It ought to be one of those SAT questions that tests whether a high school senior can make simple deductions without being distracted by irrelevant information.
1. Which weighs more?
(A) a pound of feathers
(B) half a pound of lead
2. Which is worth more?
(A) a dollar’s worth of tin
(B) a nickel’s worth of gold
3. Which is wiser?
(A) a wise Hispanic woman
(B) an unwise white man
And then several months later a red-faced parent stands up at the school board meeting, waves his son’s lousy SAT scores in the air, and insists that the right answer to question 3 is B and anyone here who thinks the answer is A is clearly a racist.
(Here’s Sotomayor’s remark in its context.)