See, This is why we can't have nice things

“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 above quote is from the newly nominated Sonia Sotomayor. Nominated, that is, for the Supreme Court. You know, the top one, the one that there is no appeal from, the one that is pretty much the final word, the one you are appointed to for fucking life. The court that pretends its wisdom is so very much better than everyone else. Now, I can only hope this comment was taken out of context, although there is no evidence to support that hope, because this offends my tender (white male) sensibilities. If Justice Scalia were to say that a white male with his rich experience would reach better conclusions that a Latina woman he would be nailed to a cross on the Washington Mall. True be told, I do not care. I am not some white male supremacist. I do not care, I dislike all humans for the most part up to, and including white males. We are not a particularly bright group, and have buggered up pretty much everything that we have touched since we began touching them. That being said quotes like the one above makes us want to "circle the wagons," and start lobbing out racist/sexist remarks like it is Custer's last stand. I would assume that Sotomayor is speaking of herself as a wise "Latina woman." Perhaps she is, perhaps she is the smartest Latina woman in the world, but with comments like that I somehow wonder about that idea. After all, there have been a couple, just a couple, of wise white males that have sat on the Supreme Court, and there have been total white male morons there as well. The thing is that in today's world we all (in theory) have richness of experiences, and the key is now days to realize that just because my experience is as a white male, and yours maybe as a Latina woman, they are both still rich. One is not better than the other, different certainly, better not so much. I am certain there are situations that a Latina woman's experience would enable her to make a more informed conclusion (not necessarily better) than a white male's experience would. However, if that is true then so to is the reverse which is a some point something will arise that will allow a white male to make a more informed (not necessarily better) conclusion that a Latina woman. Certainly we all want a level playing field, and certainly it has been titled one way for decades upon decades, but the solution is not to tilt it the other way, and call it fair. We can not escape our past no matter how fast we run, but we should certainly be able to, if we are to survive as a species, to learn from it. Finally, I know this post goes again type, and I am sure it offends people. Fear not. For one thing I don't care if I offend, and lastly it will be my last post on some topic that is, at the end of the day, so very, very unimportant.