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I’m sure there’s a context to this as well
June 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment
It seems that Sonia Sotomayor had already spoken her “wise” Latina” line in a speech in 1994, though saying “woman” instead.
“Justice O’Connor has often been cited as saying that “a wise old man and a wise old woman reach the same conclusion in dueling cases. I am not so sure Justice O’Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes the line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, if Prof. Martha Minnow is correct, there can never be a universal definition of ‘wise.’ Second, I would hope that a wise woman with the richness of her experience would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion.”
But of course we’ll discover that there’s really a broader context to this. Only, when we sit down read the speech we’ll discover that the “context” really doesn’t make her sound her any less arrogant or, dare I say it, racist or sexist. But if we say that it sounds better in context, then it makes us appear broad-minded and fair.