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No going back
It’s worthwhile thinking further about the notion that Judge Sotomayor could extricate herself from the difficulties produced by her 2001 lecture by announcing that she made a poor choice of words when she said that as a “wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences,” she “would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” The problem is, how could she issue such a retraction? Her entire career is founded on her identity as a “Latina.” She was nominated to the United States Supreme Court because she is a “Latina.” Since her actual abilities are middling at best (as even her supporters admit), what does she have to offer, what special qualifications for the Supreme Court does she have, other than that, as a wise “Latina” woman with a wonderful and magical “Latina” soul, she brings special gifts of judicial decision making that non-“Latina” judges lack?
Therefore she cannot disown her racialist views of judgeship, since they are the very basis of her nomination. To paraphrase Macbeth, she is in racialism stepp’d so far, that should she wade no more, returning were as tedious as to go o’er. Email entry |