The "New Racism"

I've been unable to articulate how disgusted I am by the fake outrage on the right over this 2001 statement made by Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor: "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." A brief quote taken from a pretty long speech by the way. But since we live in a soundbite world then this is what people are going to focus on. One sentence from thousands of pages she has authored as a judge and speaker. What could possibly be wrong with that?

John Ridley over at Salon.com puts it perfectly on his blog. He says this in response to Newt Gringrich getting all worked up over Sotomayor's statement:

'"New Racism?" That's apparently a Latina openly talking about how "more often than not" she would like to avoid the "conclusions" that allowed "old racism" to thrive. That's a long way from getting your ass beat for trying to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge so maybe your kids might one day enjoy the right to vote.

The fact that Newt would even attempt to compare "old racism" and "new racism" only proves Sotomayor correct in saying that experience based on fact is very different than that based on perception.'