Hrag Vartanian

Identity politics can be a very dull topic but this paragraph via Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson piqued my interest:

Republicans’ outrage, both real and feigned, at Sotomayor’s musings about how her identity as a “wise Latina” might affect her judicial decisions is based on a flawed assumption: that whiteness and maleness are not themselves facets of a distinct identity. Being white and male is seen instead as a neutral condition, the natural order of things. Any “identity” — black, brown, female, gay, whatever — has to be judged against this supposedly “objective” standard.

via DailyKos

Image Caption: Senator Patrick J. Leahy escorted Judge Sotomayor to the second day of her confirmation hearings to the Supreme Court. via NYTimes’ The Caucus blog, photo by Ron Edmunds/Associated Press