Cartoon by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune

Here’s where we’re at.  The following is a line taken from a speech given by Sonia Sotomayor in 2001.

“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.”

The right wing media has grabbed a hold of that single line and in a chorus of unified indignation have said of Sotomayor…

“So here you have a racist. You might — you might want to  soften that, and you might want to say a reverse racist.   -Rush Limbaugh

“These people [Democratic Senators]  need to understand that if they vote to confirm a radical leftist — and I  will now say what I actually believe — who is a bigot — that’s right, I  said it  -Mark Levin

Sotomayor’s remark is “one of the most outrageous racist remarks I’ve heard. … She sure sounds like a racist.”  -Glenn Beck

“That’s a racist  statement, by any calculation.”  -Tucker Carlson

Think they all received the RNC’s racist/bigot talking point memo?

What you might not be aware of from listening to the right is that Sotomayor was referring to judges rendering judgments in cases of race and sex discrimination.   The paragraph following the Sotomayor quote reads…

“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.”

Clarence Thomas, on being asked at his nomination hearing as to why he wanted the job of Supreme Court judge responded with, “And I believe, Senator, that I can make a contribution, that I can bring something different to the Court, that I can walk in the shoes of the people who are affected by what the Court does.”

How is Thomas’ comment any different than Sotomayor’s?  They both speak of one’s personal experiences being an element in how one views and interprets specific events in their world.  This is true whether one is black, white or Hispanic.

With that understanding, Sotomayor adds a bit of wisdom and rational thought…

“Each day on the bench I learn something new about the judicial process and about being a professional Latina woman in a world that sometimes looks at me with suspicion. I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires. I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.”

Are these the words of a racist…reverse or otherwise?

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