Sotomayor Comment Not Racist or Sexist, And Here's Why

The exact quote, from a speech she delivered at Berkeley in 2001, reads, "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." Her opponents found the statement in the archives and began to hold it up loudly as evidence of racism.

Law professor Sherrilyn Ifill responded to the hullaballoo with a commentary piece for CNN in which she fell all over herself trying to defend this statement as "not racist." At great length, she explained that judges can never be absolutely impartial, and applauded Sotomayor for having the guts to admit it.

Any way you look at it, though, Sotomayor's statement appears on the surface to be, if not precisely racist, at least indicative of a prejudice in which she assumes white males are just too privileged to make good decisions. But does it really mean Sotomayor has such a prejudice?

Ifill flirted with the obvious answer, but never quite came out and said it. So I will: Sotomayor's statement is not racist (nor sexist) because, when taken in the context of the rest of the speech, it is completely reasonable.

Sotomayor was not saying that Latinas make better decisions than white men in general, but only in specific cases, to wit, race and sex discrimination cases. The context of her statement was a speech in which she addressed discrimination. Both common sense and history show that white males face certain challenges — in particular, the inability to relate — in cases of discrimination against women and minorities.

Sotomayor's comment was not racist, it was insightful. Her political opponents are going to have to do better than that.