Sotomayor and Race

Since being announced Tuesday, Judge Sonia Sotomayor has come under attack by conservatives and Republicans for being racist. At the crux of the argument is this statement:

“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,”

Judge Sotomayor made this statement while giving a speech at the Judge Mario G. Olmos Memorial Lecture at Berkeley School of Law, back in 2001 (the full text of that speech can be found here). Newt Gingrich, Rep. Tom Tancredo, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter have all labeled the statement racist (click links for their individual statements).

OK, here is my take on it. When the statement is taken out of the whole speech, it is racist. A white person would be hung out to dry in five seconds flat for saying anything like it. If our goal is truly to become a color blind society, then the rules must apply across the board, no exceptions. Far too many minorities today get away with saying some of the most racist things against white people. I find this hypocritical in the extreme. How can minorities complain about racism from whites and then totally turn a blind eye when one of their own is caught out there being a racist. Sooner or later this behavior has to stop or we can forget about ever being a color blind society.


Now, when you read the entire speech, you get a different picture of Sotomayor. The picture that emerges is not one of a racist, but a picture of someone who seems to admit that her race and gender colors her legal opinions. This is not a good thing. Our Constitutional Republic demands rule of law. It demands clearly defined laws with clearly definited out comes. How can any of us have faith in our legal system, if we all need to be latinas in order to understand the decisions rendered by it?


Clearly Obama got what he wanted here when he went shopping for empathy. Now the question to ask is why does Obama feel that our highest court requires the uncertainty that empathy brings?