WEB Dubois went to the grave lamenting the compromises, the shucks and the jives and the betrayal of Booker T. Washington to Black America. WEB Dubois attributed the long journey from slavery to several years of equality and freedom back to inequality and the Jim Crowe Era to Booker T. Washington. According to C. Vann Woodward as blacks left slavery they began to walk hand and hand with white men and shared a vision of equal pay for equal work and then came along Jim Crow ie. separate but equal.
As we look at the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor one can not help but parallel Obama’s decision to nominate Sotomayerr with Booker T. Washington’s decision to advocate for separate but equal like Washington did in the Atlanta Speech. Obama’s decision to nominate Sotomayor can only hurt African Americans even if she was nominated by a black president. Sotomayor has a record of ruling against blacks who have been patently and overtly discriminated against. While the case of the white firefighters who she ruled against took center stage. The case of African Americans with obvious slights and who had been overtly discriminated against has been ignored by the media, and the all white senate. One could only wonder if Sotomayor gets an award and Kudos for ruling against black folks. As the beat goes again as In the Clarence Thomas case a persons race trumps the content of their character when they have shown a true contradiction of what the democratic party and frankly the constitution stands for.
Sotomayor has either shown an inability to use her wisdom to come to a just solution for people discriminated against in the following place or she is just plain hates black individuals.
Before we review one of the cases Sotomayor overtly ruled against black people let’s review a discrimination case she ruled for and struck down a lower court decision to throw out.
While eating lunch Yvette Cruz was the recipient of a lewd remark from a fellow coworker on the same level or below her paygrade, in response to the lewd remark she smacked the coworker and they ended up on the floor brawling fighting and rolling around on the floor. Coach pocketbook fired booth employees. In response Yvette Cruz sued them for sexual discrimination, and a hostile work environment. A lower court said that the allegations were vague and threw it out of court. Ms. Cruz appealed and Sotomayor said her charges were legitimate and ruled in her favor.
Now we can discuss the African Americans, in one case involving blacks and Sotomayor, a black couple decided to go on a vacation they purchased advanced airline tickets weeks in ahead to go on their vacation. While boarding they were offered some incentive to give up their tickets because the plane was overbooked, they were on vacation and wanted to quickly get to their destination so they declined the offer. They ended up being the only black couple on the plane. The stewardess walked down the aisle looking at individuals and told the black couple to get off of the plane. They calmy walked off the plane. because the plane was overbooked even though other people on the plane had purchased standby tickets and same day tickets. The couple sued, a lower court ruled in their favor, American Airlines appealed and Sotomayor overturned the decision and told them to go file a a federal complaint their suit was not legitimate.
None of these contradictions have come up as far as I know. Sonia Sotomayor gets a pass and a nod for discriminating against black people. Now that Barack oBama is on Air Force One he probably has forgotten how it feels to ride on a regular plane and its alright to abuse blacks since it will never be him.
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