Judge Sonia Sotomayor continues to cause controversy and accusations of racism and bias. But this time the shoe is on the other foot, thanks to a Sotomayor cartoon published in the Daily Oklahoman this Tuesday.
According to the Huffington Post, "[I]t depicts Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor strung up like a piñata with a sombrero-clad President Obama handing out bats to Republican members of Congress." The Sotomayor cartoon is already provoking outrage, particularly on the left, for what is said to be racist imagery and gender stereotypes that it invokes.
Of course things like racism and sexism are in the beholder. One suspects that the artist who drew the cartoon was not so much attacking Sonia Sotomayor, but rather her opponents, for making her (symbolically) a piñata and thus making her into an object. What President Obama is doing in the cartoon is less clear; perhaps the cartoonist is accusing Obama of enabling Sotomayor's critics.
Another question comes to mind. The custom of beating the heck out of a piñata, which is a paper mache figure usually filled with candy and other goodies, is extant in Mexico, though some suggest that it originated in Africa, China, or Spain. Judge Sonia Sotomayor is of Puerto Rican background. It may be that Puerto Ricans like beating up on piñatas too. More likely it may be that the cartoonist simply lumps all Hispanics, no matter what their national background, into one big stereotype.
The truth is that American Hispanics, while lumped together by other people, are a diverse group with different cultural, religious, and even political traditions. American Hispanics primarily originate from Mexico, Puerto Rico, or Cuba, with some others originating from other Latin American countries.
Ironically Judge Sotomayor has attracted charges of racism for comments she made in 2001, and now it seems even earlier than that, which suggested that she believes that her judgment as a Latina is superior to that of a white male, solely on the basis of her life experiences. Now, thanks to the Sotomayor cartoon, the accusations are flowing elsewhere.
According to the Huffington Post, "[I]t depicts Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor strung up like a piñata with a sombrero-clad President Obama handing out bats to Republican members of Congress." The Sotomayor cartoon is already provoking outrage, particularly on the left, for what is said to be racist imagery and gender stereotypes that it invokes.
Of course things like racism and sexism are in the beholder. One suspects that the artist who drew the cartoon was not so much attacking Sonia Sotomayor, but rather her opponents, for making her (symbolically) a piñata and thus making her into an object. What President Obama is doing in the cartoon is less clear; perhaps the cartoonist is accusing Obama of enabling Sotomayor's critics.
Another question comes to mind. The custom of beating the heck out of a piñata, which is a paper mache figure usually filled with candy and other goodies, is extant in Mexico, though some suggest that it originated in Africa, China, or Spain. Judge Sonia Sotomayor is of Puerto Rican background. It may be that Puerto Ricans like beating up on piñatas too. More likely it may be that the cartoonist simply lumps all Hispanics, no matter what their national background, into one big stereotype.
The truth is that American Hispanics, while lumped together by other people, are a diverse group with different cultural, religious, and even political traditions. American Hispanics primarily originate from Mexico, Puerto Rico, or Cuba, with some others originating from other Latin American countries.
Ironically Judge Sotomayor has attracted charges of racism for comments she made in 2001, and now it seems even earlier than that, which suggested that she believes that her judgment as a Latina is superior to that of a white male, solely on the basis of her life experiences. Now, thanks to the Sotomayor cartoon, the accusations are flowing elsewhere.
Comments
Those terms are only meaningless in the abstract, Mark. In reality, when there is a particular target, it is far from meaningless. Doesn't matter what ideology one adheres to, when they start slinging terms like racist, terrorist, socialist, communist, fascist, dictatorial, Nazis, etc., they're attempting to paint the target with a descriptor to undermine and degrade...
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