Bill Thompson

Even to talk about someone's race, even on both sides of the spectrum, when they were electing that Supreme Court Justice, I can't remember her name right now off the top of my head, just because I'm a little nervous still.

She was black.

And they were talking- Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Yeah.

They were talking about how it's historic because she's black.

And Biden had said he's going to hire a black woman to do this job.

If I had worked my whole life to do something, but now I'm only being elevated to this next position because of my gender and the color of my skin, I would turn that job down so fast because that's not what I want to be known for.

These are immutable characteristics that I'm not in control of.

I didn't choose to be born white or with blue eyes.

I didn't choose to be born in a trailer park in the middle of nowhere without a dad at five.

I didn't choose any of those things.

I don't see how I benefit from these things at the individual level.

And the individual level of analysis for me is really the only way to evaluate someone for their pluses and their minuses.

And anything beyond that to me is discriminatory on its face.

Of course.

Mm-hmm You know black guy good Chinese guy as long as he's not applying to the college.

I want to get into he's good, right?

and and it gives people want easy answers and

Really, at the end of the day, they want to be told the easy rubric to navigate life because really none of it's easy and it requires discipline, like you said before, and thought.

And so it was that stuff in the military.