Sunday, May 31, 2009

Saying Sotomayor

I love this. Sports announcers always ignorantly criticize Hispanic players who finally get brave enough, or established enough, to ask them to stop mispronouncing their names (e.g. Hi-POL-ito instead of Hi-po-LI-to) saying stupid things like "why can't he decide how his name should be pronounced?". Like some rookie is going to arrogantly tell the announcer how to say his name.
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All nominees to the high court are expected to face scrutiny into their background and judicial decisions, but some of Sotomayor's detractors - perhaps frustrated at the lack of skeletons in her closet - have dropped all pretension of fairness.
Mark Krikorian, head of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, a nativist think-tank, undoubtedly takes the cake in this regard. In his Tuesday's National Review blog post, the anti-immigration activist criticizes Sotomayor not for her judicial record or professional qualifications, but - listen to this - for how she pronounces her last name!
"Deferring to people's own pronunciation of their names should obviously be our first inclination, but there ought to be limits," Krikorian writes. Then, sounding very principled, he went on: "An unnatural pronunciation is something we shouldn't be giving in to."

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