Justice Scalia Was A White Affirmative Action Pick...

[BlooInBloo]

Always remember: it's ok in America if you're white. Any attempt to balance the scales is of course viewed (by white folks) as "oversensitive reverse-racism identity politics".

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=04&year=2010&base_name=ronald_reagan_racist#119450

During the nomination process for Sonia Sotomayor, Republicans consistently argued that she was only chosen because she was a Latina, even though she had more judicial experience than any justice currently sitting on the bench had when they were nominated. This was mere white identity politics: The GOP was deliberately trying to stoke white anxiety by suggesting that the president is a racist.

So this recollection from Peter Wallison on the nomination process when Ronald Reagan chose Antonin Scalia stuck out to me:

I think (Reagan) felt that it would be great to put an Italian American on the Supreme Court. He had all the usual American instincts: 'We don't have an Italian American on the court, so we ought to have one.' He really felt good about doing that. It wasn't principle so much as that kind of emotional commitment.

Wallison was White House counsel at the time and remembered that the meeting took "15 minutes" before Reagan offered Scalia the job. By modern Republican standards, this would make Reagan a racist, except that as Pat Buchanan might say, Scalia is white and "white men built this country." Therefore, such considerations are completely justified. Buchanan was White House Communications Director at the time, and he certainly didn't resign in protest.

If the nomination process for Sotomayor had actually gone like this, Republicans would hold it up as proof that the president chooses people for positions on the basis of ethnic identity. But of course the animating principle of the opposition to Sotomayor that focused on her allegedly being "an affirmative action hire" wasn't so much "colorblindness" as race-based tribalism. Or rather it was a type of race-based tribalism that deliberately presents itself as "colorblindness" so as not to appear morally reprehensible.

[yodoobo]

1. That sort of spin makes it sounds like affirmative action is bad

And then plays right into the hands of Republicans like Scalia who want to end affirmative action.

As far as memes go, I think somebody needs to rethink that one.

[Nikki Stone1]

2. It sounds like Scalia was picked for being "not quite white"

Italian Americans were always identified with "dark" races early in the 20th century. The derogatory term "guinea" comes from an identification of Italian-Americans with Africans. Considering Reagan's age, it's possible that he remembers when Italian Americans were on the "wrong" side of the color line.

You can't apply today's racial constructions to the past when racial constructions were different.

That said, Scalia is a maniac. But he wasn't picked for being white.

[Nikki Stone1]

3. Oh, and if you are interested in immigrants and race in the 20th century,

http://www.amazon.com/Are-Italians-White-Race-America/dp/0415934508/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272343429&sr=8-1

It's a really interesting sojourn into the weirdness of American race relations.

And remember that Jews were considered another "race" too in the early 20th century.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Jews-Became-White-Folks/dp/081352590X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272343727&sr=1-1


And if you go back to the 19th c:

http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Became-White-Routledge-Classics/dp/0415963095/ref=reg_hu-wl_mrai-recs

[bridgit]

4. "Latina"? The surname: Sotomayor, is a derivative of Spain, and so long as people insist...

On boiling this all down to blue eyed demons with pale white skin no-less than two things, 1) they will never know their truer enemies, and, 2) (and more to the point)...they will never see Opus Dei coming

http://darkenergy2.blogspot.com/2005/02/justice-scalia-fool-for-christ.html

And *that* is the way the Vatican likes it; as they too see the world in terms of black & white

[retread]

5. It's really very simple, any attempt to infringe on my white privilege shall be labeled

"reverse-discrimination".