U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez — The Muslim Times Leading the Discussion on Free Speech and Its Limitations
Updated 6:17 AM ET, Sun May 17, 2015
(CNN) U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez would seem the perfect picture of an ethnically diverse Democrat. But a brief gesture caught on a cell phone camera Saturday marred that image and sent her running.
Literally — away from a reporter trying to chase her down for comment on a gaffe that many found racially offensive.
Sanchez, who announced last week that she is seeking to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate, was ad-libbing at a California Democratic party convention in Anaheim, when she made a stereotypical Native American ‘war cry.’
Raising her hand to her lips, she let out about two seconds of it.
“I’m going to his office, thinkin’ that I’m gonna go meet with woo-woo-woo-woo, right? ‘Cause he said ‘Indian American,'” she said, using the gesture to try to discern between Indian Americans — with ancestry from India’s subcontinent — and Native Americans.
Audience discomfort
Many in the audience at the Indian American caucus reacted with silence.
Uduak-Joe Ntuk was recording Sanchez’s stump on his cell phone camera and shared the video with CNN affiliate KCRA. Many in the room found the gesture offensive, Ntuk said, including him.
“I was shocked and appalled that she would make the disparaging comments about Native Americans that way,” he said. “It’s just very undemocratic.”
CNN is trying to contact Sanchez for comment on her gesture.
A reporter told Sanchez’s opponent, Kamala Harris, also a Democrat, about the gesture. “I don’t know what to say to that,” she laughed, “except that…that’s shocking. That’s shocking.”
Read further and watch a video
Categories: Americas, Free speach, Free Speech, Freedom, The Muslim Times
This news item well covered by CNN shows that racially insensitive speech is not OK or democratic; likewise hateful or insensitive speech against the Muslims should not have a free license in the civilized world.