Jay Nordlinger on National Review Online. has a great point, doesn't he fellow "Latinos" and "Latinas"?

The news is drenched with Sotomayor now, and also drenched with the word “Hispanic”: She’s Hispanic, you know. She would be the first to tell you (though maybe she would say “Latina”).

An interesting word, and concept, “Hispanic.” I have many Cuban-American friends, in South Florida and elsewhere. They rarely call themselves Hispanic, and they, in turn, are rarely called Hispanic. Why? Well, it’s kind of a political term, isn’t it? It relates to the grievance culture, to affirmative action, to apartness. “Hispanic” is not so much E pluribus unum as “diversity” and “multiculturalism.” “Hispanic” is for those who don’t want to melt into the pot.

Some years ago, I did a piece on Indian Americans — not Cherokees and the like, but those with roots in India. My theme was the Republicanization of Indian Americans. There are some of their number — just a few — who want to be known as “Asians,” and who want to be part of the grievance culture. They want to grouse about The Man and so on. Other Indian Americans just think of themselves as Americans, or people.

All of this relates to another interesting word: “minority.” Funny what groups are called “minorities” and what groups are not. I never hear Jews spoken of as a minority, or Japanese Americans, or Chinese Americans (or Indian Americans). Sometimes, you even get women thrown in — as in the phrase “minorities and women.” What kind of women are those? The kind like Ellie Smeal, I would say, rather than the kind like — oh, Laura Bush.

And that reminds me of a bumper sticker, seen in the ’08 campaign: “She’s Not a Woman, She’s a Republican.” The “she” in question was Gov. Sarah Palin.

And you remember that delicious fact from the Michigan Law School affirmative-action case? The question arose, in the school’s admissions office, whether Cubans were Hispanic. And one official said, “But they vote Republican, don’t they?”

Some on the left like to say that “race is a social construct.” I think that, to a large degree, they’re right on that. Some other things are social constructs too. And wouldn’t it be nice if people thought of themselves as people, or — in certain circumstances — Americans? Especially when they’re going to serve on the Supreme Court?

To hell with “wise Latinas.” Our simple requirement is wise people. Justice is supposed to be blind, including colorblind. Not in today’s America, it isn’t — and so many people are proud of that.