It depicts Judge Sotomayor strung up by a rope, likening itself to lynching images or a piñata, with President Barack Obama wearing a sombrero, holding a stick and asking a crowd of elephants (Republicans) “Now, who wants to be first?”

The cartoon is captioned “Fiesta time at the confirmation hearing.” See the cartoon here on our ConfirmSotomayor.org blog.

Piñatas are actually of Mexican tradition and Judge Sotomayor is of Puerto Rican descent. Clearly, either the artist confused his stereotypes or sees the Latino community as one homogenous race without distinction.

Too much damage has been done to our communities under the guise of “satire” and this recent publication marches to the same drum as did the cartoon of the chimp in the New York Post and the Danish cartoon depicting Mohammed as a terrorist.

We’ve re-posted below a statement from Jean Warner, chair of the Oklahoma Women’s Coalition, in response to the vicious editorial cartoon.

Please read Ms. Warner’s post and write to the publisher of the newspaper (see end of 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!

Write to publisher David Thompson, let him know this kind of journalism is irresponsible and demand a retraction

]]> http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/2009/06/editorial-cartoon-on-judge-sotomayor-has-subtext-of-lynching-stereotypes-latinos/feed/ 1 http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/2009/02/ny-post-editorial-cartoon-simian-stereotypes-and-cartoonist-excuses/ http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/2009/02/ny-post-editorial-cartoon-simian-stereotypes-and-cartoonist-excuses/#comments Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:56:10 +0000 Keith Kamisugi http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/?p=581 If nothing else, the now-infamous New York Post cartoon by Sean Delonas published Wednesday showing a chimp shot to death by police officers should be a clear answer to the question of whether we’re in a “post-racial” America.

As EJS President Eva Paterson and others have argued, the answer to that question is a resounding “no.”

In a piece published Wednesday, Cal psychology professor Phillip Atiba Goff states that persistent simian stereotypes tagged to blacks are not mere small and unimportant post-racial leftovers of the “bad old days,” but significant psychological mechanisms of discrimination.

“It is tempting to … downplay the significance of ‘isolated events’ of bigotry and ‘armless words or pictures.’ But precisely because the dream of post-raciality is seductive for so many, it is all the more important that we not forget that cartoons like the one in today’s New York Post are never isolated-and consequently, never harmless,” he writes.

“Psychological science has long known that words and pictures, far from harmless, can be the very instruments of dehumanization necessary for collective violence-regardless of how innocently they are intended.”

Some editorial cartoonists don’t seem to be too alarmed by the negative structural impact of their drawings, falling back on old excuses that place freedom of speech and expression over responsibility.

In an article today, AP National Writer Jesse Washington gives voice to these cartoonists who feel beleagured in their attempts to practice their craft.

Washington even quotes Mike Lester of the Rome News Tribune in Georgia saying that “perhaps race relations would improve if black people lightened up a bit” and that Black folks are “not too good (at being) made fun of. We can all take a joke.”

This is a perfect example of why we need to reject the notion of a post-racial America: too many Americans want to use “post-racial” and the election of President Obama as excuses to dismiss the racism that exists in all of us and in society – and to fuel the illusion that our country has fully realized the promise of equal opportunity.