Sotomayor and Racism

In a recent tweet, I asked "If Sotomayor talks like a racist, does that mean she is a racist? Maybe she was just trying to make herself feel important." It's hard to develop an argument in 140 characters. The question my tweet raised is - what does racism have to do with self worth?

The direct answer is that building self worth at the expense of members of a different race is not necessarily racism. But it can be a precursor of racist ideology. Here's how:

We often think of racism as a purely hateful concept. A racist is someone who hates others simply because of the color of their skin. That is, a racist is a person with no goodness in him or her. We often see no reason for this type of racism except for unadulterated evil. Many people see a racist as the devil incarnate.

But we may believe that racism can be learned. The skin-head and the black panther learn racism from the actions of others. Therefore, we can forgive the racist; but we must teach ways to resist this type of evil.

Tribalism is the belief that people who are genetically related to one's self are somehow superior to all other people. It is not racist, and is more an excuse for racism than a valid reason. Many non-racists think that their genotype is superior to others, including Sotomayor (who apparently extends this feeling to her phenotype.) Real racism starts with egotism. It is an attempt to justify the tribalistic feelings that you are somehow inherently better than those other kinds of people.

Sotomayor's quote (that a wise latina woman makes better judgments than a white man) is not racist. But if not racist, then what is it? I take my cue from commentators who suggest Sotomayor was making a statement designed to receive positive reviews from her fellow lawyers. And if she truly was playing to her audience, then I figure she was seeking validation from her peers to make herself feel important.

It's been said that the most important thing we can learn from the Sotomayor flap is that nobody likes to be called a racist. It's just as wrong for the liberals to yell racist as for the conservatives to do so. Of course if one side's definition of racist is so loose as to include any hint of racism, then it is only fair that the other side should use the same criteria...