We’ve been hearing the racist, xenophobic, and sexist attacks from conservatives over the last few days about Judge Sotomayor. I’ve tried to make myself laugh at most of it because it really is just incredibly ridiculous, but I think such laughter has been necessary for me to avoid letting it truly get to me in a way that will recreate the boundaries and burdens I felt lifted from my shoulders the day I watched our President introduce his nominee.
A statement by Judge Sotomayor has created outrage by conservatives and cries of “reverse racism” (whatever that really means).
Her statement was as follows:
“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."
The outcry from the right that has transpired from this statement only validates precisely the point: there are just certain things different types of people can’t (or can but don’t try to) understand because of their life experiences.
I’ll provide two simple white male/Latina woman examples in the legal recruitment process (i.e. the process where the doors for Latinas are first opened into the legal profession, so you can see how welcomed we really feel). These examples are all real, and happened to me just two years ago after my first year of law school. The problem is that they are not unique, these stories I’ve since found to be regular from my colleagues I encounter along the way.
Example #1: (as I walk into the interview room) The older white male partner enthusiastically states before hello, “Oh! You’re Hispanic!”
I was alarmed. I mean, how are you supposed to respond? “It happens?” “I actually don’t use Hispanic, but yes I’m Latina” “hello, yes I am, nice to meet you I hope that doesn’t deter me from getting a job”? I mean, I won’t give my last name, but let’s be clear my last name is like the Spanish surname that would be equivalent that any last name with O’ is to the Irish, so my resume probably should have already prepped him for the monumental occurrence of interviewing a Latina.
Point: If I was in his shoes, as the person with power in that situation, as a Latina interviewing a young woman of color, I would have made the better conclusion to open that interview with hello and a handshake. That doesn’t make me a reverse racist, it just makes me a product of my experiences to know a different action would be more appropriate, empathetic if you will.
Example #2: I walk into the interview that was scheduled for 20 minutes and listen to an older white male talk to me about diversity at his firm for the entire 20 minutes...I probably got 3 sentences in.
Here’s the thing. I’m all about the legal profession moving in a direction that accepts diversity and wanting to proudly express it, and I hope it would be important to everyone in the profession, not just people of color, women, and the LGBT community. But when I speak to my white friend, who had an interview with the same person, and he actually got zero diversity chat and 20 minutes to talk about his great qualifications for the job and a chance to actually sell himself to the interviewer about things beyond his skin color he gets to make a more impressionable impact on that interviewer who is seeing 30 people that day. He got the callback interview, I didn’t. I'm not saying I was a better applicant or that I was entitled to the job, but I didn't even have the chance to make my case.
Point: If I was in his shoes, as the person with power in that situation, as a Latina interviewing a young woman of color, I would have made the better conclusion to speak briefly about the firm’s diversity program at the end of the interview while first giving the candidate the opportunity to explain to me her past experiences in a way for me to evaluate her potential contribution as an employee to my employer. That doesn’t make me a reverse racist, it just makes me a product of my experiences to know a different action would be more appropriate, empathetic perhaps.
Now, I completely understand there is a difference between making a decision as a judge and giving an interview as a partner at a law firm, but I think it’s telling for people to realize how we as Latinas are tokenized and how “the doors into the legal profession,” although trying to open up more and more, just haven’t made the better conclusion to open up in a genuine manner that welcomes diversity beyond skin color. This better conclusion probably hasn’t happened yet because there are hardly any of us in the profession to begin with to share the rich experiences and perspectives diversity provides in order to tell the employers the better conclusion “hmmm, I wouldn’t go about it that way, why don’t you try this....”
Judge Sotomayor made her statement while advocating for an increase of Latinas in the judiciary. She was making the case for these little, yet powerful moments where maybe, just maybe, in a profession where one specific type of person has had complete control over since the beginning of its creation, that someone who enters that profession with a different core life experience can provide insight into decision making with a group of people that would result in a better conclusion. There’s nothing scary about that. There’s nothing racist in such a notion and there is absolutely no entitlement by victimhood factor in it at all.
Let me make one thing clear that I believe firmly from every inch of this brown body: there is an obligation for Latinas in the profession to help open doors for other Latinas because most other lawyers/judges have forgotten to hold the door open or have become too caught up in their own circumstances.
Judge Sotomayor was only performing her duty as a Latina in her statements. It wasn’t to put down or harm or reverse centuries of racism that have led to Latinas being 1% of the judiciary.
For a young Latina lawyer like me, seeing our President, who I volunteered endlessly to elect for two years, standing next to the incredible Judge Sonia Sotomayor as he introduced her was an extremely monumental moment. Why? Because in my brief legal career I know in my heart what this woman has gone through and in my heart I know she knows what this means for me. That’s beautiful, inspirational and hopeful, not scary and racist. Symbolism and visually transformative, yes...but it was because she did the job, put in the work, and the door was finally opened because she deserved it, bronzed and all.
In closing:
• I’d like to dedicate this diary to my sister Maria and tia Maria on Mike Huckabee’s behalf of all the brown Marias in the world. For reference: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
• I’d like to tell Newt, don’t worry (okay maybe worry about your party) but don’t worry, I’m pretty sure you’re not going to lose the other 99% of the judiciary to a sea of swarming brown women judges, yet.
For reference: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
• And I’d like to give a BIG “SI SE PUEDE” to G. Gordon Liddy, that’s “Yes We Can” in illegal alien, if you didn’t know. For reference: http://thinkprogress.org/...
But please, if you can, show your support: http://my.barackobama.com/...
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