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GOP Sen. Coburn to Sotomayor: "You Have Lots of 'Splainin To Do" (Video)

Whether you think it's racist or not, Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-Okla.) line in today's confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor certainly comes with some ethnic baggage:

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Comments
William W. Wexler

Heheh. Oh, that's funny.

This guy must live in a vacuum.

Well, the next thing to it... Oklahoma.

http://twitter.com/wwwexler
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If I would have known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.

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Sen. Coburn has a lot of

Sen. Coburn has a lot of 'splainin' to do.

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Lot of splainin' -- Grow up!

Oh, come on. Can we grow up! I Love Lucy was a huge part of our popular culture and Ricky, the guy who couldn't pronounce English, was the STAR and PRODUCER and the guy who walked off with the big bucks (not to mention his co-star). The phrase has become a part of our American culture in NOT the kind of bad way that Step 'N Fetchit was part of the culture. It was horsing around with an accent, for crying out loud. People have accents. So now it's racist to point it out -- or poke some friendly fun? Gad. I wish this country would grow up.

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white denial isn't a river

white denial isn't a river in egypt.

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What baggage is that? I

What baggage is that? I don't get it. I don't watch Lucy.

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why use an ethnic stereotype

why use an ethnic stereotype of Ricky Ricardo's mangled English pronunciation from a 50 year old sitcom in a Supreme court hearing? If any other Senator talked like Jethro Bodine when interviewing a southerner people would find it ludicrous.

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Coburn

My God, when you clowns jump on Coburn for something like this then I realize there is no hope. None. You are obviously silly littlle trivial shits that haven't matured beyond the 6th grade.

At least you should come out and admit that Sotomayor is a bigot.

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What's your Evidence?

Are you going to cite the "wise latina" comment? Did you read what she wrote or are you just going to discuss it out of context of the other, oh, 1500 words around it?

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No Hope for the Rethugs

You speak worse than a 6th grade bully and you have the nerve to actually speak ill of others? Go back to the 1950s where you belong, and I throw an idiot in here for your ignorant POV.

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OK, Coburn is a bigot.

OK, Coburn is a bigot. You're a nasty rube. COBURN is the one making the Ricky Ricardo comment, you idiot.

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And?

I'm not sure why this was worth pointing out, Mojo. He was just being light hearted and using a colloquialism jokingly. I'm no Coburn fan by any stretch of the imagination. The most I can say for him is he's better than inhofe.

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Coburn v Inhoff

It's debatable

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It's like Coburn saying,

It's like Coburn saying, remember that tv character Ricki Ricardo? he said "You've got some splainin' to do" and that's funny. Fine, right?

But why make the reference if not just to compare Sotomator to the character on the basis of their Hispanic identity? It is not necissarily racist but it does reduce her to one aspect, her ethnic identity.

Also, Ricki was a fictitious tv character from Cuba and Sonia is from the Bronx, New York City and her parents are from Puerto Rico.

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"What u talkin bout Willis?"

Coburn: 'U have lots of Splainin to Do" 2 Latina.
Can't rember if he asked Thomas "What u talkin bout Willis?"

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Diff'rent Strokes...

It's somewhat as if a senator, much like Coburn in wordview, had been questioning soon-to-be Justice Clarence Thomas and thrust out his chin and rolled his eyes while intoning: 'Whatchu' talkin' bout Clarence?!?' There's an intent to be funny by invoking a common cultural reference, but what's lost on the commenter is that the unfortunate connection (and the speakers lack of self-censoring) clearly states: "All I know about you, and people who look like you, is what I see on T.V....and on T.V. you are FUNNY! Haw Haw!' Folks of color ( and many folks of a lighter color who know and love folks of color) know this mindset from a mile away. This kind of thing used to make me angry...but ignorance of this kind is it's own punishment.

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Response to Babaloo

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Coburn

The other Senator in Oklahoma is Inhoff. Could you imaging what the people are like if they elected these two reprobates !

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Coming from someone who

Coming from someone who lives here.... Neither of them are as whacked out as Mary Fallon (our up and coming gay bashing politician). And yes... When people ask me how Inhofe gets elected with he has such crazy views about the environment, I have to tell them his views are not outside of mainstream Oklahoman ignorance. And when people ask how Cobern can be such a bigot, I can offer only that you should have seen how he went after tribal sovereignty within the state during the election. It's disturbing. There's a lot of work to be done here.

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Sotomayor

The exchange of comments certainly speak to the tensions that come
up around diversity dimensions. In this case, Senator Coburn was trying
to be funny and familiar. In my experience, people have made mistakes
trying to be funny around race, culture and gender. Given that this is
a highly political hearing and both ethnicity and gender have been used
to harm Sotomayor's integrity by Republicans, it makes little sense to
bring it up in the hearing.

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This autism parent wants to

This autism parent wants to take the opportunity to thank you, Sonja, for your effort. Dr. Novella is quite right.
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Dr. Novella has taken heat from the "mercury militia" a number of times. I thank him for his efforts.

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