On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 12:08 PM, Gruss G wrote: > > What some people fear is that we won't be able to draw a line in the > sand to say when that discrimination is over and everything going > forward is meritocratic and therefore we'll to solve the historic > imbalance we'll bring in lesser qualified candidates. Critics charge > Judge Sotomayor is such a candidate. > > It's a legitimate fear in general, but not in this case in my opinion. >
I don't think that's the fear, so much as as there is a fear of reverse discrimination - i.e. taking revenge on "the man" for centuries of discrimination, which is why the Ricci case touched such a nerve. On the one hand, mainstream white society has been moving slowly but surely over the last fifty years toward an acceptance of equality. On the other hand, some minority interest groups have spent the past several decades promoting the idea not of equality but of a power struggle with the white majority. Now that Obama is President, some of the more radical elements in these groups seem to feel it is time to "get theirs", and that "getting theirs" inevitably means taking it away from the white majority. It is an unfortunate offshoot of this power struggle that has led this narrow group of people to believe not in wealth creation but in wealth re-distribution, essentially legalized theft by the government. Sure, there is a very good argument to make that legalized theft by the white majority resulted in far lower living standards for minorities than would have otherwise been the case, but two wrongs, so the saying goes, do not make a right. At the same time, if we are being intellectually honest, we must recognize that minorities still face obstacles that non-minorities do not, and that African-Americans in particular face special burdens in our society because of our history of slavery and racism. Where do we draw the line on helping those who were discriminated against in the past at the expense of people who did not participate in systemic discrimination? Do we punish the children for the sins of the father? We will struggle with that question for decades. In the particular case of Sotomayor, she is clearly a first-rate jurist and will be fine on the Court. I hear moaning on the Right that she may become another Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but last time I checked Ginsburg has been on the Court for years and the universe has yet to implode, so those complaints ring hollow to me, just as the moaning on the Left about Alito and Scalia rings hollow. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:300521 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
