Is She Wiser Than a White Man?

The white male self-appointed spokesmen for the Republican Party (Newt, Rush) have declared Sonya Sotomayor’s remark about her personal experience providing a more profound qualification for the Supreme Court than that of a white male is somehow racist or an example of “reverse racism.” They are able to say that with the confidence of folks who haven’t a clue what racism really is because they have the privilege of never having experienced racism and probably never will.
I doubt that Newt or Rush have ever had to worry about whether or not they would get a bank loan, be able to purchase a house, get a job, or join a country club because of their race or gender. It has never occurred to them that their sex or race would ever play a role in their being denied any of those things. That assumption is what constitutes privilege. And racism is, in part, based on privilege: those who have it and those who don’t. We can rest assured that Sonya Sotomayor never suffered from having those privileges growing up. She probably, at the very least, experienced others having privileges and exercising them around her.
The concept of “reverse racism” assumes a level playing field where no matter what direction hurtful sentiments or actions come from, they have equal value. That is simply not true. For a couple of white males to declare that Sonya’s observations are an example of “reverse racism” could only be mouthed most easily by a white male because it is he who is most insulated from what true oppression is all about. He has never experienced it. He has never even been close to experiencing it. And he can always escape from it into one of his still remaining bastions of white male privilege where his kind still rules or at least represents a majority, such as the Senate, The House of Representatives, Wall Street, or the Augusta Country Club.
Sotomayor is positioned to bring a keener sense of justice in the face of privilege because she has known what it is like to be without privilege. No white men who have joined the Supreme Court have this firsthand knowledge. They can’t. It is impossible. They wake up enveloped in privilege and they go home to it every evening. And that’s all her statement meant.
Presidents who have never been in battle and who send troops to war live privileged lives as well and make war decisions without the benefit of personal war experience. Does that make their decisions necessarily wrong or misguided? No. It makes them intellectual, academic, political or strategic decisions without the benefit of personal memory. Perhaps, one could say, that is just as well. On the other hand, personal experience in war just might cause a president to think twice before committing our troops to unnecessary wars, as did President Bush to the war in Iraq.
Sonya Sotomayor will bring an experienced perspective to the Supreme Court, a perspective that has been forged by both a fulfillment of a version of the American Dream and the hardships of race, gender, and poverty encountered along the way. She will see unwarranted privilege where others see the status quo. She will give justice a chance to penetrate heretofore impenetrable bastions of privilege, providing the little guy a playing field that does not ineffably or inevitably favor privilege. She will pursue justice in the face of tradition, the status quo, and prior understanding when those need questioning and upon those when they need upholding.
If the Republican Party truly wants to reverse direction away from extinction, it needs to understand what racism and sexism truly are. I would recommend they start with a small book’s clear message: Privilege, Power, and Difference by Allan G. Johnson. It is unfortunately out of print, which says something about how much privilege still exists in this country in spite of the fact that we have recently elected an African-American to the highest office. It should be required reading for both Republicans and Democrats alike, but most folks have the privilege of not having to face its message. And that’s the on-going problem. Meanwhile, I would invite Limbaugh, Gingrich, Tancredo, and the others who so easily call Ms. Sotomayor a racist, to read Johnson’s book and then see how comfortably they direct the term “racist” her way.