What do you think of Sonia Sotomayor’s comment from a 2001 speech she delivered in California?

…  I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.

My sense is that one individual can’t make better conclusions than any other individual, but when people come together, it’s often better to ensure that there’s a diversity of experiences.  

You can read the text of her thoughtful, well-considered speech in full by clicking here.

Her speech also contained some questions that seem to me worth pondering:

For people of color and women lawyers, what does and should being an ethnic minority mean in your lawyering? For men lawyers, what areas in your experiences and attitudes do you need to work on to make you capable of reaching those great moments of enlightenment which other men in different circumstances have been able to reach. For all of us, how do change the facts that in every task force study of gender and race bias in the courts, women and people of color, lawyers and judges alike, report in significantly higher percentages than white men that their gender and race has shaped their careers, from hiring, retention to promotion and that a statistically significant number of women and minority lawyers and judges, both alike, have experienced bias in the courtroom?

Thoughts?