22: Gender, Expectations and Stereotypes Part I

On her path to the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor faced the application of gender expectations and stereotypes to her. Both her gender and her race were used to evaluate her qualifications to serve as a justice, and the media played a major role in publicizing that evaluation process. It is made obvious in a video from ColorLines.com that if the same analysis of Sotomayor, and things that she had said, were applied to men who dominate the roles of justices on the Supreme Court, then the analysis would be fair. However, when these tactics are only applied to a woman who also happens to be a Latina, the video's host proclaims that the practice is institutionalized racism. She fails to mention that the act is also institutionalized sexism. Both justices Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia have made public gaffes that were not used against them in their process of becoming justices, and therefore the Sotomayor's treatment was both racist and sexist.

Sotomayor came under intense scrutiny for referring to herself as a wise Latina, who might be more capable of making better decisions than the average white man sitting on the bench. According to a New York Magazine article titled "Precedents: Sotomayor's Original Intent," she was called "racist" by Glenn Beck, "reverse racist by Rush Limbaugh, and a member of the "Latino KKK" by Tom Tancredo, all, it should be noted, who are white men. Justice Sotomayor was also called a judicial activist who was not part of the mainstream. This is true, when the mainstream refers to a body of balding, rich white men, who were born into privilege. Sotomayor grew up in the projects, with Puerto Rican parents and only her education to propel her forward.