With the current opening on the Supreme Court, there has been a great deal of debate about the importance of diversity; particularly regarding the make up of the Supreme Court. President Obama has nominated Sonia Sotomayor. Her selection would make her the first Hispanic and the third woman justice.
Why all the fuss over diversity? People, especially political pundits, are all up in arms over the subject. They act as if this is a new concept. Far from it. That great diversity consultant, Archie Bunker, proposed diversity nearly forty years ago. It was in an All In The Family episode entitled The Election Story and aired October 30, 1971; season two episode six. At the time Archie was trying to convince his son-in-law Michael “Meathead” Stivic, the superiority of the local Republican ticket. The exchange went like this:
Archie: I call this representative Government. Salvatore, Feldman, O'Reilly, Nelson. It's an Italian, a Jew, an Irishman, and a regular American. That's what I call a balanced ticket.
Meathead: Why do you always have to label people by nationality?
Here is where Archie Bunker defined the importance of diversity and began an entire movement. His response was historic.
Archie: 'Cause how else you gonna get the right man for the right job?
Mind you, if Archie were to make a statement like that today, the PC police, i.e political correctness, would make him rephrase it: 'Cause how else you gonna get the right person for the right job?
Archie can be forgiven; he was way ahead of his time. Consequently, we'll just look at the content of the quote, as well as his character, and consider the language to be a product of its time.
Considering the quote in the context of the present, we can favorably compare it with the one from Sonia Sotomayor:
“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.”
Isn't this basically what that icon of American culture, Archie Bunker, said one and a half score and seven years ago. So why are Republicans so upset over her statement? In fact, isn't this what many modern day diversity consultants say is the reason diversity is so important? Al Gore, when running for President in 2000, stated clearly that he wanted a cabinet that looked like America. They believe they have an original concept when in fact, they're merely re-iterating Archie Bunker. Why would Republican pundits be so upset with the diversity movement when it has its origins in Archie Bunker.
Like Sotomayor, Bunker went on to supply empirical evidence to support his belief.
Archie: For instance, you take Feldman there. He's up for treasurer. Well, that's perfect. All them people know how to handle money. Know what I mean?
Meathead: No, I don't. (Author's note: Archie didn't name Michael “The Meathead” for nothing.)
Archie: Then you got Salvatore runnin' for DA. He can keep an eye on Feldman. You know I wanna tell you somethin' about the Italians. When you do get an honest one, you really got somethin' there.
Meathead: Oh, come on Arch.
Archie: Here you got O'Reilly, the mick. He can see that the graft is equally spread around, you know. You got Nelson, the American guy. He's good for TV appearances. Make the rest of them look respectable, you know.
As the saying goes, those who ignore history, are doomed to repeat it. I'm not sure what that has to do with the nomination of Sotomayor, but then again, I'm not sure what diversity has to do with making unbiased decisions on the Supreme Court. Perhaps Archie Bunker was being prophetic when he said to the Meathead, “The Supreme Court ain't got nothing to do with the Constitution.” God forbid, Archie. I'm not sure which episode that was in, but you can look it up. As for the episode The Election Story, click on the link.
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