Friday, May 29, 2009

A Few Comments on Judge Sotomayor's Words, part II

continued:

Sotomayor:  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.

 

Hernandez:  There are all sorts of ways of being wise.  Oliver Wendell Holmes said many wise things about the law, but as Sotomayor mentioned, he was part of those Justices who consistently voted against any claims of gender discrimination for decades and decades.  It could be a wise Latina with a richness of experience, or a wise woman, or a wise Bosnian that may have more sense about things than your typical White American Male.  No I am not a man hater, not at all (I am actually married to a white male - and I like him a lot).  But I am sure that the U.S. and many other Western countries have provided a societal framework that keeps white males from learning about the realities of the world.  There are many unconscious privileges some people have that we are often not aware of.

I could say that as a Latina professor I have experiences that white male professors don't have.  But I can also say that I was a social worker and psychotherapist for over fifteen years before I began my PhD studies in Cultural Anthropology.  I had a significant amount of mental health training, including that of the psychoanalytic study of groups.  I was also trained as a photographer.  So which experience makes me a better professor?  Is it being Latina?  Is it being a photographer (who certainly see the world in a unique way)?  Is it being a psychotherapist (some people say that could be a hindrance)?

Surely, hearing Agustin Lara and eating rice, beans and flour tortillas gave me a unique background and perspective while I was reading European social theorists.  Growing up in a Jim Crow town certainly helped me understand Faulkner.  Having brown skin made me stand out among the blonde kids at school, and sometimes their comments did hurt me (this did not keep me from making friends with some of them).  But now I understand a more realistic map of the world.  Most of the world is brown (or olive skinned) like me.  Many people that are my shade of brown are Jewish, highly educated, and well read.  I fit in most anywhere.  

If I had been born Jane Smith in Houston, Texas, and had blue eyes and blond hair, my life wouldn't nearly as interesting.  I can say the same for Judge Sotomayor. 

These comments are not necessarily about prejudice, they are about differences.

2 comments:

Defensores de Democracia said...

Marie Theresa

Thanks for excellent informations on Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

I am gathering dozens of Videos and articles of the press about Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Some people like Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews and Cenk Uygur are laughing and laughing at the Hyprocrisy or Republicans, because the Reps have said the same stuff that Sonia says in her "Horror" Videos.

Judges of the Supreme Court and Republican Senators have said exactly the same stuff as Sonia in other contexts.

Even George H. Bush the father of our beloved Bush has said exactly the same words that the Trilogy of Evil NPR : Newt, Pat and Rush condemn.

If Tom Tancredo hates the Non Anglo Saxons and non Nordic Whites then he should start by commiting suicide and improving the American Race, he is more Mediterranean like Brutus and Casius than a Real Viking like Leif Erikson.

That is why Cenk Uygur says that the Republicans are already defeated and that they are beginning to raise the White Flag of Surrender.

And even the Wall Street Journal loves Sonia Sotomayor because she likes Business and Capitalism, and Money has no skin color.

Look at tons of Information on Sonia here :

Milenials.com

Vicente Duque

Defensores de Democracia said...

Racist Radio Talk Show of G. Gordon Liddy On Sotomayor: ‘Let’s Hope That The Key Conferences Aren’t When She’s Menstruating’

On May 28, 2009 on his radio show, conservative host G. Gordon Liddy continued his right wing’s all-out assault on Judge Sonia Sotomayor. First, Liddy slammed Sotomayor’s affiliation with the civil rights group La Raza — and referred to the Spanish language as “illegal alien“:

LIDDY: I understand that they found out today that Miss Sotomayor is a member of La Raza, which means in illegal alien, “the race.” And that should not surprise anyone because she’s already on record with a number of racist comments.

Finished with the race-based attack, Liddy moved on to denigrate Sotomayor’s gender:

LIDDY: Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something, or just before she’s going to menstruate. That would really be bad. Lord knows what we would get then.

Finally, Liddy disputed the entire idea that there’s anything wrong with the paucity of women and total lack of Hispanics on the Court:

LIDDY: And everybody is cheering because Hispanics and females have been, quote, underrepresented, unquote. And as you pointed out, which I thought was quite insightful, the Supreme Court is not designed to be and should not be a representative body.

G. Gordon Liddy On Sotomayor: 'Let's Hope That The Key Conferences Aren't When She's Menstruating'

Listen to the Audio of the Radio Talk Show here :

Milenials.com

Vicente Duque