With a 68-31 vote, the U.S. Senate proved it could get over Sonia Sotomayor’s own racism! She’s the 111th justice, and third woman, to sit on the Supreme Court’s bench. And even some Republicans voted for her.
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oli
Finally! Some equal representation on the bench. Us hispanics will soon be the majority in this country and it’s about time this change in demographics is represented everywhere even in politics.
daftpunkydavid
one down, several more to go! next time we’re bringing harold koh. and so on and so forth, til we are all represented on that benchizzle!!
D-Sun
Hopefully next time we get a half Chinese/half Egyptian, paraplegic, transgendered, blind, Jewish, bisexual mermaid.
It’s about time we had one of those on the bench.
Dennis
@D-Sun:
As long as they don’t put an apparent half-racist/half-asshole such as yourself on the court…
Sotomayor’s appointment is a victory for diversity, women’s rights, and equal access to power. Are you a visitor from Freeper, or are you so deluded that you think a court consisting solely of old, straight, conservative ‘christer’ men is going to do any favors for LGBT rights?
D-Sun
@Dennis:
Oh please, don’t even try calling me a racist. The only racists in this scenario are the ones screaming “Ooh, ooh! We need a Chinese woman next! And then a black lesbian! Then a Jewish FtM! And then a Xenomorph!”
I detest these racial/gender quotas(and this is coming from an Asian man, not a white man, which seems to be the assumption any time someone says this.) I’d rather see people picked to fill positions, whether it’s on the supreme court or in college admissions, based on whether or not they’re qualified. Not whether their skin is the right color, or if they have the right organ between their legs. And if a white man happens to be the most qualified person available, oh well. That’s not to say Sotomayor isn’t qualified or right for the job, because she is. And I’m not knocking her, just the jackasses who insist on playing these identity politics.
And as to that last sentence: I don’t know about you, but I would much rather have a supreme court consisting of nine old, white men with progressive stances on GLBT rights than a court consisting of nine minority/female conservative justices with anti-equality outlooks.
Sam
@D-Sun: “I’d rather see people picked to fill positions, whether it’s on the supreme court or in college admissions, based on whether or not they’re qualified.”
Unfortunately, in positions of power in this country, one of the unspoken qualifications is “be a straight white male.”
Mike
@Sam: Exactly Sam, exactly. If it was up to this country, you wouldn’t see a woman, a person of color, a non christian or non straight person in a position of power.
Quinn
@Mike: While I appreciate the sentiment, and understand the power dynamic is skewed heavily in favor of the white Christian heterosexual male, isn’t saying this country “wouldn’t” put any of those groups in a position of power sort of contradicted by the fact that we just… did?
A first step is still a step.
Mike
@Quinn: Agreed, we just did! and look at the wing nuts shitting in their pant daily over it. my point is, if it was up to the wingnuts, the face of America would be ‘Straight old christian white male’, thats all I’m saying man.
Andrew
@D-Sun:
Was that humor and I missed it – or are you just a big douche?
Andrew
@D-Sun:
I.C. I think it was humor. I take back the douche comment.
D-Sun
@Sam:
And I’d like to see the white/hetero/christian/male-centric power structure in America change just as much as you do.
I just don’t see how the best way to do that is to swap out a blatantly unfair bias in favor of one group with a blatantly unfair bias in favor of a different group.
M Shane
No. 12 · D-Sun
“I just don’t see how the best way to do that is to swap out a blatantly unfair bias in favor of one group with a blatantly unfair bias in favor of a different group.”
Unfortunately, affirmative action, appied wisely is how it works, since , e.g.as in this case, the assortment of Latina judges who are as qualified as a relatively equally qualified
assortment of Christian White men is infinitesimally small.
So given a random pick , the two or three L.W. would have almost NO statistical chance of being picked . An arificial variable has to be introduced.
This brings us back to the fact that disfavored and dipossessed groups of people are domed in our culture to a poor education, inadequate parenting to encourage and believe in themselves as part of the extant system. They need role models who have achieved. This is social engineering, but to a god end in a pluralistic democracy.
I am more than aware that putting quotas has had the adverse effect of placing people who were utterly unqualified intpo possitions , and that is very bad. However the tool was ment to be used as it was witth Somtomayer.
M Shane
I would add that , if you look at statistics, most minority kids grow up seeing success working for a a major Cocaine dealer- this is a huge buziness in the U.S., They don’t aften learn that different avenues are open .
Two things are necessary for change:
(1) we have to begin building an educational system that doesn’t leave us lagging as one of the very worst in the world, for educating people
(2) We have to rein in Big Corporations which will continue to be driven by White men who control the Government , military and everything else.
It won’t happen with indifference.