Sotomayor: How to Translate what AL Sen Jeff Sessions is Saying.

Because many of you are not from the South, I thought I would translate a few of the words, that Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama recently used in describing Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

I believe I am fully capable of  making this translation as I am also from Alabama, having been born here, and having lived here most of my life, and having close to sixty years of reading between Southern lines.

Senator Sessions stated that Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor is "out of the mainstream..." of "legal" thinking, and has a very "activist" judicial profile.

In this sentence, the word "Mainstream" can be interchangable with the word "Whitestream" as in,

Sotomayor is out of the whitestream..."

Indicating that she is not in the blackstream, but is definitely in the brownstream, which makes her still an infinite distance from ever being in the whitestream. It will never happen.

It is curious that the word "legal" in his sentence can also be translated as "white" here, as in:

Sotomayor is out of the whitestream of "white" thinking,

The use of the word "white here, is redundant, but helps Sessions drive home what may be his point: She is not "white." And never will be. 

The further unwritten below the between the lines meaning, being, So we don't want her. (See further explanation of the word we, below.)

One third word that I may need to translate for you, is "activist."  That is an easy one, the translation of which is, "non-white," as in, she is not one of "us," ("Us" and "We" are interchangable as you will see below.)

(Famous "activists" whom Southern Senators have traditionally "not liked" and not wanted include of course, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

The word "Us," in the former sentence can also be further translated to be, "white," or in an older translation of the word, "white proud people,"

as in the white proud people who brought you such great American traditions as Slavery, The Civil War, Lynchings, Jim Crow Segregation, and now, No, you children are not welcome in our swimming pool, even though it is the year 2009.

So to recap your Southern English translation lesson of the day, Sessions sentence could be translated for non-Southerners, to read:

Sotomayor is out of the whitestream of white thinking and has a very non-white judicial profile.

If in the future you have any difficulties, as to what Senators like my own Alabama's Jeff Sessions are really saying, please contact me for more precise English translations.

Please be advised though, that I have been thrown out of the "whitestream" and have now been labeled and am now living in the "troublemaker" stream.

I would hate for you to get tainted by guilt by association.

Sincerely,

Will Bevis,

Gadsden, AL