Blog #22

During Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, in my opinion, she was literally pulled apart for doing what males in the ‘You Tube’ explained they do themselves as privileged men. They did not admit that they hold women, particularly a minority woman to a different standard. Sotomayor was criticized for “including her own gender and ethnic biases” in the name of law. However, this is exactly what other nominees mentioned that they think about before making a decision, they think about their own personal accounts of injustice. So why is it ok for a male to use his experiences and when a Hispanic woman attempts to, she is too liberal or too biased? The remarks that she had made in 2001, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experience, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life” were completely taken out of context to citizen her as a radical. I was happy to see President Obama to come to her defense and tell the rest of America that when you listen to her entire speech, she wasn’t attempting to allege that white males judges are incompetent. She was simply asserting that a white male judge that has not had the life experiences that a Hispanic woman would bring to the bench and those “life experiences” would obviously permit her to take more things into consideration before rendering her decisions because she has lived a different experience compared to her white male counterparts.
Rather than to judge her on her judicial record on the bench, critics went on a personal attack citing that she would be biased based on gender and race. She should have been praised for challenging the already biased institution! I believe that what took place during Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings was discriminatory, racist, appalling and shameful. It reinforces the male ideology and anything that challenges it is deemed to pose a threat. On brighter note, I am happy that she was finally confirmed and I certainly hope that she will pave the pathway for more racial and gender minorities to aspire to reach similar positions of leadership.