Judge Sotomayor is not a racist

This commentary on CNN.com written by U. of Maryland law professor Sherrilyn Ifill is worth a complete read. It evaluates the the Sotomayor speech in its totality and takes those calling her a racist for one line in it to task.

It's entirely appropriate to question Judge Sotomayor about this speech at her confirmation hearings. She is evidently more than capable of explaining in compelling, clear language what precisely she wanted to convey in this speech. But Judge Sotomayor is not a racist. It is an insult of unimaginable proportion to unleash this charge on her, based on one sentence from her Berkeley, California, speech. It is not just irresponsible to make this charge against a sitting federal appeals court judge based on this flimsy record; it is -- and here I'll break the taboo -- racist to do so.