One of the activists with whom I'm lucky to work is a lawyer named Karen Porter. She is very involved in local politics, was one of the point people in the Obama campaign, and runs our weekly peace vigils. Below is her letter (reprinted with permission) to one of the local newspapers.
Her thoughts run not to the specifics of Sotomayor's career per se, but Ms. Porter's experiences give context to what it has been like for women and minorities since we all joined the work force in the 1960's and 1970's. If you had any questions about what it has taken for Judge Sotomayor to get to where she is, this will answer them.
The daily mud being thrown at U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, by all the bigots coming out of their caves brings back painful memories of personal experiences I had hoped would be unbelievable for today - but, sadly, which are still the experiences of too many people.
As a newly minted lawyer in 1974, I was hired as director of a Philadelphia corporate legal department; and my first priority was to hire two lawyers. When I told my superior that I had chosen, for the first position, a Latina lawyer who had been tops in her class at her American college and law school, his first question was: "But how is her English?" That Latina lawyer went on to become "the first" in so many roles in public service and private law practice that I lost count of all her achievements years ago. (She's also a friend of Judge Sotomayor's.) I told her this story recently, and she said I'd never told her before - and she cried. She also said that no one else would hire her then.
When I disclosed that my second hire would be an African-American male, the same boss said, "Why? You already hired a Puerto Rican - why do you need a black lawyer? You've met the quota." That African-American lawyer went on to become a judge for many years and is now running for a top office in Philadelphia government.
Before I took that corporate job, I worked for one day for a Chester County lawyer who called me into his office the first day and began to rant about how African Americans are inferior in every way. I told him off, walked out, and never saw him again.
Before I took the research job with the racist lawyer, I had interviewed with the local public defenders office (criminal defense being the specialty I had developed in law school) but was told that if I didn't switch from my Democratic to a Republican voter registration, I'd "never work in Chester County." I thereupon found a job in Philadelphia.
In my next job, I had to hire a secretary. An employment agency representative asked me on the phone, "You wouldn't want to interviews any minorities, would you?" When I answered, "Yes, I would very much like to interview minority candidates," the agency sent me only minority candidates (my reading: other employers were refusing to hire them).
Not long afterward, a dream job opened up for me - to work at the first Philadelphia-area law firm in the then-small-but-growing health-law specialty I had developed in my corporate work. When called back for the second interview (a very good sign, I thought with great excitement), I had tremendous confidence that I would get the job and would be able to continue working in the field I most loved. However, I was told that, even though I was the most qualified lawyer they had interviewed, they did not want to hire a woman (like me) of child-bearing age and were going to hire a male instead - I was told I'd just have a baby and leave sometime soon. I was devastated and never interviewed at another law firm.
These were my experiences in only my first five years out of law school (1974-79) - I won't even attempt to cover the next 30 years in this letter. The list goes on and on. Even today, people ask why I haven't worked in a law firm or for local government. But that question is usually asked not by women or minorities because they know what we were and are up against.
Now it's sad for me to see, every day, the gauntlet that Judge Sotomayor must run through - and not because she's not tough. She's tough as nails. We have all had to be tough as nails to survive the bigotry we have had to experience.
To bigots, it doesn't matter what one does - how much education, how much experience, how much anything - those of us who have been the objects of bigotry cannot do anything to satisfy the bigots or to change their minds. I have also learned over these years that bigots come in two varieties: Those who know they're bigots and don't care and those who don't know they are bigots and who cry innocence. In today's ridiculous "controversy" over Judge Sotomayor, the saddest part of it is that many bigots who don't care that they are bigoted are coming out with outrageous, unashamed prejudice - and are being cheered on by a segment that many of us had hoped would have just died out by now.
Too many of us know who the bigots are, though, because we see them every day in our lives. However, their one unintended consequence is that the bigots have made us stronger than they are. In every way. Judge Sotomayor will win because she's the smarter, better,tougher human being in every way.
Karen Porter
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