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Diss a culture at your own risk
by Michael Sean Winters on Jul. 14, 2009
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Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionAmidst all the coverage of Sonia Sotomayor's first day of confirmation hearings, one sentence jumped out at me. Lynette Oliver, who runs a women’s support group in Puerto Rico, told the Washington Post that she brought a small Puerto Rican flag to wave at the hearing. "I want her to know people from the island are here," she said. Pride in this sense is not a deadly sin.
When John F. Kennedy ran for president, he won the Catholic vote overwhelmingly. (44 years later John Kerry lost the Catholic vote.) When Mike Dukakis ran for president in 1988, Greeks of all political persuasion not only cast their ballots for the first Greek-American nominee, they opened their wallets and kept his campaign coffers filled. African-Americans carried Barack Obama to the Democratic nomination last year. When someone from one's group is breaking through, the tribe rallies round.
Tribalism is an anti-democratic sentiment, but in this case it is proving to be an anti-Republican one. As the GOP senators stare down Judge Sotomayor, and especially when they demean her quotes about the importance of empathy, Latinos are perceiving not only that one of their own is being disrespected, but their whole culture is being dissed. Yes, Latinos put a higher premium on empathy than Anglos. You don't have to be in Puerto Rico for five minutes to recognize that. Watch the way they help a person with a physical disability in the crowded confusion of an airport: They notice and help that person, they do not avert their gaze, they do not cross to the other side of the road.
But, Republicans have to be mindful of their base, and their base has decided it does not like immigrants. Puerto Ricans, of course, are not really immigrants because they are U.S. citizens. But, by attacking Sotomayor, Republicans risk losing the Latino vote, especially the Puerto Rican vote, for at least another couple of elections. The Puerto Rican communities along the I-4 corridor in central Florida and in Lancaster County, Pa., are key swing voters in key swing states. And they are not only watching Sotomayor, they are cheering for her. In heaping criticism on her, the Republicans are really heaping coals on their own heads.
By 2020 the USA may be
By 2020 the USA may be majority "Hispanic" and these racist Senators grandstanding to their dwindling tribe long gone.
Please read our brilliant new US Ambassador to the Vatican's book On Being Human for an analysis of the demographics MSW indicates here so idly, in comparison with the Reverend Father Karl Rahner's theological anthropologetics.
Oh, wait, the Republican Senators have not yet approved of Dr. Miguel Diaz, Cuban Amreican . . .
Oh noes! The mean Republicans
Oh noes! The mean Republicans questioning Sotomayor are RACISTS!!11!
Yawn. Anything of substance, NCR?
Regretting, Andy, you are so
Regretting, Andy, you are so easily bored, I find much of substance within this reflection from MSW, as in all of NCR, which simply fills the day with substance.
Well Sean, I notice that
Well Sean, I notice that comments are being edited out by the webeditor. Not surprising that they re ones that may disagree with the author... Playing to an NCR doublestandard..
MSW disses all Latinos when
MSW disses all Latinos when he says...
"As the GOP senators stare down Judge Sotomayor, and especially when they demean her quotes about the importance of empathy, Latinos are perceiving not only that one of their own is being disrespected, but their whole culture is being dissed."
...Does MSW really think all Latinos are that stupid? Evidently so! Even Judge Sotomayor herself distanced herself from BHO's comments about "empathy". Blacks, Puerto Ricans, whites, whomever is before the court, should not expect or deserve "empathy", but instead, "justice", and justice is, or at least should be, blind. I can guarantee you that one Peurto Rican, the PR firefighter in the Ricci case who was denied promotion, is smart enough to see through Sotomayor's backtracking statements about race, empathy, affirmative action, etc.
Please, can we expect more
Please, can we expect more substantial analysis of Latin@ cultures than condescending remarks like "Yes, Latinos put a higher premium on empathy than Anglos. You don't have to be in Puerto Rico for five minutes to recognize that. Watch the way they help a person with a physical disability in the crowded confusion of an airport: They notice and help that person, they do not avert their gaze, they do not cross to the other side of the road."
Terms like Latino/a and Hispanic are umbrella terms covering a broad spectrum of Latin American, Caribbean and Spanish cultures and experiences in the United States. Empathy is not unique to Latin@ cultures. However worth exploring is the role of relationality and the privileging of socio-centric values within these cultural matrices. These also manifest as themes in Latin@ theologies.
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