Organizing for America | Interview4Obama: Holding Her Fire--Sonia Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings

Holding Her Fire--Sonia Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings

By Madama Ambi - Jul 16th, 2009 at 1:01 am EDT

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Tags: Judiciary Committee, Lindsey Graham, racism, sexism, Sotomayor, Supreme Court, women

I've been watching the Sotomayor hearings and have found it painful to watch Judge Sotomayor eat so much crow and show so much deference to men who are behaving badly. Yesterday I wrote a rant about Lindsey Graham but hesitated to post it because I wasn't sure if I would respect myself in the morning. Funny, I do respect myself upon re-reading, but the rant seems already out-of-date, yesterday's news. Or maybe posting a rant feels completely disproportionate to the racism, sexism and pure condescension displayed by the Republicans. What I mean is that I have lived my life as an intelligent woman who has also had to suck it up when white men condescended to me. I just kept thinking about the contradiction between the characterization of her as a "bully on the bench" and this warm, gracious, generous, deferential, patient woman answering to a pack of assholes. I can only surmise, but there's got to be a connection here...and I'm guessing that when one comes from the projects and grows up Latina and has intelligence and ambition, that sucking it up becomes simply survival. After all, all of us live in a pecking order at some time in our lives. And so, with all of that stored up ducking and smiling when what she really wants to do is verbally eviscerate these smug senators, I can see how she would be unleashed on the bench and show her firepower. I want to see her firepower very much, and I hope that TV will be allowed into the Supreme Court. It will be an education for the whole country, and I don't mean just a course in jurisprudence. Women and men need to see, on a regular basis, a highly intelligent woman in a position of real power. They need to learn appropriate deference and respect for women in power.

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