Judging Justice Sotomayor

06-01-2009 | STE=Q

[STE=Q]

By now many of you have either heard about or read about the infamous sentence spoken by President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor:

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life” (From a lecture delivered by judge Sonia Sotomayor published in the Spring 2002 issue of Berkeley La Raza Law Journal entitled "Raising the Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in the Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation.”)

Now, naturally, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the sexist and racist overtones in her (some may even argue stupid) statement.

I wrote more about it -- “Obama Pays His Dept To La Raza” -- here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2261050/posts?page=9#9

But let’s set aside for the moment whether she actually meant the statement to be offensive in a racist, or a sexist way.

Perhaps she felt comfortable bandying such an idea about, as, after all, the theme of the lecture was an ACTIVIST one, ("Raising the Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in the Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation” -- and she was there to lecture: not to adjudicate or to discus a pending legal case.

The gist of the lecture was on affirmative action, the “Struggle” for Representation, and various “esoteric” rationales and statistics that would supposedly support the need for more Latinos and Latina’s on the judicial bench.

Perhaps her comment was one of those “esoteric” rationales that “intellectuals” are want to make.

Now there was a time in my youth when I would have considered such “lectures” as edifying but after some mental seasoning I grew to concur with George Orwell’s Observation that “some ideas are SO outrageous that only an intellectual could believe them.”

Now I’m a strong proponent of freedom of speech and the concomitant free exchange of ideas -- as embodied in the first amendment to the constitution -- so I have to ask myself if people like Justice Sotomayor should have to look over their shoulder their whole lives lest, when dealing with a question that is academic, they should say the “wrong thing” or something that is not politically correct.

The first amendment was INTENDED, after all, to protect speech that you or I may not like!

And I did not like what she said one bit, but on further introspection, I realized, that it wasn’t that she took a jab at men (I’m a man) or a jab at “whitey” (I’m white) that I found so egregious :

What angered me -- as a person with an intrinsic sense of fairness, combined with my “rich” experiences as a white-male in the new, and “improved,” politically correct, America -- was the DOUBLE standard… a standard that would allow a Latina woman to say things that a non Latino, white male, under the same circumstances, could never get away with saying.

Why SHOULD she get a pass?

Because she’s a minority?

Because she’s had a “rich” experience -- like being able to attend the prestigious Yale University Law School?

Now that’s rich!

The whole leftist juggernaut of political correctness -- that a white person shall not criticize a minority lest he/she be labeled a racist in the public square -- is based on some sort of collective “white guilt” … a guilt that most of us whites, individually, have no RATIONAL reason to share.

Of course the minority, under the above rules of engagement, can be just as racist as they like… guilt free!

The irony is that those “guilty” whites that condescendingly refuse to hold minorities to the same standards as they would hold their own self, are the real racist, and the minorities know it and deep down -- they hate them for it!

No, I won’t hold Sotomayor to a lower standard because she’s a Latina, on the contrary, if she is confirmed to the Supreme Court of The United States, I would expect her to perform at the highest level of judicial insight: as would be expected of one holding such an august post.

So is Judge Sotomayor guilty of racism or is she herself a victim of the racist and condescending mindset of the left?

I believe that both the above propositions are very probable.

STE=Q

[STE=Q]

TYPO: are “want” to make = are “wont” to make