Sotomayor is a racist, La Raza council is the KKK Latino, Tancredo says.
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By Amanda Knowles
Is there a Latino Ku Klux Klan? That a Supreme Court Justice is involved in?
A former Republican Colorado congressman, Tom Tancredo, attacked the first Latina Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, in last May when she was still a nominee for the position.
Sotomayor was born in New York but is of Puerto Rican descent and was appointed to the Supreme Court in August. Along with being the first Latina judge, she is the third female judge.
In a CNN interview with host Rick Sanchez at the end of May when Sotomayor was nominated for the Supreme Court, Tancredo criticized Sotomayor’s involvement in the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). He also accused Sotomayor of being a racist.
“If you belong to an organization called La Raza, in this case, which is, from my point of view anyway, nothing more than … a Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses,” said Tancredo.
The National Council of La Raza is the largest national Latino/a civil rights and advocacy group according to the NCLR website and Discover the Network.org. Its’ goal is to improve opportunities for Latinos/as nationwide. The group is not liked by many conservatives for the stances it holds on immigration.
Among the views of the NCLR is promoting bilingual education, giving illegal immigrants health care, allowing illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses and stricter hate-crime laws. Yet, many conservatives feel that people who enter the country illegally should be penalized, according to the American Conservative Union Foundation.
Tancredo ran for president in 2008 on an anti-immigration platform and he has supported efforts to deport all illegal immigrants from the country. His stance on immigration is the complete opposite of La Raza’s goals.
After he made comments about La Raza, Janet Murguia, the president of La Raza went on CNN to respond.
“It’s highly offensive because it’s simply not true,” said Murguia.
In response to Tancredo’s allegations that La Raza’s motto is “All race and nothing for the rest,” Murguía said that the organization does not have a moto. She said La Raza is not like the KKK because they promote civil rights and are a non-violent group.
On campus, professors did not seem shocked by Tancredo’s comments.
Assistant professor in the Department of Government and Politics, Stella Rouse, called Tancredo extreme, especially on his views of immigration.
“It doesn’t surprise me [that he called the NCLR the Latino KKK] based on his past comments,” said Rouse.
Professor in the Government and Politics department, Eric Uslaner, agreed that Tancredo is extreme.
“Tom Tancredo has a long history of making provocative comments,” said Uslaner.
Debroah Santiago, from Excelencia in Education, a group that promotes higher education among Latinos, said she disagrees with Tancredo’s comments.
“[Tancredo’s] comments were sensational and wrong,” said Santiago.
Santiago, a Latina herself, said that Tancredo demonized La Raza’s stances. She noted that the KKK targeted different ethnic groups in attempts to harm them, but La Raza aims to help people in need, especially Latinos.
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