New SCOTUS Nominee, Same Level of Diversity

This morning, President Obama announced his long awaited nominee to replace Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court.  Obama announced that his SCOTUS nomination is judge Merrick Garland.  However, there is immense controversy pertaining to Garland’s nomination, as the Republican party strongly opposes Obama nominating anyone for the open Supreme Court seat, as they wish to leave that power to the incoming 2016 elected president.  Despite this desire from the GOP, Obama has all legal right to nominate and fill the open SCOTUS seat, leading to his nomination of Merrick Garland.  

Through the numerous controversies that have stemmed from these party disagreements about who should have the privilege of filling this open seat, there has been a decrease in discussion pertaining to the actual nominee at hand- an IVY League graduate, white, male.  Situations such as these bring such an internal dilemma- on the one hand, I wish there had been some sort of barrier broken through increased diversity, but on the other hand, it is very possible Garland really was the absolute most qualified candidate, in which case, he should deserve it.  As in many facets of life, politics has a strong sense of annihilation when it comes to marginalized groups and this appears to be no exception.  This nomination of Garland, as opposed to Sri Srinivasan, who was said to be the leading alternate option and who would have been the first Asian-American justice in the court, enhances this sense of white power and Asians as threats to this power, that are depicted through the Three Pillars of White Supremacy.  President Obama has said that through the immense research, consultations, and performance of the possible nominees, that Merrick Garland was the most qualified.  Thus, if this is true, the question arises as to whether or not it is more important to take the most qualified candidate for a position or to take the slightly less qualified candidate who increases diversity and begins to break barriers- a controversial topic that has long been debated.