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Jewish World Review April 28, 2014 / 28 Nissan, 5774 The Wise Latina? I Think Not By Alicia Colon
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
When Sonia Sotamayor, the self-proclaimed 'wise Latina' was nominated and confirmed to the Supreme Court, I was asked to write an op-ed because of our similar backgrounds. I am about ten years her senior and those ten years and the different paths we took explain the wide gulf between our political perspectives, however, I had hopes that her early years in Catholic schools would have left a deeper impression on her principles. Alas, her diatribe about the recent anti-affirmative action ruling by the court confirmed the fact that her indoctrination at Princeton and Yale as a liberal whiner was successful.
Both Sotomayor and I are NYuricans, born in New York City, (she in the Bronx, I in Spanish Harlem,) with roots in Puerto Rico. Both of our fathers died when we were young and we both lived in public housing. She went to Cardinal Spellman H.S. and I went to Cathedral H.S. for girls. Judging from her biography, however, our economic situation was quite different as her family took regular trips to Puerto Rico every year. My sole vacation was thanks to the Fresh Air Fund which sent me to a farm upstate. We were dirt poor and after living in a deteriorating slum tenement, I was overjoyed to move into a housing project that had a working toilet and no holes in the wall. It wasn't perfect but so much better than the vermin infested hovel we escaped from.
Therein lies the difference between our attitudes towards poverty and those ten years between us clearly show how the progressives in Ivy League institutions worked to manipulate the minds of young minorities. Those of my era knew where the blame of our situation lay and it was generally due to parental failures not society. We were grateful for and had no animus towards the wealthy. In fact, I was extremely grateful for the cultural resources they endowed and gifted to the city free of charge. I spent my free time exploring the great museums that then offered free admission. I spent my Sundays at concerts at the Museum of the City Of New York and then would walk through the conservatory gardens across the street on Fifth Avenue.
Recently, I logged on to YouTube and watched Andre Rieu and his orchestra play my favorite Strauss Waltz, Roses From the South, while Viennese debutantes danced with their beaus in beautiful gowns. It suddenly occurred to me how strange it must seem to liberals that someone who grew up in the barrio like me could watch these lovely blonde women and feel not even a twinge of envy or antipathy but could thoroughly enjoy their beauty. This same lack of resentment was evident in my entertainment choices. Although we were quite late in getting our own television set, my favorites had all white casts with nary a minority in sight save for the Amos and Andy show which had an all black cast. Never once did I feel that my ethnicity had to be included on these programs.
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Racial resentments became a political weapon in the mid-sixties and were used to roil up college students already seething from the Vietnam War. With a brother in the marines I could hardly join them but I hoped the protesters realized how fortunate they were to live in a country that allowed dissent. It has always bothered me that anti-war protesters never protest the countries that actually start the conflicts. It's so much easier to condemn America for everything even though our entry into wars is due to treaty obligations, self defense or humanitarian relief.
Having read David Horowitz's Book Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey, my instincts about the movement proved accurate. I recall waiting in JFK with my brother before he shipped out to Camp Pendleton en route to Vietnam and watching the Moonies giving us hateful glances while they carried peace signs. What frauds!
It's not much of a surprise that Sonya Sotomayor is so passionate about affirmative action which beggars the question of how much she benefited from it. She went to Princeton on a full scholarship yet she said in a Newsday interview that her writing and vocabulary skills were weak, and she lacked knowledge in the classics. She also went to Yale Law School also on a full scholarship and it is no surprise that both institutions had very few Hispanic students. I have no doubt that she worked really hard to achieve a summa cum laude degree although both elite universities are rumored to give inflated grades to certain students. Doesn't Sotomayor realize that affirmative action will always call into question whether she was just a token or truly deserving of her scholarships? In her overlong dissenting rant about the court decision, she writes,
Does Sotomayor realize that she is referring to her own experience in Princeton and Yale? I can't tell you how many times perfect strangers come up to me and start speaking Spanish. The boyfriend of an old friend at a cocktail party asked me, "Do you speak English?" Many, many times I've been asked-"What are you?" I have been ignored by sales staff in high end retail establishments but I refuse to view these incidents as anything other than ignorance rather than malice.
When I first registered to vote I was required to bring in my diploma to verify I was literate. I did not realize that this directive was specific to Hispanics but so what? Frankly, I think literacy should be a requisite for the privilege of voting for our representatives or we wouldn't have so many low-infos voting the unqualified into office.
I can't tell you how many people are astounded that I am a registered Republican. "Why, they ask, "Aren't you a Democrat with your background?" I always answer-"High IQ." I've also received hate mail from haters calling me a coconut-brown on the outside and white on the inside. Because I do not agree with their agenda I am called a self-loather. I laugh at these insults because I know that they come from those unsure of their convictions while I am not.
The leftists use the minority student's insecurity to sell their agenda of victimization which they then transpose into votes for Democrats. This party is not the one I knew when I first started voting. I voted for Hubert Humphrey and campaigned for Robert Kennedy. I mourned his death as well as his brother but I cannot conceive of either of them advocating the agenda the party seeks today, especially one that includes partial birth abortion.
I read Justice Sotomayor's entire dissent and it was not easy plowing through endless pages citing various court decisions irrelevant to the case at hand. Why it had to be 58 pages long is an indication that her writing skills may still need to be strengthened.
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© 2014, Alicia Colon |
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