Blog #22

Sonia Sotomayor, the newly elected Supreme Court Judge, was under much scrutiny when President Obama appointed her to the bench. She is the first Hispanic justice and the third woman justice. Sotomayor’s made a comment, commonly referred to as the “wise Latina” comment, in which she said, “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.” Because of this comment, many people, the majority right-wingers, criticized her for being racist. While I agree that her comment is probably true, (most white men have not had the same enlightening life experiences as any minority or woman), I still have to say that it was unwise of her to say it out loud. I think it is best for people not to give the impression or generalize that they are better than anyone because of their race or gender, and in a way, she does this. A controversial case in which she was involved in was one involving promotions for a certain group of firefighters who were required to study for and take an exam that would measure whether or not they would qualify for the promotion. The fire department then denied everyone the raise and when the other fire fighters who passed the test brought a lawsuit, Justice Sotomayor ruled that because no black people passed the exam, no one could get the raise. Sotomayor faced criticisms for this decision because she was accused of being a racist. The video for this blog shows that other Supreme Court Justices have made controversial statements but because they are white males, they have not been attacked as extremely as Justice Sotomayor was.