Why It Matters Who You Are When Acting on Behalf of the Public

As I've written previously, we are all constructed by identities: gender, race, religion, ethnicity, region, family style and makeup, and class. To ignore these aspects of character is stupid, especially now, when we have so many personal narratives that explore how different experiences bring perspective to decision-making. As a country of immigrants and misfits, too long we have allowed white men to make all public, and too often, private decisions.

Not anymore.

Just as we might not know what aspects of President Obama's character derive from his white mother or his African father, we also know that his experience in the world was heavily influenced by the fact that he is bi-racial. He wrote an entire book on claiming his identity: Dreams From My Father.

Sonia Sotomayor is Obama's nominee to replace David Souter as associate justice on the US Supreme Court. Her perspective has been forged from the experiences of being a woman, growing up Puerto Rican, attending elite schools where Puerto Rican women were more likely to be the custodians and housekeepers than the students, and being first a trial court and then an appellate judge. Her moderation appeals to our president. That there should be more than one woman on the US Supreme Court appeals to me. I won't be satisfied until half the court is comprised of women!

There is a fascinating interview with Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the upcoming New York Times magazine section that you can access now. It's long, but it's interesting, because Justice Ginsburg has spent her lifetime being a woman in places where women weren't intended to feel comfortable. As women, we all understand that feeling of being an outsider, of having to prove ourselves not according to the rules, but to defy some unspoken assumptions of incompetency. I remember being a young attorney and how many opponents assumed that I was sleeping with a partner, or was available to anyone with any power. I can't imagine the confluence of gender and race or ethnicity on the challenge of competency. Listen to the critics of her nomination and then think about what they are saying and why.