Blogetary (Weblog + Commentary = Blogetary)

I’ve been listening to NPR cover the confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor and it really bothers me how much they are brow beating her for this quote:

“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.”

Okay, first they never look at the end of that statement – “who hasn’t lived that life.”  Hello! It’s just common sense. If, for example, you grew up in a single parent home in a trailer park and know the possibilities and impossibilities of that life than you’re better able to preside over and judge a case on people with a similar background. MANY white male judges and lawyers in the system come from a middle class and upper middle class upbringing and still live in that level of society. Yet they are judging people who come from poverty. If someone has had those experiences gained from poverty then she knows the motivation. She knows what opportunities (or not) there are for change. She knows that recidivism in criminal behavior or drug use may happen as soon as some people are returned to that same neighborhood or level of poverty. She gets it.

SECOND – notice it’s all the old school white men who are hammering on about this. For CENTURIES white men have been in power. As soon as a woman (and one of color) makes a remark that says she might, in fact, be better at something than they are, they lose it. They’re afraid of losing their power. They’re browbeating her into public submission just as white men of privilege have often browbeaten women who have decided to be in charge of their lives and come into their own power.

There are some men out there who really are afraid of women being in power and having control of our own lives and our own bodies. And at a certain level it’s instinctual and I’m sure there are men who don’t even realize they have that fear until they meet a woman who doesn’t back down.

The fight for equal rights for women is an ongoing struggle. It will continue to be a struggle. As far back as the middle ages, when women of intelligence, such as Blenda, fought for their lives and earned their independence and freedom, to finally getting the right to vote here in 1920, to the non-passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (and women still don’t earn the same amount of money as men – in fact – the better the education, the greater the disparity – which is one reason why this amendment NEEDS TO BE PASSED) to the current hearings with Judge Sotomayor.

The questioning they are giving her reminds me that I can’t give up my own fight. When I see injustice, I need to say something, not just let it pass. Nothing good ever comes of just giving up and letting it pass.