Unit D - Blog #28

Sonia Sotomayor was characterized as a "fiery Latina woman" from the beginning of the murmurs that she may be nominated for the Supreme Court by Barack Obama. This is a common stereotype of Latina woman by the media for years. Latina women are very quick to anger and run households with an iron fist. Due to this Sotomayor's character as a judge was asserted to be very temperamental and "bitchy" and somewhat of a bully on the second circuit bench that she currently worked for. Her competence was overridden by her strong emotions that she had. Even though she was a Princeton and Yale graduate who graduated with honors, that was all taken away by her bad temper. Our 42nd and 43rd president, George W. Bush graduated from Yale with straight C's. When he was first nominated no one insulted his intelligence. Of course it became a joke later once he was seen making speeches with unknown words. Sotomayor on the other hand has been articulate and precise in her speeches and is clearly a learned student of the law. But her temperament becomes the focus on the media instead of her record as a judge. One reporter who critiqued her even admitted, "I haven't read enough of Sotomayor's opinions to have a confident sense of them, nor have I talked to enough of Sotomayor's detractors and supporters, to get a fully balanced picture of her strengths." Instead anonymous sources were used and PUBLISHED. Even when the article was called out for being spineless, the newspaper never apologized or made corrections to some of the quotes that were cropped to make Sotomayor look bad. This sends a clear message that the media was definitely villainizing her to Americans because she was a female Latina. Her actual accomplishments were always downplayed, even though if a man had those same qualifications he wold be glorified for it.