Looking Different

by digby

Steve Benen capably deconstructs Ron Fournier’s offensive little exercise in mind reading the Sotomayor hearings and he mentions one line that I found particularly revealing of Fournier’s (and probably Jeff Sessions’)mindset:

[F]or example, the audience heard Sotomayor thank her family this morning, and tell the Judiciary Committee, “If I introduced every one that’s family, we’d be here all morning.” Sounds like a person who appreciates her large family? Not to Fournier, who re-interprets the comment for the rest of us: “I may not look like all of you but, trust me, I’m no different than every other family-loving American. I’m surrounded by people who love me.”

Does Sotomayor really look different from all of “us?” She’s a middle aged woman with brown eyes and dark hair, which describes a rather large portion of the population. She looks as American as anybody in that room. Of course, any member of the human species could be equally described that way. “American” isn’t an ethnic or racial identity — unless you are a privileged white person who thinks that anyone who doesn’t look like you is an interloper (not to mention an untrustworthy, anti-family freak.)

This kind of remark says far more about the person who says it than the person they are ostensibly describing. It reminds me of Junior’s forays into racial outreach:

“There’s a lot of people in the world who don’t believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern,” Bush said.

“I reject that. I reject that strongly. I believe that people who practice the Muslim faith can self-govern. I believe that people whose skins aren’t necessarily — are a different color than white can self-govern.”

Because people whose skin looks like “ours” is white. Except for all the brown and blacks ones. But then, they aren’t really “us” are they?

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