Sotomayor:"Physiological Differences" ?!? It Looks A Lot Like Racism

Sonia Sotomayor gave this speech at a University of California at Berkeley Law School Raising the Bar Symposium. The symposium was specifically called, "The Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation."

These are Judge Sotomayor‘s words in complete context. “Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my colleague Judge Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice O’Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am not so sure Justice O’Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, 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.”

Sotomayor’s words in context are clearly much worse than the one line that was being reported by news networks. According to this statement there are implications that Sotomayor thinks that whether a Latina woman had experience or not, because of the inherent physiological and cultural differences that a Latina woman has, that would automatically make her decisions better than a white male’s decisions. This statement presents major problems with how this judicial philosophy would effect her judicial decisions. Would her decisions always favor a Latina woman or a woman with inherent physiological and cultural characteristics? If a white man had the reverse of this statement than his nomination would have been dead in the water? Is there a double standard in our society? Does society today allow for reverse discrimination? Does society by allowing or accepting reverse discrimination think that two wrongs make a right? Citizens’ in the United States should not be advocating for any form of racism. Racism is inherently wrong no matter who it is directed toward.

Here are 3 links regarding Sotomayor's speech: http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/05/26_sotomayor.shtml
http://foundry.heritage.org/2009/05/28/dont-forget-sotomayors-inherent-physiological-or-cultural-differences/
http://foundry.heritage.org/2009/05/27/a-troubling-decision-a-troubling-speech-and-a-troubling-nomination/