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« INNOVATE GOOD TIMES? COME ON! | Main | "IDENTITY POLITICS" REDUX. »

STUART TAYLOR AND PAT BUCHANAN MAKE THE CASE FOR AFFIRMATIVE ACTION.

On Hardball yesterday, Pat Buchanan argued that Sonia Sotomayor "says her sex -- her gender, excuse me -- and her ethnicity are going to influence her decision. She will decide differently from a white male." Likewise Stuart Taylor has asked "do we want a new justice who comes close to stereotyping white males as (on average) inferior beings? And who seems to speak with more passion about her ethnicity and gender than about the ideal of impartiality?"

I've already responded to some of Taylor's assertions, so I won't do that here. I merely want to point out this passage from Samuel Alito's confirmation, highlighted by Glenn Greenwald:

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.
[...]

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.

This is Samuel Alito, arguing that his experience of being the son of Italian immigrants, his knowledge of discrimination, gives him empathy that offers insight into such cases. How is this qualitatively different from Sotomayor saying that her knowledge of such things might maker her a better judge? It isn't--in fact, Alito is arguing the same thing, that his life experience gives him insight into the way laws affect people in real life, the exact quality Obama said he was looking for in a nominee. Like Sotomayor, Alito was merely commenting on the way life experience shapes one's vision of the law.

The conservative freakout over Sotomayor's remarks, as opposed to the way Alito's were marketed as a selling point for him as a judge, makes a remarkably salient case for why we still need affirmative action. Two judges made similar points--one was an Italian American man, the other was a Latino woman, both accomplished on the bench--but what was sold as a strength for Alito makes Sotomayor a racist. Taylor and Buchanan, while attacking Sotomayor, have inadvertently made the case for a policy they'd like to see eliminated, by proving that all things being equal, a minority woman is held to a different standard than the white man of similar background and experience.

-- A. Serwer

Posted by Adam Serwer on May 27, 2009 2:00 PM | Permalink |

COMMENTS (30)

NEWS AND COMMENT

"Limbaugh On Sotomayor: "I Want Her To Fail"

Limbaugh thinks that Sotomayor would be a disaster on the Supreme Court; and so he wants her to fail to get there. And he still wants President Obama to fail.

So, who's next? Susan Boyle?

homer www.altara.blogspot.com

Posted by: altara | May 27, 2009 2:26 PM

For conservatives, the difference is that Alito was just blowing smoke.

Posted by: Chuck | May 27, 2009 3:20 PM

Pwnd.

Posted by: Awkward Silence | May 27, 2009 3:22 PM

Italian immigrants = hard working, charming, good cooks and sitcom characters.

Hispanic immigrants = lazy, drug dealing job stealers.

Posted by: Douglas Watts | May 27, 2009 3:31 PM

I think what is being said by conservatives, without actually saying it, is what they think everybody knows about Puerto Rican women. Wink wink nudge nudge, know what I mean? See, she's Puerto Rican, so obviously she's going to be emotional and irrational and let her hormones and her over-the-top Puerto Rican mama-ness override her judicial sensibilities, because those people just can't help it etc., etc..

Posted by: Jeff | May 27, 2009 4:17 PM

Taylor and Buchanan, while attacking Sotomayor, have inadvertently made the case for a policy they'd like to see eliminated, by proving that all things being equal, a minority woman is held to a different standard than the white man of similar background and experience.

QED and FTW. If this were a real debate instead of another gyration of the Perpetual-Motion-Right-Wing-Noise-Machine, it would be over right now. Great work, Adam.

Posted by: Michael Bérubé | May 27, 2009 4:29 PM

one was an Italian American man, the other was a Latino woman, both accomplished on the bench--but what was sold as a strength for Alito makes Sotomayor a racist.

No, the difference is that one was a conservative Republican member of the Federalist Society and everybody knew that, while he could empathize with people who've been discriminated against, he wouldn't actually do anything to help them.

Had Alito been a liberal Democrat and a member of MoveOn, we would have heard the exact same attacks on his empathy.

Posted by: Jinchi | May 27, 2009 5:08 PM

In fairness, there is one difference. Everyone knew that Alito didn't mean it--that he was just talking crap (thus fighting bad image) before going out to rule on behalf of power.

The fear on the part of those who fear: When Obama (or even Sotomayor) talk about empathy, they might actually mean it.

Posted by: bob somerby | May 27, 2009 5:25 PM

To expand on Jinchi's post, you almost have to feel sorry for the Republicans. It is just the way they play the game to hypocritically flip-flop when the democrats do the same thing. But in this case, their opposite positions advantage a white male over a female minority, so even if they are applying their lies equally, people won't let them play it that way.

Posted by: Henry Bayer | May 27, 2009 5:43 PM

In Buchannan's defense, Alito is not just a white male, but he is a conservative white male. Makes all the difference.

Posted by: Mac | May 27, 2009 5:45 PM

Adam, I think this is the clearest illustration of the continuing need for affirmative action that I've seen in a while. May I use this post with my students during the next school year?

Posted by: Franklin Oliver | May 27, 2009 6:21 PM

If you are trying to make the point that politicians have the tendency to be hypocritical, then well played

If you are making a case for affirmative action, keep in mind there is a black man in the white house!

Posted by: cliff | May 27, 2009 6:57 PM

This may finally be the Charge of the Light Brigade that makes affirmative action unnecessary. The Republicans seem hell-bent on self-immolating over this nomination. Let's see -- the storyline is that President Obama's Latina nominee who graduated summa cum magna laude etc. etc. from undergrad, law school and everything else in her life and has more experience than any new nominee in 50 years and whose judicial career was begun by a REPUBLICAN president, is, in their "reality", an unqualified, ideological, reverse-racist partisan hack who has coat-tailed off affirmative action and is going to end Western civilization as we know it.

I think the only conclusion that you can reasonably draw is that today's Republican Party is an oddball coalition of people doing a large scale science experiment in how to destroy a political party as fast as possible with people who belong in a rubber room. In any case, I'm curious to see how quickly the wreckage of the GOP piles up.

Posted by: DBX | May 27, 2009 7:24 PM

Two judges made similar points--one was an Italian American man, the other was a Latino woman, both accomplished on the bench--but what was sold as a strength for Alito makes Sotomayor a racist.

If Alito had been a Democrat nominated by a Democratic president, Taylor and Buchanan would be attacking him for his ethnic prejudices -- if not broadly hinting that he's in the Mafia. If Sotomayor were a Republican appointed by a Republican president, they'd be singing her praises.

This isn't about racism, it's about ideology -- reactionary ideology espoused by a couple of pompous pricks still pining for the glory days of Ronald Reagan.

Posted by: Peter Principle | May 27, 2009 11:02 PM

affirmative action should be ended or heavily reformed. A system that preferences Bill Cosby's children over the children of poor white folks is not about justice at all. It's a lie to pretend it is.

If you want to give poor black folks a slight advantage over poor whites, that's one thing. Currently, we give RICH black folks a leg up over poor white folks AND poor black folks, and that's just fucking disgusting.

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