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Lessons Learned From Judge Sotomayor's Confirmation Process
These lessons, while most were apparent all along, should be loud and clear at this point... as in crystal clear
By
Ralph de Unamuno
Published on LatinoLA:
June 17, 2009
The spectacle of blatant racism and sexism that American reactionaries briefly displayed, prior to re-evaluating and "cloaking" their bigotry in opposing President Obama's recent Supreme court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, has been nothing less than infuriating and entertaining.
Infuriating because the widespread and instant access that xenophobic, sexists, racist reactionaries automatically receive from the mainstream media is nauseating… but this is nothing new. Conservatives love to speak of the "liberal bias" in the media, but the millions of combined hours of reactionary AM hate-talk radio, Fox News, and CNN's Lou Dobbs against her nomination re-affirms the bumper sticker saying, "The media is as liberal as the Conservatives that own them."
It has also been entertaining because there has been a backlash in some quarters of the mainstream media to actually challenge Republicans on their anti-Latina/o positions and their backward ideas on racism and sexism in American society. I have seen some interesting debates about race, racism, sexism, and Latina/os between white reporters, white reactionaries, white conservatives, white liberals, and white progressives on television and in the blogosphere that have been quite profound.
I just wish some of the people defending Judge Sotomayor and her views on race relations in 21st century American society had been around to challenge the destruction of much of the civil rights gains during the 1990's at the hand of conservative activist Judges and movement operatives!
I have been keeping a pulse on the reactionary opposition to the nomination, and the right's rhetoric against Judge Sotomayor in particular. I believe that if you pay attention to the debate, there are some lessons to be learned from Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation process for those of you who still believe that the GOP is a party that is supportive of the Latina/o community. These lessons, while most were apparent all along, should be loud and clear at this point... as in crystal clear!
Lessons That Should Have Been Learned:
Lesson #1
If you are a [wise] Latina (or a Latino), no matter how much professional experience and education you have, you are inferior to white men… especially if they are Republicans. In regards to Judge Sotomayor's nomination, this baseless attack on her first surfaced from Jeffery Risen's article, "The Case Against Sotomayor" in The New Republic.
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=45d56e6f-f497-4b19-9c63-04e10199a085
Later Senator John Ensign (R-NV) would parrot this on his website: "I will work with my colleagues and thoroughly review Judge Sotomayor's record to make sure she has the right intellect and understands the proper role of a judge–to interpret and apply the written law, not to decide cases based on personal feelings, politics or preferences." Apparently Republican Senators from Nevada do not need to do fact checking.
http://ensign.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Media.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=7df83f42-06b2-d78b-b762-ca54d455201b
Lesson #2
If you are a Latina/o, no matter how long you have been in the United States, or what the particularities of your communities historical relation to the U.S. is (like if you are from an American colony… let's say Puerto Rico), you are still not an American.
Convicted Watergate felon, racist, and reactionary AM radio talk show host, G. Gordon Liddy, recently said on his show, "I understand that they found out today that Miss Sotomayor is a member of La Raza, which means in illegal alien, "the race." And that should not surprise anyone because she's already on record with a number of racist comments."
Of course, Liddy did not stop with some good old fashion racism… he also took a swipe at her gender on the same show, "Let's hope that the key conferences aren't when she's menstruating or something, or just before she's going to menstruate. That would really be bad. Lord knows what we would get then." said Liddy. The right-wing interprets American as White Anglo Saxon Protestant.
Lesson #3
If you are a part of the right –wing, or side with their views of race relations, you believe racism is a psychological condition, or it means you call people bad names, and it has no connection to history.
Newt Gingrich wrote on Twitter, "Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better than a Latina woman' new racism is no better than old racism." "White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw." No Newt. Racism is hate against another race, plus sustained power, plus oppressive action. If you can meet all of the three aforementioned points… you are a racist! Lyricist Rass Kass says, "Racism is the system of racial subjugation against non-whites in every area of human relation entertainment, education, labor, politics Law, religion, sex, war and economics." Look, you can call me all the derogatory names you want, it just makes you a jerk. However, when you use a vast system of institutionalize oppression against my community, and other communities of color, which negatively affect our life choices and success, that is racism... nothing reverse about it!
The American right-wing is amazingly resourceful in the way it dominates and defines discussions of race and racism in the media and pop culture in the U.S. The vast majority of them have not suffered from or even ever experience racism (unless you consider racism being called a derogatory word... which it is not), but they define it and make sure people kowtow to their definition of it… even people of color! The media, American pop culture, and conservative activists are on a crusade against "Reverse Racism." However, old fashion "Forward Racism" (white racism) must not be pointed out, interrogated, or questioned.
Lesson #4
To speak of race, or allege someone is a racist is rude and makes you a "racist" in reactionary defined parameters of race relations in the U.S.
Further more it makes you no different than the KKK! Given the close relationship to the KKK that the right-wing has had over the last 100-115 years, the right wing in the US has done a good job making its detractors look like they are cozy with the KKK. Most Americans are confused and lack the historical knowledge to recognize how the KKK, and other white supremacist terrorist organizations, differ from groups that organize around identity politics to alleviate the affects that white racism has had on their communities in American society and history.
Lesson #5
It is clear that any interpretation or attack on racism must not offend or question the power and privileged of elite, white, male, racists reactionaries.
Apparently hurts their feeling and makes them feel like they may have not earned everything in life by "rugged individualism." Yes, they have gone on in life thinking they hit a home run… not realizing they were born on third base! Yet, they attack civil rights victories as racist. A lesson they reactionaries should learn is that the reason those "reverse racist" policies exist is to combat the racist, sexist, and homophobic obstacles that still oppress. Prior to the civil rights movement and people power movements of the 1950's-1970's racism ensured white males held 99% of the positions of power in government and the private sectors. After wards they held 85%... in the 1990's with the downfall of affirmative action, they are on a crusade to take back that 14%!
Lesson #6
Too many people (even people of color) who know that the reactionary views of race and racism is misleading are too silent and are enablers!
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Comentarios (y chismes) from our Amigos y Amigas...
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Here, here! An excellent portrait of truth and intelligence blended well in the hands and mind of a Brown man, served to us well in this fine vehicle of American journalism that is LatinoLA!
For too long, people of color en masse have been intimidated to express what they truly feel, and what is truly real, after being culturally institutionalized to "know their place" for generations.
"We can, but they can't" has always been a battle cry and sense of entitlement for a large segment of white people, and I've experienced it and fought it firsthand most of my life in school, on the street, the workplace, and sadly, even in the military to a small degree.
Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation process, and the blatant racism and sexism publicly displayed by intimidated , self indulged white men who consider themselves "of substance" simply because of who they are, and the unearned reins of power that have been handed to them for so long that they now fear sharing, has once again awakened a sleeping giant similar to the civil rights and Chicano movement of the 1960s-early 1970s.
Truth is truth, and there is no better teacher of reality than the truth. WE ARE HERE TO STAY !
We live in the land of the free, and the home of the brave....and NO color of skin is ever mentioned in the cherished "Star Spangled Banner" so many of color have died defending. Let's not stop now !
Right on, Sonia! YOU GO, GIRL !!
My hat & headband are off to you, Mr. De Unamuno. Thank you. |
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