“I am always looking over my shoulder, wondering if I measure up,”

- Judge Sonia Sotomayor

 Definition: The impostor syndrome is feeling that one hasn’t earned his or her achievements – that the achievements are the result of luck. It is very common among high achieving persons, particularly women, who worry that some day they will be “found out” – that others will discover that they really do not know what they are doing.

Well of course she thinks that. That’s what affimative action does to minorities. When she got into college, she had to ask herself if she got there because of her own abilities, or because of some sort of minority quota system. The same goes for her admission to law school. The same goes for her first job, and her first judgeship, and her next, and her nomination to the Supreme Court.

It’s a terrible thing, what’s been done to minorities that have abilities and may (or may not) be good at what they do. There’s always that irksome little crawly thing, back in the base of their brain that perpetually asks, “Did I get here because I’m really good at what I do, or because of some quota system?” It’s just a horrible, monstrous, castrating thing that’s been done to them.

Unfortunately, she will always be  looking back over  her shoulder. If she doesn’t ask that question of herself, she knows there are plenty of others that are. It’s a Faustian bargain that the Libs have made. She, as an individual may never have bought into it, yet she is saddled with it for the rest of her life.

Bastards!