I've been arguing away on the Sotomayor choice, both below and at Electric City Weblog. Not much point to it, probably, other than as a claw-sharpening exercise, but it is striking how many apparent conservatives are professing outrage over her suggestion that a wise woman with a Latina background might be better equipped to make good decisions than someone without that background.
Suppose I were to suggest the possibility that if a couple of black justices had been on the Supreme Court in 1857 -- rather than just the nine white males actually there, including five from slave-holding families -- we might have gotten a better ruling in the Dred Scott case.
To read the right, I would be a racist for even suggesting the possibility. Oh, the vapors! Political correctness run amok.
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False, True & Unrelated would be my multiple choice guess.
I know you've been listening to Limbaugh because you have told us so in other places but I now read that you are using one of his favorite rhetorical tricks which is to employ the same argument or technique in reverse so as to point out its absurdity.
“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.”
Did you not read this quote David?
She's saying nothing about her education, or court rulings - or judicial qualifications, she's bringing race into it.
My previous points are valid.
Eric, Do you seriously think she means to say that Hispanics are genetically superior to whites? And if not, what's your beef?
Of course, any "wise" woman is apt to make better decisions that some guy who lacks "wisdom"
David: Thanks for finally getting me to read the judge's remarks. I thought they were unusually candid, like a Latina Rush Limbaugh. I look forward to some good laughs at the lawyers' expense when they are doing the oral thing before the Court. But I still have the feeling that she was thinking early on when she was outlining the paucity of people of various races, colors and ethnicities that somehow the quality of judging in those courts was not as good as it should have been; and that this would be remedied by having some people with other biases on the court.
Of course this comes from a male person of poor color and experience, so I will wait to be instructed by those who know.
Jeez, I don't know why conservatives over at Electric City are getting upset about this quote -- I mean, Natelson's a perfect example of why her statement is true. All you have to do is pull up his argument that there's too much Native American coverage in the news, and you can clearly see how the Perfesser's privileged birth and work have completely blinded him to the realities of race.
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