Ivory Tower

We dedicate this song to everybody involved in the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation circus: “Everyday People,” by Sly and the Family Stone.

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Sotomayor’s Senate approval to the nation’s highest court was inevitable, since the Democrats had enough votes to make it so. In the days leading up the final vote last week, most talk was about the politics involved in the vote: were conservatives more afraid of offending the gun lobby that had come out against her, or Hispanic voters who would likely remember on Election Day?

It shouldn’t have been this way, but it was. In a way it had to be. Sotomayor has been a federal judge for 17 years, and in that time she’s made hundreds of decisions on which she could, and can, be judged.

However, during Judicial Committee hearings and leading up to final confirmation, Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” statement, made at a 2001 symposium at the University of California at Berkeley got most of the attention. Conservatives were shocked — shocked! — that she would suggest that a “wise Latina” — emphasis on “Latina” — would make a better decision than a white guy.

The senators and other naysayers knew better. Many of them are the same people who voted for her when President George H.W. Bush nominated her to a federal district court and again when President Clinton tagged her for a federal appeals court.

The opponents conveniently ignored the fact that the judge’s emphasis in her speech was on “wise,” and that she was speaking at a symposium specifically dealing with the presence of Latinos in the judiciary. She was addressing the famous statement attributed to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor that a wise man and a wise woman would reach the same conclusion. Sotomayor said she hoped a wise Latina, with her knowledge and experience, would reach a better conclusion than a not-so-wise white guy.

Her point was that equally wise people with diverse backgrounds and experiences could better evaluate issues and reach better collective judgments because of their diversity, “whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences.”

In the same discussion, Sotomayor noted that nine white males had proven their wisdom in 1954 when, comprising the Supreme Court of the day, they unanimously ruled against school segregation in the landmark Brown v. the Topeka, Kansas, Board of Education.

“I … believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable,” she said in her speech. “… (N)ine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues, including Brown.”

The fact that race is still such a major issue in these kinds of decisions shows just how important it is to create that kind of diversity. Every time a opening occurs on such a major panel, whether it’s the Supreme Court or other high-profile office, minorities of all types clamor for one of their own to be chosen, and they cry discrimination if they don’t get their wish. Likewise, Anglos cry reverse discrimination whenever a minority is chosen.

It’s worth noting that most of the landmark decisions advancing equal treatment of all have only come about in the past generation.

The good news is that we see signs that those efforts to promote equality are paying off. The fact that pretty much every minority group can provide a healthy list of qualified candidates, whether it be for firefighter or Supreme Court justice, is significant.

That wasn’t so easy just 30 years ago, and it shows that the opportunities are growing. It might seem incongruous, but the very fact that it’s becoming easier to find qualified applicants or nominees from various demographic groups suggests that it’s becoming less crucial to focus on demographics when considering candidates. As long as the decisions are objective, the best candidate should win out.

However, these battles that place ethnicity over qualifications show that too many people still don’t see equality with regard to race, creed, color, gender or any other factor over which we have no control. Of course, some people never will.

And until those people are in the minority, we will still have a ways to go.