Written by By Tara Overzat
Sonia Sotomayor has been widely praised for pulling herself up by her bootstraps and working her way out of the Bronx projects and first into the Ivy League, then into Law, and now into the limelight as President Obama’s first Sumpreme Court nominee, and in fact the first Latina to be nominated to the highest court in the land.
The surprising thing is the media has gone on… and on… and on about her ethnicity and has reported disappointingly little about her beliefs and her record, which except for a few examples is surprisingly centrist. While very little has been said about her record, a veritable ticker-tape parade has been held over her rising up out of poverty, not just as a person, but as a woman and a Hispanic.
I, personally, think it’s great that Americans have the opportunity for social mobility and Sotomayor’s story shows that people can work hard and achieve their dreams. However, Sotomayor at least in one judicial instance, does not agree that everyone is equal irrespective of race and can change their lives by the strength of their will and hard work (as she did).
In Ricci v. DeStefano, a New Haven, Connecticut fire department administered a test to ineterested applicants in order to fill open leadership positions. White and Latino applicants scored higher than black applicants. The fire department feared being sued under Title VII, so they left the leadership spots open and decided to administer a new test. Well, there is a lawsuit anyway becuase the firefighters that studied hard for this exam, including a white man with dyslexia, feel (rightfully) cheated. Sotomayor is in favor a new test being administered to these firefighters, a test that is somehow more fair to blacks.
This is faulty thinking on many levels. The backlash of anti-discrimination laws and tactics (like a test that is somehow deemed fair for all races) is that people will question how intelligent and capable you actually are as a person. Rather than being judged as an individual, you are judged as some statistic (Asian male, 25-34 years old; Hispanic, non-white woman, 45-59 years old). The question could arise – Did you get into medical school (receive this job offer, promotion, etc.) because of your qualifications, or because this particular institution was trying to “diversify?”
I was recognized under the National Hispanic Recognition Program at my high school. While my scores were high enough for the National Merit, the little box I had been checking on all my paperwork for years dictated that I should receive the Hispanic Award, with its lower threshold qualification score. The National Achievement Scholarship Program, for African-Americans, at the time also had a lower threshold score. If the point of anti-discrimination laws is to make us more equal, why slap minorities in the face with this insult? Are the powers that be trying to say that Latinos and African Americans aren’t capable of scoring as high as white kids on standardized tests? Really? How does this actually help anyone?
I am for Sotomayor being added to the Supreme Court. But this habit we as Americans have at looking at every person we see as a statistic (race, gender, age) is hurting more than helping. I hope her decision in the Ricci v. DeStefano case (which is still pedning) is tempered by other minds on the bench, so that actual justice can shine through.
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