Supreme Court’s most contested and consequential cases, and his retirement would give President Trump the opportunity to move the court sharply to the right.”
Some of the Justice’s decisions have altered the lives of millions of Americans. For instance, in 1992 the Justice along with two other judges crafted the opinion that kept ‘Roe v. Wade,’ which protects a woman’s right to abortion, from being overturned. He granted same sex couples the constitutional right to marry in 2015 and preserved the use of affirmative-action policies at public universities, among other landmark decisions.
Despite having conservative views in equal measure, Justice Kennedy is a centrist who has striven to uphold the cherished values of equality and dignity, both of which will be imperiled as Trump will most certainly place a conservative in his seat.
“This is your court, Justice Kennedy. It is facing an institutional crisis, and it needs you,” the article says.
Israel exposes Iran’s lies
The Israeli Prime Minister on Monday declared that he had proof that Iran was continuing to manufacture nuclear weapons.
If this trove of data can be verified by the West, it will deal a massive blow not only to Iran’s credibility but also to the reputation of the American intelligence gathering, Eli Lake writes for Bloomberg.
In 2015, former Secretary of Sate, John Kerry had vociferously assured media that America had “absolute knowledge” of Iran’s past efforts to build a nuclear weapon.
If the dramatic slides flashing behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that depict thousands of documents, blueprints and designs for nuclear weapons compiled between 1999 and 2003 are proved to be true, it will not only prove that USA’s definitive stand in 2015 was murky at best, it will also reveal Iran’s intention to eventually build a nuclear weapon, Lake writes.
“Thank you, come again”
Hank Azaria, the white actor who has given Apu from The Simpsons his voice for 29 seasons said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, that he was willing to stop playing the character.
He said that he understands now, why Apu was troubling to the community that he was supposed to represent.
While Azaria does not control Apu’s fate on the show, which is more likely governed by the corporate bosses at Fox, this newfound enlightenment acknowledges the ugly stereotypes perpetuated about South Asians that harm people to this day, the New York Times editorialises.
Many aspects of Apu’s character reveal that he is the brown equivalent of blackface minstrel performances, as he across as a caricature designed to mock a minority for the entertainment of the majority.
He was also the only major South-Asian character on prime-time television for decades and his sing-song voice, frugal nature and job at ‘Kwik-E-Mart’ defined how millions of Americans viewed Indians, Pakistanis and others from the subcontinent.
“Keeping Apu on “The Simpsons” in his current form would be a huge missed opportunity for the show, which on the whole has been one of the most thoughtful voices in American popular culture by addressing issues like immigration, discrimination and the power of big corporations that most network TV shows have studiously avoided,” the article says.