Does The Sonia Sotomayor Confirmation Fill A Quota?

I know many people are very pleased with the "successful" confirmation of now Justice Sotomayor. It does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Out of 111 Justices, she is the third woman and first Latino to be appointed. The Republicans continue to live up to their surly, childish ways with nearly 2/3rds voting against her. In total nine came on board so this could be wrapped up. 

Obama gets kudos while acting to CYA by immediately catering to Latino voters in nominating her in the first place. Not that she isn't immensely qualified, but let this be a lesson to black voters that if "we" don't have a cohesive coalition in place we'll get NOTHING from Obama. To suggest this to the "he's one of us" and "let's wait and see" crowd is akin to banging your head against a brick wall. After that wasted effort at defending Skippy Gates - which offered ZERO value to black women - he won't so much as stick his finger in air lest it offend some group of ready-to-be-disgruntled whites. 

I can't help but think of the Clarence Thomas appointment with ALL of the red flags presenting themselves very clearly and how he more or less sailed through. I was too young to understand what was going on then. The slight road bump was presented with Anita Hill's testimony of his sexual misconduct and contempt he expressed towards her. I've researched the transcripts now and can't believe this man got through. He was supposed to fill the Thurgood Marshall seat. So any black man was okay apparently.  

I don't care that he's married to a white woman. I don't care that he wasn't elevated through the "black community" either. His contempt and hatred for blacks was obvious though. It wasn't an expression of his free agency from a narrow definition of blackness either. Many blacks foolishly supported him simply based on shared phenotype while ignoring his history. Ever since he's been a Justice he has attempted to destroy all collective progress that other blacks were terrorized and died for. 

Which brings me to Sotomayor. If so many could get swept up in symbolism with Thomas why not with her? Yes, she is a woman but that in and of itself it NOT a guarantee that she'll vote progressively. So while many are doing the happy dance, people had better remember these appointments are FOR LIFE and they have COMPLETE AUTONOMY. Every week I think about how John Roberts was appointed and not just as a junior SCOTUS but the Chief Justice it makes me so angry. This was the man who advised Ronald Reagan to back away from publicly acknowledging AIDS at a crucial time. It set back funding for research and discouraged a change in behavior that would have saved lives. Instead of it being listed as an epidemic Reagan remained silent allowing millions more to die than what was necessary. 

So while I'm glad it's not yet another white male I can't say for sure this newest Justice will help usher in a roadblock of her own to stop the ideologues...or if it's just business as usual. We need at least two more women and one of them had better be black! Of course I'm not counting on Obama to appoint one. For the reasons listed above, but Kimberlie Crenshaw deserves to be a SCOTUS. If you will recall Souter was appointed as a Conservative and often voted socially progressive by comparison to his colleagues. Of course those Republicans (white males wanting to hold on to their privilege) are still being difficult.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, took aim at what he claimed was Sotomayor's inability to refrain from bringing her personal political opinions to bear on her rulings. 

"This is the most fundamental test for any judge and all the more so for those who would sit on our nation's highest court, where a judge's impulses and preferences are not subject to review. Because I'm not convinced that Judge Sotomayor would keep this commitment, I cannot support her nomination." - - - -  CNN

Umm...yeah whatever dude. Go call up your buddies Roberts and Scalia and ask them about separation of impulses and preferences!

Skippy Gates The "Rosa Parks of Racial Profiling" Says Black Men Are Naturally Misogynistic

The interesting part of life is that it is not the set of circumstances that you are given that matters, but your response to them. Give the same pressures and same type of opportunities to ten people and you will get ten different reactions. The pressures and opportunities may be identical, but the responses will differ, and in that sense, by living life, you learn quite a bit about yourself. ---Susan Miller

Yeah I'm tired of Skippy by now but this dust-up has been so revealing on so many levels. Soon he may wish he'd just kept his mouth shut. Thank goodness the readers of this blog are such an intelligent group and the ones who respond usually provide a wealth of knowledge. I appreciate the challenge at keeping up with you. I think we should start our own critical thinking/social criticism school or something, but I digress. A blogger reminded me of Skippy's support of 2 Live Crew during their obscenity trial. I know viewing it from a distance without any analysis it may have appealed to the typical African-American emotional reaction of the "white man trying to take the black man down" but it was in fact one of the last ditch efforts at policing aberrent behavior.

If you recall that trial was in 1990 and it was before the onslaught of the filth to come via the gangsta rap and other perverted music with their accompanying videos that would then be played during the day when kids could watch them instead of being listed as adult content and relegated to midnight airings as they had been. It would have affected retailers being able to sell their music and would have given all record labels pause about what type of music acts they would be able to sign. I am also reminded of the fight C. Delores Tucker put up to stem the tide even while she was vilified.

I find it very telling that the RIAA, the same one that cries foul of the "illegal downloaders" actually DEFENDED them and filed a Friend of Court Brief on their behalf. This LA Times article states it was the argument between ANYTHING GOES vs. ENOUGH ALREADY. The group was acquitted but the jury's contention was their lyrics were akin to parody because that was how black people communicated. There was this rush to defend this group or dismiss their lyrics as part of the larger "black culture" of the "black community". The argument they are quintessentially black, that black women exist solely to satisfy violent sexual desires or that their lyrics are funny is part of the reason why African-Americans have lost their moral compass and will form a permanent underclass in this country.

If some still question how young boys aged 14 and under could be socialized to become rapists (like the ones in Arizona) if they hadn't had any previous mental defects then here's your answer. Yes media does ABSOLUTELY have an affect on the minds of people, particularly CHILDREN who have fewer filters in place. If you've parked your child in front of the tv as a babysitter and offer NOTHING to counterbalance the negative images consumed you are training your children to adopt a depravity mindset. Especially when that child is parked in front of the likes of BET.

• MISOGYNY is defined as: HATRED OF WOMEN AND GIRLS. No ifs, ands or buts. When I stated in an earlier post about DBR (damaged beyond recognition) behaviors prevalent in a majority population of African-American males (and many females) and how they hate AA women I got a LOT of denials. Misogyny is directed at women as a collective group. Of course there are nuances where a man might hate women of one group but be able to fawn over women of an entirely different group. Or parse it to like some while still despising others. Other variants include the Madonna/Whore complex. Honor killings, rape, violence and skin shade racism also fall under this.
  

In the Legal Response to Violence Against Women Karen J. Maschke contends "many do not bust out laughing" like Gates does while listening to 2 Live Crew and she details specific lyrics. I decided against displaying the lyrics here because they're NSFW and also they're disgusting. We have to be careful about immersing ourselves in filth when analyzing it. You might like to review the court transcripts along with this essay.

So in his defense of this (what used to be thought of as) explicit rap group, Skippy is saying ALL black men naturally HATE women. Now if we look at the actions from the general population of black men, especially African-American men from the past 45 years what has emerged is the trend of their abandonment and abuse of BLACK WOMEN. If someone can point to another ENTIRE GROUP OF WOMEN this would apply to feel free to keep looking and I'll wait for you to fall off the Earth since it's flat. There is no misinterpretation of this. Anyone who wishes to dispute this can do so at their own forum because there will be NO misdirection of this point. Now whether an individual male DECIDES to recognize it and redirect it or squash it is up to that man, but Gates wasn't offering that caveat. He was using it as an excuse to EXPLAIN AWAY THEIR DEPRAVITY.

Now to be certain there are plenty of women-hating men in the world but again we come to discuss survival and domination tactics. No group can survive without women. So it comes down to other men to police the behavior of the men in their group to maintain a workable model. There is NO such policing going on in the "black community". Not when you have the "premier" African-American scholar who's a refugee from his blackness, reveling in his 56% European heritage, married to an average white woman and crying victim when hitting the third rail of white male authority saying it's okay that these men embody every racial stereotype ever visited upon black men because it's in their nature to be that way.

I found this great essay by Kimberle Crenshaw (whom I'd like to see nominated for the Supreme Court before Obama leaves office) discussing this case. I don't agree with everything she has to say - namely the knee-jerk inclination for black women to defend black men who are working AGAINST them - but this was written more than a decade ago. Like many of us who've seen the aftermath of the depravity women must resist the urge to think of themselves by race first and gender second in these situations. It should be every woman for herself. Yes, in a very selfish looking out for one's own interests FIRST way. The antithesis of what most black women do NOW where they GIVE IT ALL AWAY FOR FREE AND GET NOTHING IN RETURN. Or worse are left to fend for themselves when THEY need help.

Thus, Gates concludes, 2 Live Crew and other rap groups are simply pushing white society's buttons to ridicule its dominant sexual images. I am deeply skeptical about the claim that the Crew was engaged--either in intent or effect--in pursuing a postmodern guerilla war against racist stereotypes. Gates argues that when one listens to 2 Live Crew the ridiculous stories and the hyperbole make the listener "bust out laughing." Apparently the fact that Gates and many other people react with laughter confirms and satisfies the Crew's objective of ridiculing the stereotypes. But the fact that the Crew are often successful in prompting laughter neither substantiates Gates's reading nor forecloses serious critique of its subordinating dimensions. Gates' use of laughter as a defensive maneuver in the attack on 2 Live Crew recalls similar strategies in defense of racist humor. Racist humor has sometimes been defended as an effort to poke fun at, or to ridicule racism. More simply, racist humor has often been excused as just joking; even racially motivated assaults are often defended as simple pranks. While it may be true that the Black community is more familiar with the cultural forms that have evolved into rap, that familiarity should not end the discussion of whether the misogyny within rap is acceptable. Moreover, we need to consider the possible relationships between sexism within our cultural practices and the problem of violence against women.

Violence against women of color is not presented as a critical issue in either the anti-racist or anti-violence discourses. The "different culture" defense may contribute to the disregard for women of color victimized by rape and violence, reinforcing the tendency within the broader community not to take intra-racial violence seriously. We must determine whether the practices and forms of expression are consistent with our fundamental interests. Although collective opposition to racist practice has been and continues to be crucially important in protecting Black interests, an empowered Black feminist sensibility would require that the terms of unity no longer reflect priorities premised upon the continued subordination of Black women.

Since I know so many take issue with a black woman criticizing a black man (hello Miss Ogyny again) I'll add some criticism from other black men. Scholar Martin Kilson refers to Gates as the master of the "Black put-down". Indeed. You are also free to research cultural critic Harold Cruse. During the trial Gates referred to 2 Live Crew as "astonishing and refreshing" and compared their works to that of Shakespeare, Ella Fitzgerald or James Joyce. They were not pushing the envelope of social discourse like Lenny Bruce or George Carlin. They were out to make money by denigrating black women.

In Master of the Dodge: A Reply to Henry Louis Gates, Martin Kilson critiques an earlier Gates' project but it seems his warning could apply to anything by which Gates endeavors or even perhaps to the man himself.

So I try to advise my progressive Black intellectual peers especially to be wary of "King Gates" strategic offerings - his fish-hooks, if at all possible. And I'd like to address this especially to the up-coming younger generation of African- American intellectuals and scholars, particularly those who seek to fashion a progressive outlook for themselves. Finally, we progressive Black intellectuals especially do indeed have to perform the scrutinizing task in regard to establishmentarian and/or conservative Black intellectuals like Henry Gates, because no one else will. Above all, we progressive Black intellectuals still have a serious Black people agenda to attend to. Namely: Protecting, advancing, and redeeming Black folks' honor, both here in the United States and elsewhere in the globe.

You're So Lame Award of Shame - White Men Howling At the Moon

I swear if I had a dollar for every white man supporting a supremacist agenda that has cried foul, racism, had a pity party and engaged in other mealy-mouth BS over the SCOTUS nominee I'd have quite a few extra in my pocket this week! So let's clarify that President Obama's choice of Judge Sonia Sotomayor is a big deal and SUPER SCARY to some people apparently. Somehow having a brain and a vagina is going to do some people in. Yeah I said it! Vagina, vagina, vagina. The fact is they'd prefer a woman who was afraid of hers or wanted to repress its capabilities, but that's a whole other slippery slope. A divorced woman with no children - oh my! What does that mean????

From Rush "Never Met A Racist/Sexist Cause He Doesn't Support" to G. Gordon Liddy quite a few of the Usual Suspects have been up to no good as per their marching orders from the great White Power Oz. Isn't it time we pull the curtain back and throw some water on this sucker? Liddy....shouldn't this man have been executed for treason after he called for the murder of American citizens because he didn't agree with their politics? Somehow graduating at the top of your class from an Ivy League makes you an Affirmative Action "lesser than". I suppose being a legacy admission with a C average means you're freaking brilliant and have done all the work COMPLETELY ON YOUR OWN MERITS, huh? Not! 

Anyway, I would have preferred Obama nominate another equally if not more qualified African-American female lawyer like Kimberle Crenshaw. In case you are not familiar with her work she coined the term "intersectionality". Read this excerpt from her Wiki page:

Crenshaw has published works on civil rights, black feminist legal theory, and race, racism, and the law. She often commentates on various aspects of law and racial politics and her scholarly interests center around race and the law. She is the founding coordinator of the intellectual movement called the Critical Race Theory Workshop. She is currently a Professor of law at UCLA and Columbia Law School and teaches Civil Rights and other courses in critical race studies and constitutional law. In 1991 and 1994, she was elected Professor of the Year. At the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she received her LL.M., Professor Crenshaw was a William H. Hastie Fellow. Later on, she clerked for Justice Shirley Abrahamson of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Crenshaw has published numerous works including Critical Race Theory, Words that Wound: Critical Race Theory, and Assaultive Speech and the First Amendment. She was also the coeditor of Critical Race Theory: Key Documents That Shaped the Movement and her works have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the National Black Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, and the Southern California Law Review. She has lectured nationally and internationally on race matters, addressing audiences throughout Europe, Africa, and South America as well as facilitating workshops for civil rights activists in Brazil and constitutional court judges in South Africa.

Her work on race and gender was influential in the drafting of the equality clause in the South African Constitution. In 2001, she wrote the background paper on Race and Gender Discrimination for the United Nations World Conference on Racism and helped to facilitate the addition of gender in the WCAR Conference Declaration. Crenshaw has also served as a member of the National Science Foundation's Committee to Research Violence Against Women and has assisted the legal team representing Anita Hill. She is also a founding member of the Women's Media Initiative and is a regular commentator on NPR's The Tavis Smiley Show.

Crenshaw is also co-founder, with Prof. Luke Harris, of the African American Policy Forum (AAPF). AAPF was founded in 1996. According to AAPF's mission statement: The Policy Forum is dedicated to advancing and expanding racial justice, gender equality, and the indivisibility of all human rights, both in the U.S. and internationally.

So Sotomayor has made some rulings that don't sit well with certain "progressives". She may not be the prefect candidate but she's a heck of a lot better than John Roberts "I Don't Think AIDS Is An Epidemic"...and Alito! That was Robert's stance in the 80's when he was advising Ronald Reagan at the beginning of the outbreak. It prompted the President to distance himself and ignore the future millions of people who'd die because the Republicans couched everything in "you're a dirty sinner" language instead of seeing it as a public health (and national security) threat. In case you're thinking Roberts has mellowed some guess again. He's the Chief Justice on top of it. 

I'm hoping President Obama gets to appoint at least two more Justices who will use common sense and leave their narrow religious/sexist/racist views out of the court. Yeah I know I'm asking for A LOT. But all of the things some of these men are accusing Judge Sotomayor of are the very same things they do on a regular basis. They know it - and so do we! So lay off. 

And for crying out loud - pronounce her name correctly!!