Judge Sotomayor is set to be the first Latina on the Supreme Court of the United States and I am really, truly happy for her. However, I was thinking about something this week as I watched bits and pieces of the confirmation hearing. If a White guy said that he could make better decisions than a Latina would he still be considered for the Supreme Court? Would he have been nominated in the first place?

Based on her judgements, I feel pretty sure that she follows the law. Many of her cases have been made available through various media outlets and they all seem to follow the law. There doesn’t appear to be bias or an inclination to help one race over another even in cases where her questioning might have led you to suspect that she was going to rule in a particular defendants favor. What I did find curious,however, is the comment that she made so many years ago and the decidedly non-issue that it has been.

We all say stupid things at one time or another. This blog is a good case in point. However, I have to be honest when I say that I would feel uncomfortable if a White man said something similar to what she said yet was nominated to the Supreme Court. Why? I’m not sure why. Maybe I think that he wouldn’t care about the needs of others. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were nowhere to be found during this hearing for Sotomayor. Yet, if Sotomayor’s role was reversed and she was a White man instead of a Latina woman AND he had said something similar to what she said, I can’t help but feel in my heart that both of those guys would have been all over those hearings. There would have been protests and news stories. Every case he ever tried would have been under the microscope. Any abnormality would have been exaggerated. Do you think I’m wrong?

I think that Sotomayor will make a fine judge, but honestly this situation has made me think long and hard about the things that we feel deep down inside and how those things influence our approach to dealing with other people. It is my sincere hope that there will be a day when a ‘wise Latina’, a wise ‘White guy’, a wise ‘Black woman’ or a wise ‘Asian guy’ will just be looked at as a wise person - not a beacon of salvation for any race or any culture, but a wise person who will seek to understand everyone he or she encounters.

Good luck Sonia! Good luck to all of us!