Guest MOMocrats Post by Miguelina: Calling Sonia Sotomayor a racist? Make sure you have the facts first.

The MOMocrats welcome guest poster Miguelina who has a few things to say about the nasty tactics the GOP is using to try to smear Sonia Sotomayor.  Playing the racist card? You better come correct.

To Understand Takes Time and Effort, Something that Not All People Are Willing To Give

I'm not even going to pretend that this a political blog (or I should more accurately say, a judicial watch blog) but the constant exposure to Sonia Sotomayor's "wise Latina" quote, taken out of context is -- to put it mildly -- disappointing to me.

Dirty GOP politics is nothing new, but that the mainstream media keeps repeating the quote out of context thus doing the GOP's dirty work for them is pretty scary.

Sigh.

Why such a sophomoric smear campaign? In Sotomayor's own words,

To understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give.

You could argue that those words are proven right by the storm brewing around her right now, but I'll let you decide on your own. I trust that my fellow Americans are capable to form an opinion based on facts, something that talk radio seems to think is impossible.

I'm not even going to pretend that this a political blog (or I should more accurately say, a judicial watch blog) but the constant exposure to Sonia Sotomayor's "wise Latina" quote, taken out of context is -- to put it mildly -- disappointing to me.

Dirty GOP politics is nothing new, but that the mainstream media keeps repeating the quote out of context thus doing the GOP's dirty work for them is pretty scary.

Sigh.

Why such a sophomoric smear campaign? In Sotomayor's own words,

To understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give.

You could argue that those words are proven right by the storm brewing around her right now, but I'll let you decide on your own. I trust that my fellow Americans are capable to form an opinion based on facts, something that talk radio seems to think is impossible.

Anyways.

Here is the offending statement:

First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, 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.

Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society. Until 1972, no Supreme Court case ever upheld the claim of a woman in a gender discrimination case. I, like Professor Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. As Judge Cedarbaum pointed out to me, nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown.

However, to understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give.

Does this sound like a racist to you? I get that "racist" is a charge that is guaranteed to get you press, but it also makes you look desperate when it is thrown about so cheaply.

(And yes, Hispanic is not a race, but the concept is clearly too difficult for people to understand right now. Let's keep things simple.)

Read the complete speech here and make up your own mind.

—Cross-posted from Miguelina. 

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Comments

[Daisy]

I'm impressed by Sotomayor's intelligence, education, and experience. If the only card her opponents can play is the "racist" name-calling, they haven't a chance of winning this hand.

[Catherine]

I enjoyed your post Miguelina. It floors me that people like Rush Limbaugh are free to make such evil comments, but people of color are not. He has made so many racist comments about PBO that it would be exhausting to even try to speak about all of them. The media always finds a way to say it was just in fun. For instance, the cartoon of Sotomayer hung from a tree as a pinata was not funny to me at all. As an African American, anytime I see someone hanging from a tree, I take it seriously. The cartoonist was allowed to play it off. Also, that Sotomayor is Puerto Rican but portrayed as Mexican was insulting indeed. It reminded me of the phrase I heard so often as a child..."They all look alike". Nevertheless, not one soul called the cartoonist racist...but racist he is. He was questioned about it only one time, and nothing else was heard about it. I am standing with Judge Sotomayor. Why? Because if what was just shown is a display of the wisdom of White men...I dread to think of what our lives can rewind to.