June 4, 2009

Hey, Judge Sotomayor, Let’s Talk About My ‘Rich Experiences’ As a White Male

I know, I know. You’ve already seen approximately 1,253,678 comments about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s 2001 remark that she “would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.”

But I simply can’t resist sharing my personal response, which is, basically: Oh, yeah? How about my “rich experiences” as a “white male” of the same generation as Judge Sotomayor?

How about starting out with that growth experience of having a black woman colleague in my college work-study program who was showered with attention and better assignments by my sociology professor boss simply because of who she was – and then taking over all her work after she was ultimately fired for not even trying to do her job?

Can it get any “richer” than taking low-paid entry-level Capitol Hill positions while studying law at night, knowing that less-qualified minority applicants were accepted ahead of me at my first-choice school? And then working literally days, nights, weekends and holidays to get to the top – only to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes to a government that promotes the interests of protected classes over mine and my family’s?

I could just feel the wisdom welling up inside me when I got booted from a PR account with a long-standing client by a newly hired gay activist, and had an interview canceled by a prospective employer – both due to conservative views expressed on my blog. Not to mention being phased out of another account largely because a woman executive preferred to work with another, all-female firm.

It contributed mightily to my sagacity to hear management at a major client (and prospective employer) boast that “more than 60 percent of our hires are now diverse.” Message: White males need not apply.

Yes, many of these actions did not involve the government, and this sounds whiny, but that’s the point. Of course, discrimination by white male elites against blacks and Hispanics (and before that Jews, Italians and Irish) was wrong. But even more corrosive is its replacement: The entire “whine-for-what’s-mine” identity-politics culture that is perfectly reflected in Judge Sotomayor’s statement.

When I was growing up, everyone knew the rules: Work hard, study diligently, take care of your family, obey the law, be polite, save your money, pay your bills, watch your mouth, keep your clothes on and your hands off people who aren’t your spouse, live your faith, make good products or provide honest services, and generally avoid stupidity.

Those rules are so last century. What’s in their place? Gender, diversity, inclusiveness, affirmative action, racism/sexism/sizeism/ableism, homophobia, harassment, hate speech, political correctness, consumer protection, predatory behavior, environmentalism, choice, control of your body, single parenthood, permissible prayer and religious conduct, and that new favorite, zero tolerance for everything.

Run afoul of these continually shifting conventions, or simply be guilty of being well-off, successful, smart, straight, a practicing Christian, a businessperson or a “white male”, and you will certainly find yourself, at one point or another, fined, censured, sanctioned, suspended, sued, blackballed, fired or passed over.

The Sotomayor judiciary is the primum mobile of this Bizarro new universe. Is this Latina woman “wise” enough to comprehend the Kafkaesque unreality – and resulting social disruption and decay – she and like-minded judges have helped foist on us by elevating “empathy” for the individual over the rule of law and the virtues of civil society? Why don’t we ask Frank Ricci, the firefighter she allowed to be passed over for promotion despite his heroic efforts to overcome dyslexia?

No, the Sotomayor judiciary is merely spawning a whole new class of victims with their own “rich experiences” – if you will, “fine whines” – at the hand of government and a warped culture. And mine are as good as anyone’s.