"Gosh, I wish we could bring you to Washington to ask the Questions."

[Pirate Smile]

Diane Rehm Show podcast from Friday 5/29/09 - News Roundup for Friday - Hour 1 @ 36:00 mark. http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/05/29.php#26748

Susan Page was the host. Panelists were Jake Tapper, Andrew Sullivan and Cece Connolly.

Leslie, a teacher of teachers from West Minister, VT is who made this point so clear based on her experience with her students.

This is a very close transcript I took from the podcast:

I'm a Teacher of Intercultural Communications and always ask my grad students to write an autobiography on how their experience, culture and identity biases their decision making as teachers and what I've found is that women, people of color, religious minorities as well as homosexuals have very little trouble doing this. It is generally the white, heterosexual male who are often unable to explore how their cultural identity baises their work and its not because thoses biases don't exist, it is because the social, political and religious structures have always been biased toward men and made their existence the NORM against which the rest of us are measured in our deviance or difference. So I think rather then asking Sonia Sotomayor how her identity as a female, Puerta Rican effects her judgments, I'd be asking the white men on the court how their privilege in our society effects their judgments and I'd like to hear your panalists response."

Cece Connolly seemed to really like this question and comment. I'm sure for the same reason I did. It clearly FINALLY explained why this entire debate just pisses me off - especially listening to white men like Rush, Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, etc. go on and on calling her racist because she didn't just go along with what they consider how things should always be - viewed from their viewpoint - the nerve!

Cece said "I'm smiling. I've got a white guy on either side of me... It's so interesting that your bring that up because in our newsroom we've been having this conversation after Newt's comments." She said that the question that keeps coming up is "hmmmmmm, why is it that the white male is the base line, the sort of norm from which everyone else is, as you put it, deviant or diverges or is different. I don't recall when John Roberts went through his confirmation hearings too much questioning along the lines of, well, you know, your comfortable life of privilege, I wonder how that's going to effect your perspective of sitting up their on the court so I think it is an excellent one (Leslie's point) and, gosh, I wish we could bring you to Washington to ask the Questions."

You can listen to this here - it is at the Friday 5/29/09 - News Roundup for Friday - Hour 1 @ 36:00 mark. http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/05/29.php#26748

I know this isn't groundbreaking or anything and it is what we all already know BUT the way she put it so clearly and how she had seen it based on her experiences with her students made the point more strongly then anything else I've heard.

Please don't take this as an attack on white men. It certainly isn't intended as one. I love lots of them - my dad, my husband, my son will be one but I thought it was important.


I want to find Leslie and bring her to Washington and put her on every TV station to make this extremely important point.