"Gosh, I wish we could bring you to Washington to ask the Questions."

Diane Rehm Show podcast from Friday 5/29/09 - News Roundup for Friday - Hour 1 @ 36:00 mark. http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/05/29.php#26748

Susan Page was the host. Panelists were Jake Tapper, Andrew Sullivan and Cece Connolly.

Leslie, a teacher of teachers from West Minister, VT is who made this point so clear based on her experience with her students.

This is a very close transcript I took from the podcast:




Cece Connolly seemed to really like this question and comment. I'm sure for the same reason I did. It clearly FINALLY explained why this entire debate just pisses me off - especially listening to white men like Rush, Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, etc. go on and on calling her racist because she didn't just go along with what they consider how things should always be - viewed from their viewpoint - the nerve!




You can listen to this here - it is at the Friday 5/29/09 - News Roundup for Friday - Hour 1 @ 36:00 mark. http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/05/29.php#26748

I know this isn't groundbreaking or anything and it is what we all already know BUT the way she put it so clearly and how she had seen it based on her experiences with her students made the point more strongly then anything else I've heard.

Please don't take this as an attack on white men. It certainly isn't intended as one. I love lots of them - my dad, my husband, my son will be one but I thought it was important.


I want to find Leslie and bring her to Washington and put her on every TV station to make this extremely important point.

trashed Gore in '00. She's the one that got in trouble for pointing her finger to the side of Gore's head as though she were holding a gun. And she's still employed.

Great observation on biases. White and male is the cultural default. Look at congress, late night television, etc. Go down the radio dial and you rarely hear women's voices.

I thought the point the caller made was great because I hadn't heard anyone articulate what women and minorities know so innately.

Sotomayor has talked about how you need to be aware of your biases so you can pull back from them when needed as a judge and her decisions show her doing that.

The problem is, of course, "some" (most) white guys aren't even cognizant of the fact. That is clear from Ginsberg's extreme frustration with her colleagues during the Lily Ledbetter case and the 13 yr old girl strip search case - plus Roberts' questioning on all cases show he always totally views everything from the view of the people in power - the employer, the government, he seems to totally be clueless re discrimination except for cases like the Ricci case.

I'd really like to flip this conversation around. I'm sick of her being on the defensive.

about the search of the 13 year old. No man could 'get' the level of humiliation she'd feal.

her unwarranted treatment of VP Gore.

Glad she's into this, though..

"Cece said "I'm smiling. I've got a white guy on either side of me... It's so interesting that your bring that up because in our newsroom we've been having this conversation after Newt's comments." She said that the question that keeps coming up is "hmmmmmm, why is it that the white male is the base line, the sort of norm from which everyone else is, as you put it, deviant or diverges or is different. I don't recall when John Roberts went through his confirmation hearings too much questioning along the lines of, well, you know, your comfortable life of privilege, I wonder how that's going to effect your perspective of sitting up their on the court so I think it is an excellent one (Leslie's point) and, gosh, I wish we could bring you to Washington to ask the Questions."

I always hope people can evolve .

You're dead right, Captain.

But as to "Go down the radio dial and you rarely hear women's voices", I guess it would depend on where one lives - I hear them frequently.

helped me step outside myself a bit.

Felt ignored in Newport, HATED in Charleston, like poor folks in Washington,DC, big deals in Norfolk, welcomed in Key West.

It really varied.