Daily Kos
by dem4evr
Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 08:33:32 PM PDT
Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court has exposed a deep-seeded bitterness in white America. From respected legal analysts like Jeffrey Rosen to incendiary conservatives like Pat Buchanan, this embittered segment of white America has tried to establish a parallel between Sotomayor’s qualifications and those of failed Bush appointee Harriett Miers. These persistent questions about Sotomayor’s qualifications, however, are largely rooted in white America’s automatic assumption that a successful non-White is nothing more than an affirmative action baby.
Sonia Sotomayor would not be where she is today if Princeton University’s admissions office failed to see any value in diversifying its lily white student body. Racial minorities like Sonia Sotomayor and her contemporaries should be proud of initiating the ongoing struggle to integrate higher education. This march towards racial diversity does not overshadow the academic potential of college applicants. To suggest otherwise is preposterous and Sonia Sotomayor’s summa cum laude Bachleor’s Degree speaks louder to this than any written explanation I can articulate.
Nonetheless, the preposterous suspicion of successful minorities persists. Last week, Pat Buchanan beat this drum for embittered white America on the Rachel Maddow Show. In his interview, Buchanan berated Sotomayor for a June 11th interview in which she told the New York Times that she was "a product of affirmative action" (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/us/politics/11judge.html). It was vintage Pat Buchanan. He reduced Sotomayor to an "affirmative action baby" and declared that Obama appointed her simply because she is a Latina.
Men like Pat Buchanan, however, fail to recognize and appreciate the benefits that they have reaped from the college admissions process.
Full Post: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/21/756190/-Were-All-Affirmative-Action-Babies...Sotomayor-and-the-Politics-of-College-Admissions
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