Stone Pigs

Posted By Alan Partis on June 3, 2009

An Associated Press story¹ titled “First lady Michelle Obama Joins push for Sotomayor” attempts to defend Judge Sotomayor at the expense of Newt Gingrich (and other critics). A great deal of space is dedicated to pointing out the claim that Newt (and other critics) have made in calling her a racist or a “reverse” racist (whatever that is).

As an aside, my opinion on the definition of a racist is one who believes in the natural superiority of one race (usually their own) over others. A bigot, on the other hand, is simply someone who doesn’t like people of with various sets of attributes, often for no overtly rational reason.

Back to my story …

This article then provides a reference to “the quote” that many critics have seized upon as evidence of her racist attitudes. Here is what the AP prints:

In 1994, Sotomayor said, “I would hope that a wise woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion” than a wise man.

The thing that immediately struck me about that is this quote lacks any racial references at all, yet I know I’ve heard this quote several times over the past few days and it always contained references to “a wise latina woman” and a “white man.” The “1994” attribution also seemed wrong to me.

Turns out that I’m right (again)! A quick Google search turned up dozens of references to this quote from Judge Sotomayor and all of them included the racial components as well as the citation that it is from a 2001 speech. Here is but one example from the New York Times²:

“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.”

Once again, I’m left to wonder why an organization that is held up as a highly professional journalism outfit would make such an obvious error and take the time to edit out the racial references in the quote. I can only imagine that it is purposeful and it’s purpose is to make Newt Gingrich look bad.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating until everyone begins to get it: consumers of news should carry with them a very healthy dose of skepticism and question everything. We are constantly being lied to and manipulated by politicians and their media allies in an attempt to advance an agenda that thinking people would reject outright if only these people would be more intellectually honest about their desires.

Hey! Let’s be careful out there!

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¹ First lady Michelle Obama Joins push for Sotomayor, Associated Press, June 3, 2009.

² A Judge’s View of Judging Is on the Record, Charlie Savage, The New Yorks Times, May 14, 2009.

Category: Foul Balls
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