Consider, for a moment, the latest issue of the National Review:
I know I should have a more sophisticated initial reaction to this, but, um, WTF?!!
Some white men got very upset when Sonia Sotomayor expressed pride in the fact that she is a Puerto Rican Latina, and noted that her identity shapes her worldview. This was controversial to conservatives because "white man" is not an identity, and therefore white men are not influenced by identity. Only people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ folks, and women have "identities" -- which they must ignore, lest they be considered biased.
Conservatives apparently took Sotomayor's comment as license to consider her and every other woman of color as THE SAME. Politico compares her to an African American woman. The racist Oklahoman cartoon implies she's Mexican. Now the National Review portrays her as South Asian.(Can you blame them? I mean, how could they possibly portray a Latina as "wise"? Those things are antithetical! Gotta turn to a different stereotype. /sarcasm )
Apparently if you're not white or male, it really doesn't matter what your racial or ethnic identity is. They're all interchangeable. You're just Other.
Related reads:
Samhita on Sotomayor's "fiery temperament"
Jamelle Bouie on empathy and on how conservatives don't seem to understand "whiteness"
Jill Tubman on conservatives calling Sotomayor a racist
Jill Filipovic on Sotomayor, identity and experience
Ta-Nehisi Coates on the "wise Latina" statement
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Browns are browns. I had a woman ask me if I was Indian yesterday, I said "No, but I get that a lot! I'm from Iraq."
"Oh!", she replied. "Well, same thing, you know!"
Sigh.
yeah, that really pisses me off. I am very proud to be Indian and I am offended when people slump me with other brown people (most notably Middle Easterns). I am NOT Arab or Middle Eastern, thank you very much.
We're all the same!!! The same!!! Didn't you know?!?!?!!
And when I tell people I'm from a CHRISTIAN, non-Arab ethnic group (Assyrian) from Iraq, they're like "wtf?" I was actually told once "I wish you guys were all just Muslim Arabs. There'd be less to learn about the Middle East, make my life easier." Bwah!
I never expect the American media to bother with details like "Puerto Rican is different from Mexican."
*shaking my head*
I have a student who's a Christian from Ramallah. It drives her crazy when people assume she's Muslim. She says, "Don't they know THAT'S WHERE JESUS WAS FROM?"
Lol... because YOUR entire purpose in life is to make this person's life easier. Nice 19th-century ethics there.
/anger
Whoa, how come THAT's okay? (To be offended that people think you're Arabic.)
you're missing the point. I get offended because my culture is different and we are NOT the same. Just like a Brazilian gets offended when they are compared to Mexicans or are called Mexicans (which, incidentally, have happened to a few Brazilian friends of mine).
*Arab.
(Arabic is a language!!)
That reminds me of when I told my older brother that I was thinking about learning Arabic if I decide to double major Poli Sci with International Affairs. Besides the typical racist terrorist remarks, he said something along the lines of "Now you can talk to the people that work at 7/11!". I had to remind him he had his racist stereotypes confused.
::Sigh::
yeah, this happens to me all the time. people often call me a "white" person (what does that mean?), or mistake me for being norwegian when i am a swede.
it really irks me.
the problem is that there is no such thing as "white pride." That's the biggest problem with American racial issues. I don't have a problem with white people who express their "IRISH," "German," "British," "French" pride or whatever, but when a woman from Puerto Rico proudly expresses her heritage, all the crazy old white men go crazy.
yes, biter old white men, you don't get it. So shut up and sit your privileged ass down.
For now on, maybe I should just change all my comments to:
"What BTP! said."
(Snark On)
Oh, but haven't you heard? There's no such thing as white male identity. Only women and people of color have identities and experiences that influence their views.
(Snark Off)
WTF. Am I so naive so have thought that the media wouldn't sink THIS low after Sotomayor was nominated?
Liberal-biased media? Hello? Where are you?
I can't seem to find it anywhere :\
I may be perverse, but I think the background is my favorite part. We're all well aware that Puerto Rico is legendary for its native deer population and snow-capped mountains.
Well, some people readily embrace their identity as a dumbass. Clearly the artist and all those responsible for putting it on the cover have done just that.
I agree that all this hubub about Sotomayor being racist based on that comment is monumentally stupid, but those of us on the left need to b careful in our counter-arguments and commentary to not stretch to take out the part of her comment that is actually what the conservatives are up in arms about. It makes it easier for their stupid arguments to perpetuate.
She did not merely "express pride in the fact that she is a Puerto Rican Latina, and noted that her identity shapes her worldview."
She went a little further and said "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life."
The "better conclusion than a white male" is the part people are upset about and to not acknowledge it makes it sound like a coverup.
I'm a white male and am completely not upset in any way by what she said (I'm more concerned with her, as yet, unknown views on Roe v. Wade). But the same way that the right is adding intent to what she said, we have to be careful not to get caught removing it.
Many of the posts I linked to at the bottom engage with this argument -- I especially recommend Jamelle's.
"Some white men got very upset when Sonia Sotomayor expressed pride in the fact that she is a Puerto Rican Latina, and noted that her identity shapes her worldview. This was controversial to conservatives because "white man" is not an identity, and therefore white men are not influenced by identity. Only people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ folks, and women have "identities" -- which they must ignore, lest they be considered biased"
As soon as I read this I thought about the "accent" conversations I have had. My US friends - " I don't have an accent". Yes, you do. You have an American accent. If you made a phonecall to Ireland or England or Austraila they would know you are American. Why? Because you have an accent.
I'm Irish, and when someone asks am I English, they too decide it's "the same thing". Lads, it's not. It so not:)
And BrownTrashPunk I point out that pride discrepancy too all the time to the shamrocked among us. I got your back!
on that note, it bothers me when white people (Americans) say they have no culture, but they DO.
You mean American culture?
Cause, I can't really claim any other culture than "American." Some American's decide to disclaim "American" culture, or identify with another culture in addition to American culture.
i agree with you. but sometimes the lack of understanding goes both ways....i remember my best friend, who is the first person in her family to be born in the U.S. after they escaped china, telling me how she could typically tell people of asian descent apart....korean from japanese from chinese from vietnamese, etc. then i asked her if she could tell different kinds of europeans apart. she was *shocked*.....didn't realize that italians often look different from greeks from scandinavians from french, etc. i suppose because we've mixed for so long, the cultural distinctions aren't visible unless you are tuned in to notice.
i've also noticed a difference regionally in the country. i'm originally a new yorker, and most people there could identify my ancestry by looking at me (i'm pretty obviously german and italian). now i live in phoenix, and unless i specifically mention my heritage, most people here don't recognize it. there aren't different european ethnic communities here to the degree there are in some other places, and so it's easy to think that those distinctions aren't present. so, when you see another group (which typically in arizona is mexicans from sonora and chihuahua) that has cultural traditions and foods and holidays, and your family doesn't have that stuff anymore, and your neighbors don't do anything, either, it's easy to think that you don't have a culture. that sort of statement usually comes out of a sense of loss, i've found.
i'm not saying that whiteness doesn't exist, by any means. i'm saying that many white people have lost a sense of their own heritage and history, which makes it seem like it never existed. because whiteness is privileged, it didn't seem critical to preserve those cultural distinctions in the face of threat.
it's strange....i'm mainly italian and german, but i have a british last name, because when my parents divorced, my mother changed our names to her maiden name. that name, six generations before, had been changed to a british name when my german family came to the U.S. when i marry my italian fiancé and take his name, it will be the first time in my life that i'll have a name of the same ethnicity as myself.
Uh, I'd say WTF is a pretty appropriate response.
Playing up physical markers of race is pretty appalling. Way to go National Review people for being complete and total asshats.
That's fucking horrible. I can't think of anything else to say about that right now. Un-fucking-believable.
"Sotomayor, unwittingly, buys into that logic by conjuring the strawman of "a white male." But, in the context that she's discussing, no such person exists. What is true of the straight Polish-American in Chicago, may not be true for the white gay dude working in D.C. I'm not even convinced that what is true for the white dude in West Texas, is true for the white dude in Austin--or that what's true of the white dude in Austin, is true of other white dudes in Austin. There's just too much variation among people to make such a broad statement about millions of people."
This is also sizeist. Sotomayor is depicted as much fatter than she actually appears to be in any photograph I've seen, and is put in the place of the fat Buddha.
I'm trying to phrase what I say carefully, because I wouldn't have a problem with Sotomayor, or anyone weighing as much as the picture represents or more, but it's clearly something the creator of the image finds to be worthy of ridicule and caricature, probably because of all the speculation about her diabetes and "ill-health" allegedly caused by her weight.
And not to belabor my point, but depicting Sotomayor as a fat Buddha is bizarre, since the picture is clearly supposed to be in the style of the Indian Buddha, who is thin, not the Chinese Buddha (who is sometimes fat). Not only are all POC not the same, not all Asians and not all Buddhists are the same. Ack.
The NRO article is written by the redoubtable Ramesh Ponnuru, BTW.
Because we all know, there are two races: white and not white.
your comment illustrates the problem with many americans' world view. americans say things like, "oh, he's european," when in truth there are many different languages and cultures that are being lumped into one whole. what the H does "european" mean? it ignores that fact that there are many different cultures and unique peoples with long standing traditions, separated by how many languages? believe me, there are plenty of differences between eastern and western europe, northern and southern europe.
are you suggesting that there is no cultural difference between a finnish person and an italian? try mistaking a frenchman for a brit, or an irishman for brit and see what reaction you get.
My comment was sarcastic. By your response I'm not completely sure you got that.
But you're right, just like lumping all non-white races together. The term "white" lumps all European cultures together. I'm a mix of so many types of European that just calling myself white makes things easier. I'm Scotch-Irish, French, German and some parts are a mystery as no one knows what my paternal grandmother's ethnicity is.
Ugh. That cover made me tear up. I guess I underestimated the response to Sotomayor's nomination. Sad.
On the upside, that circle of pink things surrounding her (which I assume are supposed to be lotus flowers, or something??) made me think the phrase "labia phalanx."
Congratulations, Feministing, this is quite a feat. You're so reflexively dishonest that you've managed to actually slander Newt Gingrich, something I wouldn't have imagine possible considering what a sleazebag he genuinely is. To pretend that the issue is that she "expressed pride in the fact that she is a Puerto Rican Latina, and noted that her identity shapes her worldview" bears almost no relation what she actually (repeatedly) said which is that she "would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life". Aren't you at all embarassed that your substitute is pretty much the opposite of Judge Sotomayor's own words? How weak do you think your own case is if you have to lie about what she even said and what the people you're criticising are objecting to? Obviously, and thankfully, Judge Sotomayor will be confirmed unless much worse comes up than that remark, however fond she is of repeating it, but if you don't think it was a bad thing to say it shouldn't be hard to find the guts to honestly address what she said instead of inventing something innocuous you'd like to attribute to her. If you agree with her statement or consider it completely inoffensive, why hide from it and pretend she said something else?
Oh, and I know you prefer cheap sarcasm to irony, but do Katherine Lopez and Rammesh Ponneru sound like "white men" to you?
For an honest and intelligent discussion of Sotomayor's remarks, check out Ta-Nehisi Coates' article that you actually linked to but apparently didn't read.
http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/05/about_that_wise_latina_statement.php
Huh? Slander Gingrich? It's what he said. "White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw", to be exact. I don't see Sotomayor's quote as opposite to what Feministing wrote either.
Personally, I don't agree with Coates' points at all. The 'white male' Sotomayor talked about isn't a strawman, it's a direct reference to white male privilege and being able to view the world from another-than-default position. Which, in general, underprivileged groups are better at because they can't escape the default view - it's everywhere.
Gingrich said that he was upset that Judge Sotomayor "expressed pride in the fact that she is a Puerto Rican Latina, and noted that her identity shapes her worldview"? Really? I can't tell whose leg you're pulling, mine or your own.
I'm surprised at how consistently the context of Judge Sotomayor's "wise Latina" comment is ignored. She was speaking before and after this comment re ethnic and gender discrimination decisions. I, even as a member of the historically oppressive ethic and gender, would not only hope a wise (as opposed to unwise) non-Anglo woman would render a better decision in discrimination cases than the caste of which I am member, I would expect it.
If you are a publich figure you might end up on display in an less than ideal light in the media. Who knew ? Imagine somebody would have said he is proud to be white and his world view is shaped by his whiteness, Iam sure the media would have totally ingored that.
If we have a good hard cry everytime something like that happens, of course men will keep saying we are too sensitive to play the game.
Also it is very racist to say, that outrage at a white judge taking pride in his whiteness and seeing it as an advantage would be justified. There were not only black hanging jew burning whites.
Maybe a white judge making such a statement is proud of whites like Oskar Schindler, Albert Schweizer and hopes he has a bit of the widsome of Einstein.
I find it offensive that it is accetpable to equate white people only with the most negative representatives of that demografic.
"I find it offensive that it is accetpable to equate white people only with the most negative representatives of that demografic."
Actually, I think that no one is doing this. No one is equating white people with only negative representations of other white people.
Day in and day out, white folks like me are judged on our own without reference to any other white person in the US or the world. The last time I checked, white is still taken to be the norm around here. When was the last time someone told me: oh, your skin is so pale, you look just like [fill in the blank other white person]? NEVER. No one ever says that to me. I'm white, so I get to be me.
Now, if I were to claim to have white pride, that would be a different matter... A lot of people would associate me with some of the big names in racism. And here's why I think they'd be right to do it:
Why? Because whiteness, like race, is a both a made-up category (biologically there is no race) and a category that exists as a very real thing (our historical and our present social reality is based upon an understanding that race exists and that whiteness is the proper/better/default race to be). Whiteness has been recognized as being based upon certain physical markers of identity (those markers change over time, new groups of people can become white). But whiteness as a category is always about power and exclusion.
I would say that claiming pride in whiteness cannot be separated from the historical and ongoing notion that white is proper/better/default. In my mind, claiming white pride is necessarily a declaration of terror against individuals and communities of color.
I was referring to one of the links provided, where one autor said it is aright to be outraged, had a white judge proclaimed pride in his heritage, because we are all supposed to think of white priviledge and racism in that case.
However you are right, I think nobody gets upset if somebody on the street says pride ot be white, or Latina, but if you say certain things in a certain position you should not be surprised to make the cover.
"However you are right, I think nobody gets upset if somebody on the street says pride ot be white"
This was not my point.
I have called Feministing out on the term Women of Color" but they have never examined the phrase, while I don't like TNR depiction of Sotomayor I hope this helps Feministing,and people in general realize that "people of color" is nothing but a PC term to lump certain people into a nice box they can turn to, what is worse is how so called "people of color " have accepted the box.
The word Latina/Latino irks me too because if speaking a language derived from Latin is the only qualification, then the French, Portuguese, and Romanians would also be Latinas/Latinos.
And Italians...