The College Fix

In her new memoir, My Beloved World, Justice Sonia Sotomayor says she was not aware of the impact of affirmative action on her college career as she sought admission to Princeton University, one of the most exclusive universities in the nation, in the 1970’s.

According to a CNN report, Sotomayor writes of being intelligent and determined as a child, and gradually becoming more aware of the role race played in her career prospects. “A fellow Hispanic student criticized her for not being more militant about the discrimination Hispanics were facing,” according to CNN, “while a high school employee baldly questioned whether as an underprivileged minority she truly deserved to go to Princeton University.”

Although she claims to have been largely unaware of the impact of her race as a teenager, Justice Sotomayor seems to be making up for it as an adult. She has kept race at the forefront of her public persona by repeatedly referring to it in her speeches and writings.

According to CNN, in her memoir, she expresses a “vivid pride in her Puerto Rican heritage.”

Sotomayor once sparked controversy by referring to the more just decisions a “wise Latina” might make on the bench, as opposed to, presumably, a non-Latina. And she has often referred to herself in speeches as having a “Latina soul.”

She takes pains to inform the public about the role of race in her jurisprudence. Yet she claims she was “not aware” of the role of race with regard to the affirmative action programs of the colleges she applied to? This is a curious case of selective awareness.

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