Posted by David Bernstein:
"Hispanics" and Sotomayor:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_05_24-2009_05_30.shtml#1243346154
[1]Tom Goldstein:
To Hispanics, the nomination would be an absolutely historic
landmark. It really is impossible to overstate its significance.
The achievement of a lifetime appointment at the absolute highest
levels of the government is a profound event for that community,
which in turn is a vital electoral group now and in the future.
I'm genuinely curious about how this will play out. I know "Hispanics"
are a census category, an affirmative action category, a politically
correct category, and, to some extent the target of undifferentiated
discrimination, especially for those who "look" Hispanic.
On the other hand, "Hispanic" includes everyone with Spanish or
Portuguese speaking ancestors, and I wonder how much pride, say,
Mexican-Americans in California or Central Americans in the Northern
Virginia suburbs take in the success of a Puerto Rican woman from the
Bronx. One can imagine satisfaction that a fellow "Hispanic" is being
nominated to the Supreme Court, but one can also imagine resentment
that the first "Hispanic" nominee to the Court is from a relatively
small demographic group, Puerto Ricans who live in the mainland, and
not from by far the largest group of Hispanics, Mexican Americans.
I guess this is another way of asking whether there is really a common
identity of Hispanic among descendants of Spanish speakers in the
U.S., or whether they primarily think of themselves as Mexican, Cuban,
Colombian, Salvadoran, etc., the way people of European descent
considered themselves German, Italian, Irish, etc., not "European."
And if the latter, whether there is still enough of a common identity
that it's good politics to nominate a "Hispanic," even from a
relatively small (and overwhelmingly Democratic) group.
Comments open for four hours.
References
1.
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/the-dynamic-of-the-nomination-of-sonia-sotomayor/
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