Tancredo Claims Sotomayor In "Latino KKK" (VIDEO)

Tom Tancredo, the former Colorado congressman and radical anti-immigration activist, stepped up his attacks on judge Sonia Sotomayor Thursday. Appearing on CNN, Tancredo suggested that Sotomayor's affiliation with the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights group, was equivalent to being a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

TANCREDO: 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 -- it's a counterpart -- a Latino KKK without the hoods or the nooses. If you belong to something like that in a way that's going to convince me and a lot of other people that it's got nothing to do with race. Even though the logo of La Raza is "All for the race. Nothing for the rest." What does that tell you?

SANCHEZ: Alright. We're not talking about -- we're not talking about La Raza --

TANCREDO: She's a member! She's a member of La Raza!

The only problem with Tancredo's claim is that "All for the race. Nothing for the rest." is not La Raza's motto. Instead, the group's motto is the utterly uncontroversial "Strengthening America by promoting the advancement of Latino families."

The phrase that Tancredo incorrectly links to Sotomayor is, in fact, found only in the founding documents a wholly different group to which Sotomayor has no known affiliation.

The La Raza claim is just the latest in a series of racially-tinged attacks that conservatives have been making against Sotomayor. On Tuesday, just after President Obama announced Sotomayer's nomination to the Supreme Court, Tancredo told MSNBC's Ed Schultz that Sotomayor has said plenty of "things that are racist."

Indeed, Tancredo, who ran for president in 2008 on an anti-immigration platform, is no stranger to racist comments. One of his campaign ads suggested that illegal immigrants are likely to be terrorists and he has been behind efforts to deport all illegal immigrants from the country and outlaw immigration to the U.S..

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Comments

[zeemanchu]

Tancredo is anti-immigration. But he seems not to notice his name does not exactly sound Anglo Saxon. It is a lot closer to Sotomayor, Alito, Scalia, names with Latin origins.

[dezzertguy]

The group may not like the meaning of their chosen name but it does mean the race. Period. Chavez was a traditional union leader and acted as so. He was tough and fought for his members. He was actively opposed to illegal immigration and supported the government in their efforts to stop illegals. I am not sure Tancredo is against immigration or just illegal immigration. There is a difference although Dems/libs try to mix the two.-

[gopSTEALSyourTAXmoney]

The meaning of what chosen name?

[sense11]

You must be some sort genius.

[GeromeBaker]

Are you talking about Hugo Chavez or another Chavez? Hugo Chavez is a career military officer. He never was a union leader. Are you thinking about Lula, from Brazil? Lula was a union leader.

[Taiyo]

I believe he was speaking of Cesar Chavez, a farm workers advocate.

[shastacola]

Cesar Chavez.

[exhale09]

What?

[HispanicDidi]

Yes, "raza" alone means race, literally. It also means a lot of things figuratively, especially when you add the "la" in front. If you spoke more than just one language, or simply knew more about languages, you'd know that some words have different and fluid meanings, especially when given context.

Now in this case, the name La Raza, comes from an old book about U.S. culture in the Southwest which referred to "La Raza Cosmica" as a mixture of Latin and Mexican races. That's it. It doesn't means is THE superior race, as Tancredo would want it to mean.

I think you mean Cesar Chavez. And both parties do get mixed up about illegal and legal immigration when it's convenient to scare or satisfy their racist constituents.

[Dan Garfinkel]

I love this stuff....

The 20-30% of folks who agree with his cr@p will always think that way, whether he's saying it or not.

The other 70-80% of us will continue to distance ourselves even more from his party.

Keep Tom Tancredo on TV!

[Liberalforsure]

Will somebody, anybody please tell the rethuglicans how desperate and deplorable they sound? I mean, this is disgusting.

[Taiyo]

I was thinking the same thing. They don't have anything reasonable to say about her nomination, so they start screeching these ridiculous arguments that simply make them look desperate. Sad.

[AbyssinianLion]

It is official. The GOP has completely lost touch with reality.
No new ideas
No strategies (unless you call whining a strat)
No leadership
No message
No policies
No plans
Next-----extinction

[lvdragonlady]

And NO clue what is going on.

[Taiyo]

And they make NO sense whatsoever.

[mjtaylor22]

They are not even using the whole quote, they cut it in half the lady finished by basically saying that she learns every day on the bench and know she must temper her preconceptions with law and that she strives to be even better than the summary of her experiences.
She said a noble thing
that tone would think that her situation would allow her to make better judgments than someone without those experiences, but that she know she must temper her preconceptions with what she learns daily on the bench due to the different cases, and that she strives to be better than just the summary of her experiences.
They are using 1/2 of her statement to vilify her, when if taken me context she said a darn good thing that she strives not to be ridged.
The kicker is of course cnn is following fox and morning Joe on this vein, and not researching anything just taking the republican talking point and talking about that small piece of her prepared text hour after hour.
The shame of our futile news media is more and moor apparent on a daily basis,
I just change the channel or turn off the TV completely because they are lying to us all the darn time...

[123dee]

The more Tancredo voices his opinion the less creditable he is.
Let him keep talking.

[JoshuaLudd]

Yep... just like the KKK... except for all the racism, murder, lynchings, cross burnings, and speaking from a position of power, not one of disempowerment.

[westreal]

When Tancredo called her a Latino KKK the expression on the anchor's face was priceless. It was like he was waiting for the director to yell "cut to commercial" but it never came.

[timberdoodle]

You think CNN is just now slipping into the dark side then you haven't been able to figure out one of the worst purveyors of hate and bigotry "Lou Dobbs" is their main man just like Glenn Beck was before he came out of the closet and went to Fox.

[roshni]

I stopped watching CNN because of Lou Dobbs and his frequent, thinly veiled, racism directed at Michelle Obama.

[AHMatron]

The guy's name is Tancredo. In Spanish that would translate as "a greater extent of fundamental belief" You can't make this stuff up. It's like a Larry Craig anti-gay moment. I don't believe Tom was on the boat when my family landed at Plymouth rock. And he can't get out that.

[mitsie]

The GOP is sneaky and using the people such as this one, Gingrich, Limbaugh and Rove, to do their dirty work. That way the people up for election can deny any part of it and try to get or keep the latino vote. The problem they have is that the latino community is watching this and even if they don't speak up or out, they are going to blame all of them. I am sure this community is very proud of this woman, as the first latino for the Supreme Court. They should be proud and they should be shouting from the rooftops.

[max]

Thank you CNN for putting this guy on....we really learn so much..

[DannyDanson]

This guy is a unbelieveable, what is he really tring to accomplish here, is he trying to demonize La Raza, and Sotomayor, or create a revisionist image of the KKK and obsolve or euphamize their crimes agaisnt this country and our values. Whether you agreed with La Raza or not, they are not fighting to limit anyone else's freedoms like the KKK, they are only petitioning the gov't for more freedoms for their constiuents

Even if she was a member of La Raza, and she isn't, how many white people have been abducted, assaulted, ridiculed, and terrorized by La Raza, does La Raza cloak their hatred and vitriol for groups different from themselves in some self-righteous delusional vision of their own honorable christian duty

The KKK is a terrorist group like, Al Qada, complete with the bombings and the senseless murder of innocent children, La Raza is nothng like this, and yet Tancredo would have Americans believe that La Raza and its supporters deserves to be fought, being similar to the KKK, and Sotomayor as well.


If Tancredo's thought process appears familiar, it is. This is what Islamic Fundamentalist are doing right now in the Muslim world in attempts misrepresent America and Americans. Vote this dangerous fool out of office, he makes us all look bad.

[33Greeper]

I agree.

[roshni]

What he is trying to do is have fellow anti-Hispanic racists identify with what he is saying. He is playing to the right wingnut base.

[marleysghost]

For those who have forgotten, La Raza means "Our (The) Struggle" and originated with Cesar Chavez's efforts to unionize and get better working conditions for migrant field workers in California. For those too young to remember the grape boycott and others, this decades long struggle is (and always was) a movement for equal justice and better working conditions for the people who put food on our tables.

Tancredo is a throwback/reactionary to an earlier time when management demonized the Unionization Movement in the United States. If there is any violence to be talked about, it came from the owners and the managers who felt their workers should remain wage slaves laboring under harsh working conditions with no redress for injustices and injuries. You can start your reading with the Triangle Shirt Factory Fire.

[PC Contrarian]

Google "La Raza" and you'll get a broader understanding of the term.

[red gti2000]

Actually, the literal translation of La Raza is "The Race".

[VSamuels]

Thanks for the background information!

We live in a nation, where still too much of any debate is framed in the context of predominately white males twisting the subject in this or that way to create a phoney baseline of reality. Anyone who understands the KKK would not make a comparsion to them, it would be like comparing a kitten to a shark then saying, the kitten is similar to the shark except it does not have razor-like teeth and live 60 miles out in the ocean. It is a bogus comparsion, but in a way most of the dominate culture benefits when violent white terrorist groups like the KKK are marginalized and made to appear similar to modern groups which have opposed the status quo. The KKK was the STATUS QUO, as they were organized to ensure white superiority and keep all others out of participating in a free democracy.

CNN should be ashamed and embarrassed for putting on such a ridiculous display of racial arrogance, but it does serve as a wake up call for all non-whites at the system, which still has never honestly engaged the racial debate, rather it shades it in many forms to continue to muddle what is true for a white dominate culture, many still frighten at the possiblity of living in a multi-cultural society.

[souris]

.....actually," La Raza" originates from the book, "La Raza Cosmica" published in 1925 and written by Jose Vasconcelos a Mexican philosopher and educator. It refers to a movement by Mexican intellectuals in the 20"s which alluded to a time when there would be a universal era of humanity.

SI SE PUEDE!
VIVA LA RAZA!!!!
p.s. I am a pround, educated, Hispanic woman.

[PC Contrarian]

BTW, I think you meant "proud".