Wise Latina is the New Queer

categories: LGBT and the Media, LGBT Education, LGBT History, LGBT Language

Published August 20, 2009 @ 10:11PM PT

Sonia Sotomayor

During the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, many conservative and right-wing pundits tried to make a big to-do over the fact that Sotomayor said the following statement: "[A] wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life." Conservatives wanted to paint this statement as racist and offensive. Pop culture instead has embraced the phrase "wise Latina," pushing the term into the lexicon of words, like queer, that have been reclaimed by minority groups as a means of empowerment.

Queer is a term that, for many, was an offensive slur that harkened back to the days of "Mad Men," when it was regularly used as a derogatory term to refer to LGBT folks. Now? For many, it's a cultural concept that means a rejection of labels for one's sexual orientation. Or, as some folks have put it, queer was a term that was reclaimed by the LGBT community as a source of power.

Exit queer, enter Wise Latina. The latter phrase was used by many a conservative politico as a means of trying to discredit Sonia Sotomayor. Sen. John Cornyn, for instance, said that Sotomayor's reference to being a Wise Latina was "antithetical to the whole idea of the rule of law." Rush Limbaugh called Sotomayor a "racist" for using the term Wise Latina. Glenn Beck said that Sotomayor's comment was "one of the most outrageous racist remarks" he's heard.

So how are people reacting to conservatives trying to criminalize the phrase "Wise Latina"? They're embracing the term as a badge of honor, and a proud descriptor. Booyeah.

AP notes that "Wise Latina" has become a pop culture phenomenon. And now it's being marketed on books, cups, T-shirts, and onesies, to name a few items. Charles McIlwain, a media prof at NYU, told AP that people are seeing this phrase as an opportunity to take pride in their roots, and reclaim it as something worth aspiring toward.

"I think one thing many people are doing, Latinas and the Latino community in general, is reframing the phrase and saying: 'Hey, when we talk about the wise Latina, we're not trying to show that somehow we're better than others, but we want to associate being Latino with something that's wise and good," McIlwain told AP.

What a great example of owning a phrase that haters tried to tarnish. Talk radio might want to demonize Wise Latina, along the same lines as words like queer were once demonized. But these are words and terms that can be reclaimed, and can be used to educate and inspire, rather than label or disparage.

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Comments (4)

"Wise Latina" has been rightfully claimed as a word for empowerment. Although conservatives have taken their intolerant stance against the new Supreme Court associate justice, especially Glenn Beck, taking a word which others have used for their own advantage is good. With that "Wise Latina" has become popular with many items having "Wise Latina" on those items. Queer used to be a word of discouragement but its owners have taken it for the good.

Posted by Edwin Bonilla on 08/21/2009 @ 03:22PM PT
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What conservative are You whining about? After the rotten way liberals treat conservatives, Your panties are in a bunch over a little ribbing? For crying out loud!

Posted by Charlie Reed on 08/21/2009 @ 04:30PM PT
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Great piece Michael. Nobody gets upset when the latin community is associated with negative things but NOW people get up-in-arms because she wants to associate being latina with wisdom? Go figure.

Posted by Martele Banks on 08/23/2009 @ 10:40AM PT
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Sorry, but there is something inherently racist in asserting that one's racial/ethnic background makes them more qualified to make decisions. If a white candidate (male or female) had claimed that a "wise white person" would make better decisions than someone of another ethnicity, they would never have been considered for appointment. Certainly a "wise latina" would bring something to the table that a white male obviously could not, there's racism in the assertion that the latina's decisions would be inherently better. It goes both ways.

Posted by Alexis O'Cady on 09/09/2009 @ 08:30AM PT
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Author

Michael is the Communications Director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and previously was Communications Director for Pax Christi USA, a progressive Catholic human rights organization.