Sandy GholstonI suspect most people will smile when they read about what Sen. Tom Coburn (probably in an effort to inject a bit of humor) had to say to Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.
This is from Yahoo News:
Sen. Tom Coburn evoked a 1950s TV show in a quip responding to Sonia Sotomayor’s scenario about what he might do if she — hypothetically, of course — attacked him.
“You’ll have a lot of ‘splainin’ to do,” Coburn said, to laughter from the crowd and Sotomayor. What he said – and how he said it – was a riff on a Hispanic television character, Ricky Ricardo, whose accent is now widely considered a broad parody.
In the famous 1950s TV show “I Love Lucy,” the Cuban-American bandleader Ricardo (played by the equally Cuban-American bandleader Desi Arnaz) would often admonish his scatterbrained wife, Lucy, by saying she’d have some “‘splainin’” to do. The phrase, “Lucy, you have some ‘splainin’ to do,” has become part of the popular culture.
My take:We live in such a politically-correct society and I could go into a lot of the reasons why we are in such a politically-correct society. But, I won’t. Coburn needs to be smarter (as, to some extent, we all do). I will say that while some people will make something out of this I will not. I did find it a bit interesting that there was no party affiliation mentioned in the story (though there was a mention in the photo cutline which identified Coburn as a Republican). In some stories the part affiliation is mentioned, but not in others. I am more interested as to why that is the case.
Although Sen. Coburn’s “splaining” comment my not have been the most egregious incident of racism I have ever witnessed, it was indeed a fo pas. As you expressed, he does absolutely need to be smarter. I cannot begin to suppose whether he intended to provoke Judge Sotomayor or to joke with her. I will however do affirm that it was an unfortunate choice on his part to reference her ethnicity by means of evoking an extremely stereotypical television character. In fact, Desi Arnez did not even speak with such a heavy accent.
I would ask Sen. Coburn to consider what message he is sending to others when he “injects” that type of humor into such a hallowed and crucial proceeding in the American political and judicial process. Judge Sotomayor has fought to arrive at the pace she now holds. She should be afforded all the respect and courtesy that her accomplishments inherently command.
Ann, you make some good points.
Sen. Coburn needs to realize the kind of message he sends about Republicans with a joke like that (something that many people, Latino or otherwise, would find offensive).
I hope he apologized for his comment. That would be the right thing to do. It would be better if he did it on his own instead of waiting for something (or someone) to prompt him to apologize.