At Yale, Sotomayor Won Apology From Law Firm For Racist Comment

Los Angeles Times:

The early White House story line on Sonia Sotomayor emphasizes her pragmatism and a cautious, measured approach to the law developed over a years-long climb from exceedingly modest circumstances to becoming the first Latino nominee to the Supreme Court.

But an incident in the fall of 1978 illustrates another side of Sotomayor. Then a daring and assertive Yale University law student, she took a stand against a white-shoe Washington law firm that could have jeopardized her career.

Read the whole story: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[lessbs]

Martin Krall, the one that went totally racist at the dinner in '78, is still around and was a heavy Mitster contributor.

[TJCole]

All this ethnic demographic manipulation is really tiring and boring for any of us who have made in or grown up in a major city like New York or the center of the Tri State area, it's old news that every culture all cultures produce smart people...

Both sides are equally guilty of this ethnic politics and demographic manipulation...and even gender manipulation didn't we see enough of that for two long dreadful angst filled years around the presidential campaign..?

She's as middle of the road leaning to the point of being pro corporate and boring as they get...

She is a political nominee perfectly placed demographically and experience wise to be confirmed end of story...

[igotthis]

Sorry, but your take is boring and inaccurate. This is great news, for it signifies she has brains and courage! Furthermore, this news validates the fact that she is much more interesting than Justice Souter.

Folks, the new Supreme Court will become a much more interesting place when she arrives. Scalia and Roberts, in particular, are going to have burn a little more oil at night to contend with her. I believe they know this and relish the opportunity to engage a worthy foe like Sonia Sotomayor. Unfortunately, my conservative blogger friends are too dull to understand the excitement she will bring to the Court.

You can reject this perspective if you want, but the Supremes know this woman and are excited that she is coming. Man, would I love to be clerking this fall!

[ekoorb]

Well said. I think the President's life experiences give him hope that the Court can progress in the right environment.

[melponeme k]

Exactly

[thenorthshore]

hey

the justice brothers, rev al and jessie will endorse her

[ralph10]

And?

[ObamAtomic]

Tu sombrero is to big!

[StillweRise]

Just as the "it's PAT" Brothers will knee-jerk denounce her..

Pat Robertson
Pat Buchannan

[gretasmom]

As an older overeducated Hispanic woman whose ancestors welcomed the white folk to Texas, I have faced repeated discrimination from other's whose bona fides were intellectually not up to mine. These "newer", less educated, usually white people always asked about my "making it" with the help of affirmative action. I always wanted to ask if their ancestors went to college or graduate school... which they usually did not... but they still only wanted to ask if I was getting in because of quotas. Am I an angry, old Hispanic Feminist? Yes.
I support Sotomayor and pray that the natural inclination of many racists in society, the press and politics--- to tear down another Hispanic woman--- will be faced and challenged.

[wdw505]

i don't care what race she is.........i wish her destroyed for her views........

[Durango]

And you wonder why only 19% of Americans share your views?

Keep it up. We need that Democratic majority for a long, long time.

[ralph10]

You do your party proud.

[Grunty1]

We know you don't do research, so what views?

[arspar183]

another ign.oramus rex on the loose.

[pghnappyrhino]

views such as?

[randman2009]

What a victim complex. When was the last time you saw a hispanic woman torn down? You act like this is a daily occurrence.

[pghnappyrhino]

when is the last time one was nominated for the supreme court?

[corsair1917]

What continues to blow my mind is that in a country where we have done so much and project an image of being a role model to the world... is that we really haven't come that far. We are reducing a woman's highly respect accomplishments and career to an issue of race. Glenn Beck using the term "hispanic lady" when talking about her. Jokes like Newt and Rush and Tancredo calling her a racist. Are you kidding me? And people are listening to these 'WHITE MEN"... Four white men complaining about racism... What a joke!

We clearly need to spend more money on education in this country. I can't believe on a daily basis how ignorant people are.

[newworldman777]

I can offer a similar example in my own life. I applied for a job at a company -- "Cataphote, inc.," located near Pearl, Mississippi -- that had an opening for a supervisor. The job required at least 2 years of college, and I had 6 (including 4 years in architecture school, which wasn't exactly "a day in the park" to get through, requiring an ACT score of at least 24 to get into). When the interviewer discovered that I was Native American, he began firing questions at me about my "drinking habits," instead of my educational and intellectual qualifications. He wanted to know what I drank, how much I drank, and did I consider myself to be an alcoholic. I can truthfully say that I am no alcoholic, in spite of the racist notions that "all Indians are alcoholics." He subsequently told me that I was "far down on his list of people that he would consider hiring for the job," and ultimately, I didn't get the job. Perhaps I should have filed a complaint with the home office, or even sued, but I decided to let it go unaddressed.

[Durango]

I can state categorically: I have never once in my life suffered from being a white male.

I have, however, benefited from that fact.

[noudidnt]

This is the reality.

[pghnappyrhino]

if you didn't file a complaint, i sure wish you would have slapped that fool upside his head....but, i know we can't run around doing that.

but sometimes...it sure would feel good.

[jsgaetano]

Kind of funny how even the far right's racists attacks on her are decades old.

So much for the "Party of Ideas". They had a small handful of them a century ago, and just keep slapping new paint on them. And now, it seems, they've run out of paint.

[noudidnt]

It's important to mention that this firm made a SNAP judgement about the Judge as a candidate based on her last name and skin color because they sureashe11 didn't review her transcripts.

[jordan3189]

How exactly do you "win" an apology?

[DJ23]

Insightful comment

[lessbs]

Do you know how to work Google?

[jordan3189]

Is this a survey?

[jorge4u]

You didn't read the whole article. Did you?

"Sotomayor's complaint caused a campus furor. A student-faculty panel found the complaint warranted and ordered Shaw Pittman to write her a letter of apology."

[jordan3189]

So when somebody is forced to apologize, does it mean the same thing?

[arspar183]

by asking or demanding one....quite simple actually

[jordan3189]

So it's all window dressing, doesn't mean anything.

[noudidnt]

Of course firms continue to hire and retain wh yte law students with inferior credentials.

[rwext]

And Robert Byrd and Rev Wright probably extorted some apologies

[abigail1]

flagged as stupid.

[Grunty1]

Everytime he posts.

[ralph10]

Elections over. You lost.

[DRaymond]

and three decades later a bunch of old white guys is still insinuating that she is getting ahead only because of her race and gender, The only difference is that they are adding to it by calling her the racist for being proud of her heritage.

[Yalegirl03]

Exactly. The more things change, the more they stay the same. They said the same thing about Obama--that he was not qualified and that somehow he was elected by Affirmative Action. For some people, it doesn't matter what you've accomplished or what your qualifications are, they just see your race. You could be top of the class or just average, but somehow you are considered bottom of the barrel because you are black or latina.
I mean, her credentials are stellar and she has more judicial experience than any of the people currently in the SCOTUS had when they were nominated, but somehow people question her qualifications.

[newworldman777]

Kinda funny...that the Rethugs suddenly are so concerned about a Supreme Court Justice nominee's intellectual abilities, yet they didn't question their own presidential nominee's evident lack of intellectual fortitude (since he graduated at the bottom of his class at Annapolis). Is anybody surprised?

[oscartucker]

That "bunch of old white guys" know that they are wrong for their accusations, but she will not "win an apology" from them. They will bust he11 open before they do that!

[Durango]

More evidence, as if any were needed, that Rush, Newt, Hannity, any number of Senators and all the other Republican fools don't have a clue what racism is.

Which you would think that anyone who lived through the period of church bombings, Ku Klux Klan murders, Bull Conner and the use of police dogs and fire hoses against children would have gotten some idea.

But these Republicans grew up in segregated white communities in the comfort of their own ignorance.

And have learned nothing since.

Pure and utter ignorance has come to be the Republican mantra.

[jsgaetano]

Nothing the Goopers ever say is new.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know-Nothing_movement

[corsair1917]

White Men complaining about racism... how funny is that?

[Durango]

Being a White Male Protestant myself I have carried that burden all my life.

Believe me, and I can speak with authority. Being a WASP infers no superior intellect.

[wdw505]

it is not.......racism can happen to anyone

[newworldman777]

Don't you listen to Fox? Poor Sean Hannity fully well empathizes with, and relates to, the suffering of "minorities" because his Irish grandparents allegedly "suffered from discrimination" when they immigrated to America in the early 1900s. He conveniently fails to mention, however, that they immigrated to America under a racist American immigration policy that permitted millions of Western Europeans like them to immigrate here, while at the same time denying the same immigration privileges to millions of non-Western Europeans. At least they had the privilege of experiencing any type of treatment (either good or bad) in America, as opposed to millions of Africans, Asians, Indonesians and Latino immigrant-wannabes who were totally denied entry into America.

These poor white conservatives just have it soooo hard in America...(sniff...sniff). Wait...do I hear violins playing?

[pghnappyrhino]

it's kind of interesting he has to go back to his grandparents, back BEFORE the irish became white. there is no doubt they were disciminated against, hence a popular sign from back in the day "no blacks, no dogs, no irish"

but was there legislation against them like the jim crow laws that restricted the opportunities of my ancestors? or the chinese exclusion act of 1882? the forced "repatriation" of thousands of mexican-americans from the land THEY had been on before it was america? how do you "repatriate" someone to a country they aren't from?

[The Albany Kid]

Krall's question (which was, and is, incredibly inappropriate for a job interview) raises an interesting issues, one that has currency even today:

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/08/29/is-affirmative-action-at-law-school-actually-hurting-minorities/

Of course, it can't be stressed enough that Krall was very inappropriate.

[IrisBittencourt]

The so-called science underlying Sander's claims, as well as the Bell Curve's, has been thoroughly discredited. Read the Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould. Studies estimate that scores on the LSAT can predict only about 17% of first year grades, offering no predictive validity, and fails to predict graduation rates. Most importantly, LSAT scores bear no relationship to future performance as an attorney. The standard error built into the LSAT is +/- 2.6 to 5.2. Thus, there is virtually no way to predict better performance in law school unless the gap in scores exceeds 12 points. The median LSAT score for whites is only 10 points higher than the median score for blacks.

We could discuss the reasons for this gap in the first place, but there is not enough space. Suffice it say that if you truly care about the issue, then inform yourself on how you can help to close that gap. Do not blame the so-called victims. Remember, Newton would have never discovered gravity had he focused on the intrinsic properties of the apple as opposed to its environment. We must apply the same lesson to race relations. I cannot recall any time in our history in which we have collectively attempted to change the environment (the social and economic conditions) in which blacks in America live.

[The Albany Kid]

I'm not blaming the victims...I'm Black myself.

Your analysis is very interesting (especially with regard to environmental considerations)...I can see that you have invested a great deal of thought to this issue. I wonder to what extent the factors that Sander would change if more people of color had access to Princeton Review, Barbri, etc.

[patwal]

This whole thing about "only getting where you got because of affirmative action" is nothing more than the 21st century variation of "those people don't have as much brains as" we" (whites) do. The statement clearly precludes any possibility that the minority person succeeded because of their own given talents, brains and determination - that as far as some people are concerned, is simply not part of the equation.

Plus ca change, plus y reste la meme

[wdw505]

then do away with affirmative action, and take the question off the table

[Durango]

And revert back to all white male police and fire and ambulance services?

No thank you.

[pghnappyrhino]

as soon as EVERYONE gets an equal opportunity to succeed or fail on their merits, we can.

[jsgaetano]

Yes, because it's far more preferable to go back to old white dude protectionism politics.

It's going to be hilarious seeing the confederatives whine and cry when whites become a minority in America.

[pghnappyrhino]

"then do away with affirmative action, and take the question off the table"

how about you do away with racism?

as a black male, that's not something i can do. as a white male, it's YOUR burden.

don't like affirmative action? make the country live up to the promise of justice and equality for all. then, there won't be a need for affirmative action.

[Durango]

Most people can do any job if given a chance. And that is what Affirmative Action is: a chance.

Which for African Americans, Latinos and women were denied. It was only through government intervention that any of these minorities were given the opportunity to succeed.

I remember quite vividly my boss saying he would be the last bastion of white male supremacy. No minorities or women would have been hired if it was left p to him.

In revolutionary times leaders emerge who would never have had a chance to succeed under the previous order.

And perform their jobs brilliantly. Because the revolutionary times gave them the opportunity.

Affirmative action was a revolutionary opportunity.

[ProudlyConservative42]

And yet, she's been appointed to the Supreme Court. Another red herring headline.