PLAYING THE RACE CARD
You knew that any person nominated by President Obama to fill the Supreme Court vacancy would be criticized by the right. It didn’t take long for them to pounce on this paragraph lifted from a speech delivered by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor back in 2001 at the University of California-Berkeley.
Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. … 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.
Now in fairness, it should be noted that just about every Republican elected official has taken a low key approach, mindful of the need to avoid alienating Hispanic voters. The right-wing chatterati labors under no such burden and they immediately dropped the “R” word (emphasis added):
"White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw." Newt Gingrich (on Twitter no less).
"horrible choice" "a racist … or reverse racist." Rush Limbaugh
"Saying that someone would decide a case differently … because she's a Latina, not a white male, that statement by definition is racist. Ann Coulter
I wonder if Newt's first wife would agree that white men know more than women about fairness. That would be the wife Newt badgered about the terms of the divorce while she was in the hospital recuperating from cancer surgery. I'm sure she was a lot wiser after that.
Or maybe Rush's Hispanic maid might want to say a few words about what it is like to be on the receiving end of a powerful white male's need for drugs. I'm pretty sure she didn't volunteer to supply Rush with pain-killers.
As for Ann Coulter, this is a woman who writes books entitled "Godless: The Church of Liberalism" or "Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism" and thinks that is okay. Ms. Coulter is not exactly the gold standard for dispassionate political analysis.
While we are on the subject of political analysis, let me add this bit of historical perspective on the subject of ethnic politics. Growing up as a first generation Italian-American near Boston in the early 60's, I can tell you that any Italian running for office got my family's vote, as did those candidates who were known at the Italo-American Society or the Knights of Columbus.
It was politically shrewd (there's a reason they call it ethnic politics) but it was also their way of making a statement about self-empowerment. As new immigrants, my parents and grandparents faced a lot of subtle and not-so subtle discrimination. They knew that the quickest way to even things up was through the ballot box, a lesson that today's Hispanics have also learned very well.
This process of overcoming is what Sonia Sotomayor was referring to in that phrase "the richness of her experiences." What she clearly meant was that only those on the receiving end of prejudice and discrimination could truly understand it, a simple truth that some folks still don't want to hear.
June 1, 2009
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Sonia Sotomayor
Rush Limbaugh
Newt Gingrich
Ann Coulter
