Associate Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor got some pushback over her use of the phrase, “wise Latina,” in various public speeches she had made, and was called on to explain what she meant by it during the Senate confirmation hearings that would seat her on the High Court in 2009. I remember that there was no surfeit of ridicule over it from those on our side of the aisle.
To refresh your memory, here was her vexing quote from a 2001 speech:
“I 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,” Sotomayor said in a speech at 2001 at the University of California, Berkeley, law school. She made similar statements at other such events.
The judge explained during her testimony that she was trying to impress on the students that their life “experiences would enrich…
