CommonDreams: Sotomayor, Ricci and the Preferential Treatment Myth

[marmar]

Published on Friday, July 17, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Sotomayor, Ricci and the Preferential Treatment Myth

by Anita Sinha & Daniel Farbman


One of the most pervasive questions swirling around the probable confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court has been, "did she receive preferential treatment because she was a Latina from the Bronx?" Commentators, particularly from the far right, have spent air and ink to argue that Sotomayor was only admitted to Ivy League schools, received top grades, swiftly advanced in her career, and was selected to be the next Supreme Court justice-exclusively because she is Latina.

Many of these same commentators have pivoted from these unfounded conclusions to attack Sotomayor for showing bias against average, hard-working, White men, by repeatedly discussing her limited, noncontroversial role in the New Haven firefighter case, Ricci v. DeStefano. Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee have brought up the Ricci case everyday this week during Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, and called on Mr. Ricci to testify yesterday against Judge Sotomayor. Their argument seems to be: Sotomayor has been a beneficiary of unfair preference over White men like Mr. Ricci, and she will continue to prefer people like her (i.e. people of color) over Whites from her seat on the Supreme Court.

Frank Ricci could say nothing about Judge Sotomayor's fitness for the Supreme Court. The case was not even about preferential treatment, but instead challenged our reliance on testing regimes. What Mr. Ricci's testimony did do is voice the unspoken fear behind the discussions of preferential treatment: White men are wronged when people of color and women are "favored."

The political motivation behind the claims of preferential treatment and the spotlight on Frank Ricci has ignited a new round of discussions about the dreaded alliteration: affirmative action. And so while the allegations made to diminish the accomplishments of Judge Sotomayor are outrageous, they cannot simply be tossed away as far right rhetoric. There is a critique of affirmative action shared by many in the mainstream, namely that all preferences do is diminish the real achievements of people of color and women and engender resentment in working class White communities whose opportunities are being stolen. The mainstream fear is that any "unequal" treatment will harm rather than help the march toward equality. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/17-5

[ihavenobias]

1. K & R n/t

[zbdent]

2. Ricci might not have been in the position to take the test had it not been for

the ADA act ... which conservatives and Repugniconvicts hate almost as much as "Affirmative Action (for non-whites)" ...