Even before the 5-4 decision on New Haven's firefighters the right had been promoting the story line that Judge Sotomayor was a racist due to the her court's previous decision. Now there's another view being promoted, that she can't judge fairly due to her past.
The meme goes something like this, "Women and minorities who have experienced racism or sexism can't judge dispassionately on those cases due to their experience. Only judges who have never experienced racism or sexism can, thus the only non-racist judges are white males." And some even take it further, that since poor people also have issues, the judges should also have been rich their entire lives. Then, we can have some really dispassionate judging.
More below the fold...
I suggest they don’t take this far enough. What about Doctors? If they’ve ever been sick or in pain, might they not make a decision to cure the sicknesses and ease the pain of their patients, no matter what other factors might come into play? I mean, how could they ever learn how much pain a patient might be able to take if they have this attitude? I’m not a doctor, but hey, this has gotta be valuable information. And what about lawyers who have been in court before? Surely their knowledge of the legal system will prejudice their actions.
Then there are trades professionals like plumbers. If I call them about plugged drains will they simply "root" them out because it’s effective and not consider the alternatives? Will I suffer from hiring a shipping firm that uses truck drivers who have been ticketed for speeding and won’t drive as fast as a result? Even journalists and bloggers suffer from being able to read and write, forcing their opinions to conform to grammatical rules!
Yep, it’s a racist jungle out there. But I have a dream. A dream where our Supreme Court is populated by old white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, wealthy guys who don’t know shit about medicine, law, plumbing, driving, or composition! A small price to pay to combat racism.