I\'m Summer, a mouthy, sarcastic bitch. I\'m passionate about natural birth, long term breastfeeding, and living naturally. I curse too much, love tattoos, and will some day be crushed to death by my book collection. I homeschool, dream of gardening, and swing to the left. 
Dear Conservatives: Racist Does Not Mean “Not White”
I’ve been watching the nomination of Sotomayor as a Supreme Court judge and the completely predictable outcry from conservatives over it. Is she anything other than white? Well then, she must obviously be a racist!
Ah yes, much like the boy who cried wolf, conservatives have a habit of crying racism (or reverse racism) anytime a person of color holds a position once only held by whites only.
They also like to make mountain out of molehills by exploding over what seems to me like common sense facts. Such as the fact that a Latina woman would have a different life experience than a white man and would probably be able to bring that life experience to the plate to rule on cases. Um, duh. I’m just shocked I haven’t seen them discussing whether or not she’s also a sexist on CNN for her comment. After all, if I learned anything from Clinton’s run for president it’s that just having a vagina automatically makes one sexist against men.
Since this makes me feel all head explodey I’m just going to point to a couple of good posts that deal with this far better than I could.
- Racism, Sexism and Sotomayor, in a few easy-to-read bullet points.
- It’s crass to mention race, unless you’re holding it against someone
- Penny for Your Thoughtfulness
*sigh* I’m going to go watch cartoons now and pretend the world is full of happy shiny things. It’s what gets me through the day.
Agreed: 99.9% of the time, there’s nothing to back up charges of racism (or sexism). And in this particular case, it’s fairly clear that Judge Sotomayor is neither racist nor sexist. But, can we expect any less from the radical right?
That said, we must avoid falling into the trap more commonly found among those of us on the liberal side: You don’t have to be privileged to be prejudiced. Members of every race can be racist. Members of every gender can be sexist. Prejudice is universal, and doesn’t stem from one’s own privilege.