Rich Lives

Obama's nominee to the US Supreme Court is taking heat for a comment made during a speech some years ago. In a paraphrase of a famous quote on the value (or not) of diversity on the bench, Sotomayor said that she felt a wise latina woman could make a better decision than a wise white man who had not live the same rich life.

The implication of the statement for republicans desperate to find a politically safe way to challenge her nomination, was that Sotomayor was steeped in the racism that comes of believing your own way/culture/beliefs/religion/life is the "best."

I don't believe she meant that at all - her record is otherwise clean of potentially racist comments as far as we know, and it is certainly free of racist actions and court decisions. Traditionally undervalued groups of people like to talk among themselves not about how they could do as well as "the man," as 60's counterculture folks called the in-power group, but about how they could do better, if only they could get the chance. It's an aspirational and angry reaction to being dismissed as a valuable human being.

Sotomayor's comment was extremely mild, as those sorts of comments go.

The truth as I know it is that the only type of person who is likely to make a better decision than other types of people, is one who values the beliefs and thoughts of all groups. People who are like that are found among all ethnic and racial groups.

My only real beef with Sotomayor's comment is that she sacrificed, for the sake of an emotional affirmation, an acknowldegment that every life has the potential to be rich in experience, even that of a white man. Rich in different experiences than most latina women, but isn't that the point of diversity? White men are not bland, they have simply been the majority view. So let's acknowledge that the goal here is not to eradicate the white male point of view, but simply to provide an accompaniment of other points of view.

The violin is a beautiful instrument. It reaches it's full orchestral potential only when surrounded by all the other instruments of a symphony. Let's strive for a full orchestra of sound in our own political life, as well.