Do Latinas Design Spaceships, Planes, Cars and Computers?

I haven’t had such good chuckle in a long time as I had when I read Sonia Sotomayor’s recent comment, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

Of course, she was referring to judicial decisions, as she is Obama’s appointee to the US Supreme Court whose appointment is still pending.

I am glad that she said she would hope, as hope is all she can do, in the absence of any element of realism in her thinking.

First of all, “wise Latina woman” is almost an oxymoron. I’ve known and seen hundreds if not thousands of Latina women in my 19 years in southwestern US and my 5 years in South America. Some are very congenial and polite, very sweet, and often good-looking. Many are sensible and down-to-earth, usually moreso than Latino men.

But one thing Latina women are not is terribly brainy. In fact, in dozens of IQ tests taken in the Unites States and elsewhere, Hispanic people average about 90, compared with 100 for white Americans and Europeans, 105 for Orientals, 115 for Jews and 85 for black Americans. The figure of 90 may be due to the admixture of American Indian blood among New World Hispanics. Indians average about 90 also, and I say this admitting that I am half Indian myself. I’m interested in seeking the truth, rather than in boosting ethnic pride. Looking at Sotomayor, I’d say she definitely has Indian blood too. Still, the IQ’s I mentioned are only averages, and Sotomayor is probably somewhat above average. It probably takes at least 100 to get through law school.

One can find evidence of the IQ-gap in the fact that Latin America lags behind the US and Europe economically and culturally, though there are certainly worse places in the world.

I don’t know if Sotomayor is equating wisdom with IQ, but if she is, she ought to do a little checking.

I guess everyone knows that planes, cars, spaceships, television, radio, telephones, electrical power, computers, Internet and many, many other things were invented by white males. I don’t know of any Latina who is on the books for any important invention. In fact, as I mentioned in an article that I posted a couple of years ago, it’s difficult finding a single Hispanic name, masculine or feminine, in the annals of science. There have been a few significant Hispanic writers, painters and musicians, but no scientists.

So I’m at a loss to explain what Sotomayor could have meant when she spoke of a “Latina woman with the richness of her experience” as compared with a white male who hasn’t lived that experience. It’s true that most white males have never lived the experience of being Latina women, barefoot and pregnant, but I doubt if that makes them less wise.

As for the fact that she wrote the decision in a case where 19 white firefighters taking a test for promotion were denied the promotion because no blacks passed the test, I’ll say that if I were in college and got a 100% on a test but were failed because no blacks passed the test, I’d consider burning down the school and hanging the dean.