During the Sotomajor confirmation hearings an amusing moment occurred when Sotomajor mistakenly implied she would shoot Sen. Tom Coburn. Coburn quipped, "You’ll have a lot of ‘splainin’ to do." There has been a huge uproar about Coburn’s supposedly racist evocation of the famous Ricky Ricardo line, though it was said without mimicking Arnaz’s accent.
As stated in the original article, Ricardo’s catchphrase, "Lucy, you’ve got some splainin’ to do" became part of popular culture. So, if it is a pop culture phrase, and if he didn’t mimic the accent, what makes this so offensive in the ears of the commentators on HuffPo and other locations?
It is the guilt of inherent racism on the reviewer’s part.
The key to this whole argument is in a short clause from the HuffPo article: "Ricky Ricardo, whose accent is now widely considered a broad parody." If Desi Arnaz were alive he should rightfully take offense to this statement, as that was his own accent. Somehow we have decided that Arnaz who made a landmark role on television, popularized Latin music, and was part of the first "interracial couple" on TV is now an offensive ethnic stereotype because of his accent.
Firstly, this accent that is "widely considered a broad parody" can be heard in a 1982 interview from Entertainment Tonight. It has subdued a bit, but not very much. He moved to America when he was 18–right around the age when it is difficult to pick up and speak new phonemes. In other words, his Cuban-American accent was basically set at that age.
The truth is that quoting Ricky Ricardo would not be a problem were it not that Sotomajor is of Puerto Rican descent. Let me amend that: If she weren’t hispanic. Though Cubans and Puerto Ricans see themselves as different, white people see them all as hispanics. They feel uncomfortable laughing at Ricky Ricardo if wun-a them hispanics is around.
I’ve been guilty of this myself. As someone who is fascinated by accents I will usually ask someone with a foreign accent where they’re from… unless they’re hispanic. I too have lumped Guatemalans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Peruvians, etc., into the broad category "Hispanic," or as people here in Chicago think of it, "Mexicans." Starting today this will change.
The people in an uproar decry Coburn’s racism without recognizing their own. They wouldn’t be bothered by Coburn quoting Cameron Diaz, Robert Rodriguez, or even Cheech Marin–people who aren’t just so peskily foreign. The commentators feel bad because they feel guilty for having laughed at Arnaz. They believe they were laughing at him for being foreign.
Thus lies the greatest insult to Desi Arnaz who wonderfully played the straight man to Lucille Ball’s wacky persona. Arnaz was genuinely witty, funny, and clever. We enjoyed watching him not because he was foreign, but because he was funny.
This whole incident reminds me how there’s an overwhelming “knee jerk” reaction to anything that even remotely seems like or smacks of racism, especially when it isn’t (e.g., DC Mayor Anthony Willaims’ use of the term “niggardly” – which isn’t a racist term and ironic considering Williams is African American).
Cheech Marin isn’t offensive because he is making fun of Mexicans… ?
I agree, it’s crazy that people can spot racism in a heartbeat, as long as they think it’s someone else.