Oklahoma Paper Runs Vicious Cartoon Intimating Lynching of Nominee
Posted by Keith Kamisugi | Filed under Media Coverage, Opinion
I’m re-posting a statement from Jean Warner, chair of the Oklahoma Women’s Coalition, in response to a vicious editorial cartoon published today by The Oklahoman newspaper (via HuffPo and Betty Yee on Facebook). This recurring nightmare of “editorial” cartoons, like the New York Post’s chimpanzee cartoon from February, must end. Please read Ms. Warner’s post below and write to the publisher of the newspaper (see end of the post).
Here’s the post:
Regarding today’s political cartoon in the OKC paper: What was The Oklahoman thinking?
Oklahoma ranks as the 3rd worst state in the nation for women. Much of what holds Oklahoma women and girls back is linked to our state’s culture of violence and disresepct for women. Oklahoma ranks #4 in women murdered by men, #1 in child abuse and our domestic violence shelters are full of women escaping violence.
So The Oklahoman today runs a cartoon showing Sonia Sotomayor - a brilliant Hispanic woman scholar, lawyer and judge - strung up by a rope while men with clubs prepare to have at her for believing she’s qualified to serve on the US. Supreme Court.
Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton, received a JD from Yale Law School where she was an editor at the Yale Law Journal (but she grew up in the projects; obviously “that girl doesn’t know her place” - right? wink, wink). President George H.W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York where she served with distinction (but she’s a woman and, worst yet, ambitious - right? wink, wink). She’s served on the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit for 10 years, heard over 3,000 cases and written over 380 opinions (but she’s of Puerto Rican descent ~~ ergo the piñata image - right? wink, wink).
Not funny; actually stupid and damaging. A picture speaks louder than words and that cartoon sends a message to women of all ages: “Back off. Know your place. Or we’ll take a stick to you and teach you a lesson.”
Shame on The Oklahoman and its publisher, David Thompson!
Agree? Let The Oklahoman hear what YOU think!
Tags: cartoon, David Thompson, Jean Warner, Oklahoma Women's Coalition, the oklahoman, women
June 4th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
[...] The cartoon is captioned “Fiesta time at the confirmation hearing.” See the cartoon here on our ConfirmSotomayor.org blog. [...]
June 4th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I won’t use the word “racist” to describe the cartoon, since that word has already been used inappropriately to describe Judge Sotomayor’s realistic acknowledgement that we all bring to our daily activities our past experiences. Judges should honestly recognize the impact that those experiences have on their judgment, so that they can put them aside when analyzing the law as applied to specific facts, as Judge Sotomayor has done throughout her judicial career. I’ll just say I can’t believe such an ignorant cartoon was printed in what is supposed to be a reputable news outlet.
June 4th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
It strikes me that this cartoon may have been misread & over-read by those offended by it.
As I read it, it’s a potent condemnation of the GOP’s immediate tendency to bash any nominee by a Democratic President regardless of that person’s qualifications using their sex, race, sexual preferences, or any other personal attribute as a convenient hook for another outrageous accusation.
The fact that Judge Sotomayor’s a Latina makes the pinata a doubly useful entendre.
I really think your criticism’s misplaced on this one.
June 4th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
The pinata is iconic of Mexican ethnicity, if not Spanish and Catholic traditions. Sotomayor has been clear about her Catholic upbringing, but also her Puerto Rican heritage. The racism of the cartoon is not simply the lynching, but the conflation of Latinas, Hispanics, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans or what have you as basically being the same thing. The equivalent would be if a candidate with clearly expressed Chinese heritage was depicted in a Japanese sumo outfit, simply because both Chinese and Japanese are seen as Asian in the eyes of whites. But I guess that’s why Sotomayor would consider herself as being more wise on such issues than a white male.
June 5th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Please, run articles that teaches our children and us something good and more human. Where is your education. Show your good morals and not inmorality. This kind of jock are stupid and does not have any since. Show your profetionalism by writing good articles.
June 5th, 2009 at 10:57 am
In spite of all these attacks, cartoons and all…for many a rope with a person dangling…may mean little …but for those of us whose ancestors have died in this manner..it is a haunting depiction that evokes fear, anger, trepidation, and more..
Frankly, despite all of those Southern trees that have borne strange Fruit, Barack Obama is President and Sotomayor will be the next Supreme Court Justice of the United States. Indeed a brilliant Latina, Puerto Requeno, women and more..
Si Se Puede
Si Se PUede