Spencer Price
Removing the blindfold
In case you haven’t heard, it’s official now – it’s okay for a person to make racially-oriented comments about others as long as those comments are directed toward whites, especially white males. Don’t believe me? Then read the following comment made by Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals during a speech to a Hispanic group: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”
I've done it myself when there are two black people parked in the middle of the road blocking traffic talking, when I'm trying to read English instructions and all I can find is Spanish on the box, when I get gypped by a person who is a con artist (gypped is from Gypsy), when I see a Polish person who happens to do something stupid, and so on. If all of my writings or words over a lifetime were taken out of context I'd easily be the most hated WASP in the world.
We already know you are sore a black man beat a fat old rich white guy with his biotox face wife in the last election. Maybe you should worry about Rush saying Michael J. Fox is faking his MS, or the hundreds of other stupid things people occasionally say.
When you have something worthwhile to hate her about, write an interesting article.
My only comment is to say that I am almost certain that a white man would have been pilloried had he said that his life experiences as a white man better qualify him for the title of judge than any Latina woman's experiences.
That would certainly rile up at least a couple of groups.
This one is a no win for anyone.
The standards are way higher for certain people, as they should be for Sotomayor. As they should be for anyone who is being considered for one of the highest positions in the land.
Just because you make racist comments, that doesn't mean we all do.
In Los Angeles, alone, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens.
Why are tax payers NOT raising cane about this?
U.S. SENATOR TOM COBURN (R-OK): Can you comment just about Sam Alito, and what he cares about, and let us see a little bit of your heart and what's important to you in life?
ALITO: Senator, I tried to in my opening statement, I tried to provide a little picture of who I am as a human being and how my background and my experiences have shaped me and brought me to this point.
ALITO: I don't come from an affluent background or a privileged background. My parents were both quite poor when they were growing up.
And I know about their experiences and I didn't experience those things. I don't take credit for anything that they did or anything that they overcame.
But I think that children learn a lot from their parents and they learn from what the parents say. But I think they learn a lot more from what the parents do and from what they take from the stories of their parents lives.
And that's why I went into that in my opening statement. Because when a case comes before me involving, let's say, someone who is an immigrant -- and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases -- I can't help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn't that long ago when they were in that position.
And so it's my job to apply the law. It's not my job to change the law or to bend the law to achieve any result.
But when I look at those cases, I have to say to myself, and I do say to myself, "You know, this could be your grandfather, this could be your grandmother. They were not citizens at one time, and they were people who came to this country."
When I have cases involving children, I can't help but think of my own children and think about my children being treated in the way that children may be treated in the case that's before me.
And that goes down the line. When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account. When I have a case involving someone who's been subjected to discrimination because of disability, I have to think of people who I've known and admire very greatly who've had disabilities, and I've watched them struggle to overcome the barriers that society puts up often just because it doesn't think of what it's doing -- the barriers that it puts up to them.
So those are some of the experiences that have shaped me as a person.
COBURN: Thank you.
Please do not continue to post random statements, statistics, et al, without backing them up with citations or relevant documentation.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/taxes.asp
There are many who would lay the mantle of pure empathy on the semi-latinas who populate central and South America. The Aztecs were sure practicing enlightened empathy when they were gorging themselves on the still beating hearts of their just victimized sacrifices. They were the equal of the Hispanics when it came to brutal colonialism, but their obsidian based armament was no match for iron and gunpowder. Ditto for the Mayas, who matched the Aztecs in brutal politics. The Incas were even more problematical in their regional despotism, and they almost defeated those Spanish armaments.
Aside from cultural and background, there is something about Sotomayor's statement that really troubles me. Bear with me while I step this out. The legal professions closely observe and adhere to the philosophy of language and linguistics. Parsing words like "is" is something that is central to their existence. Creating law and contracts demands detailed work among words and when it comes to that, this judge is just flat dangerous, racism aside, of course.
We must be getting stupid from staring at computers too much. We have lost our common sense and ability to reason.
You folks are jokes
For this guy to say that his adversity and experience is comparable to this educated Latino woman is laughable at best and absurd at worst. This article is a great example of a person’s denial of how the past sets the tone of the present and can factor the future. I am where I am to day because of what my parents had been able to do for me and the same for them by there parents. Generations build on one another to provide opportunity for the next.
This accusation of racism is so out of touch with reality that I question his motive for writing such an article.