Thanks to my great cousin, Max Turner, for sharing this with me:

Beyond the legal reasoning, Sotomayor offered a poignant expression of why race matters. 

“Race matters,” she said, “because of the long history of racial minorities being denied access to the political process…because of persistent racial inequality in the society.… 

Race matters to a young man’s view of society when he spends his teenage years watching other tense up as he passes.… 

Race matters to a young woman’s sense of self when she states her hometown and then is pressed, no, where are you really from.… 

Race matters because of the slights, the snickers, the silent judgments that reinforce the most crippling thoughts: ‘I do not belong here.’”

I got ambitious and started making my own salt and sugar scrubs and they're AWESOME!! I just tried a new one and have to share for any of my spa/bath product loving friends:

Mix 1 part coconut oil and 2 parts table salt (fine granules -- coarse ones will scratch you), 5 drops of essential oil (pick one for your skin type, like rose if your skin is dry, tea tree if it's oily, etc.) and muddled fresh mint leaves (seriously). Scrub it on your skin dry and then rinse it off.   


                                                                           Viola! Silky skin plus you smell delicious.

I run a non profit dedicated to the promotion and support of ethnic and gender diversity and part of the work that entity does involves film, television and web productions that create positive perceptions of diversity and that bend and break gender and racial stereotypes and long-running misperceptions and prejudices through non-academic, non-soapbox-y, creative, original stories.  I had this "HOLY MOLY!  THIS is why I produce this type of content!" moment in "real life" yesterday when this happened to me in midtown Manhattan:

 I was waiting for an elevator in an office building today and this older Caucasian woman asked me for directions. I gave her directions and she studied me in this critical but not unfriendly way and then burst out, "You're very pretty!" 

I said, "Thank you. So are you." But then she asks, "What is your nationality?" I was floored but she was an older person and she wasn't being mean-spirited, so I kept myself cheerful and smiling and friendly and replied, "I'm American." (Yes, if you're wondering, I knew what she MEANT but I was answering the literal question put to me). 

The woman said, "But what nationality are your parents?" I smiled and said, truthfully, "They're American, too." The woman ploughed ahead while I pushed the elevator button again, saying, "But what is your BACKGROUND?" The elevator doors finally opened and I stepped in and said, "You mean racial or ethnic type background? French, Chinese and Irish." All of a sudden, the woman met my eyes and it was like a light bulb went off. 

"American," she said slowly as the doors began to shut. Just before they closed, she smiled at me and said, "Of course. American."