In an interesting twist to an all but decided Supreme Court nomination, Second Circuit Federal Appellate Judge Sonia Sotomayor's comments while speaking at U.C. Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law function in 2001 has been drawing the ire of influential conservatives like former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
Both have referred to Judge Sotomayor as a racist for her comments related to Latinia women being able to make better decisions [on the bench] based on their experiences, than white males. While these comments on their face seem a little disconcerting, what may be most important here is the context in which they were made.
Was Judge Sotomayor Speaking to a Specific Group of People for a Particular Purpose
In what would seem to be a extremely targeted speech entitled, "A Latina Judge's Voice," Sotomayor reminisces about her 'Newyorkican" background while discussing what she calls America's confused image of itself. Sotomayor stated, "America has a deeply confused image of itself that is in perpetual tension."
Sotomayor when on to say, "We are a nation that takes pride in our ethnic diversity, recognizing its importance in shaping our society and in adding richness to its existence. Yet, we simultaneously insist that we can and must function and live in a race and color-blind way that ignore these very differences that in other contexts we laud," Sotomayor said.
The Melting Pot verses the Mixing Bowl
In her speech Judge Sotomayor made reference to the ongoing national debate over race. It perhaps has been the quintessential issue of the American experience therefore any comments about race my be problematic for some group or individual. But by injecting race questions in her speech Judge Sotomayor challenges us to consider many of these issues that we as Americans don't always like to deal with.
One such concept is that of America being a melting pot. The argument is that the melting pot a long adhered to metaphor for America has not served us well. Because in a melting pot it is often difficult to distinguish the original aspects of the items that were melted together.
The mixing bowl on the other hand leaves all the individual original aspects of the items in the bowl in tact to be appreciated and admired in the own right. While still contributing mightily to the richness and value of the whole item in the mixing bowl.
A Dwindling Number of Mexican-American Lawyers is Also Important
One of the important aspects of this issue may also relate to the falling numbers of Mexican-American lawyers. Although Hispanics are the largest minority group in the country and the overall number of all minority groups is up in laws schools (due to an increase in the number of Asians and Hispanics other than Mexican-Americans).
In the terms of the speech, Judge Sotomayor does not even make this point, she instead focuses on women justices. This may in fact shed more light on what she deems most important.
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