I'm finding the Republican obsession with Sotomayor's identity and the "bias" that follows from it both amusing and annoying. As if anyone approaches the world from an unsituated, un-embedded in culture and gender and race position. As if there is a such thing as a Purely Objective Perspective.
Oh wait. They think there is.
They think you can rise above it all and get the completely objective view of Things-As-They-Actually-Really-Truly-Are-Independent-From-The-Human-Perspective. It's called the White Male Perspective. aka the God's-Eye View. Not biased at all.
There are those out there that beleive a wise man would come to the same judicial decision as a wise woman.
ReplyDeleteBy extention, there are those that beleive that a wise white person would come to the same judicial decision as a [insert ethnic minority] person.
And of course, there are many people that disagree with that sentiment.
Steven,
ReplyDeleteOf course that will often be true. But it's also the case that our ways of knowing and understanding things are shaped by our life experiences. So having all white males making all the judicial rulings for a country that's diverse is ill-advised. We should strive for a good representation of our population to ensure fairness, because it is always the case that a white male will have a white male view of the world, rather than a completely unbiased and objective one. Nobody has an unbiased and objective view.
Steven,
ReplyDeleteI think the point is not to forget that all decisions are made from a situated perspective. And that applies to all humans - even white males. And I think the rhetoric surrounding this really shows that many of the white males in congress don't think this is true for white males, but only for those with other identities. Because they're just people, the norm, while Sotomayor is the other.