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Ahead of Senate Hearings, Racism Charges Fly

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 2, 2009 10:34 AM CDT

(Newser) – Sonia Sotomayor’s views on race have become a hot button topic. But it’s just Republican “race mongering,” writes Derrick Jackson of the Boston Globe. Remember, the GOP “has been the party of racial code words,” from Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” to Reagan’s “state’s rights” speech. Now Rush Limbaugh compares Sotomayor to a former Klan leader, Newt Gingrich calls her a racist, and the party’s leaders sit quietly, approvingly, on the sidelines.

It’s exactly that kind of argument that drives Jonah Goldberg of the Los Angeles Times crazy. Democrats are constantly urging us to have “a big, open-minded conversation” about race, he writes, “but the moment anyone disagrees with them, they shout ‘racist.’” Sotomayor obviously rejects official colorblindness. That doesn’t make her a “cartoonish villain,” but it is definitely something we should talk about. Otherwise, in the words of Eric Holder, we're "a nation of cowards."

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Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor meets with members of the White House Counsel's office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Complex, June 1, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama announces Sonia Sotomayor, right, as his nominee for the Supreme Cour, May 26, 2009, in an East Room ceremony of the White House. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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It may go too far to call her a racists—she's not an evil bigot, which is what the word "racist" colloquially suggests. So maybe we can call her a "racialist." - Jonah Goldberg

Rather than calmly defend her, they hide behind the robes of the first Latina Supreme Court pick and shout "bigot" at anyone who fails to throw rose petals at her feet. - Jonah Goldberg

Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor has leading members of the GOP deciding whether they should follow Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Pat Buchanan, and their audiences into the abyss. - Derrick Z. Jackson

We are currently debating if gay and lesbian people are full citizens under the law. Could it be because too many courts historically contained too few people who lived the lives of others? - Derrick Z. Jackson

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