One of the comments on my post about the Sotomayor hearings claims that Trent Lott was "run into the ground for far less" than Sotomayor's comment about wise Latinas and their judgment. I recall when Senator Lott had to resign as Majority Leader because in his effort to sing the praises of his fellow southern Senator Strom Thurmond, Lott suggested the country would have been better of if Thurmond had won the 1948 presidential election. Thurmond bolted the Democrats after Harry S. Truman ran on a pro-civil rights plank and ran as the States' Rights candidate, coming in third behind Truman and New York Governor Thomas Dewey.
When Lott fell from his leadership post, I was general manager at Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe where we had a knack for devising specialty drinks that tracked the news of the day. In a morning of exceptional inspiration, the bar manager, Mark, one of our best customers, Don, and I came up with the "Trent Latte" - separate but equal parts of coffee and steamed milk. Not only was it a hit with our customers, but it earned a mention on the NPR gameshow "Wait, wait...Don't Tell Me." Although I no longer work at Afterwords Cafe, I am sure they would welcome suggestions for the Sotomayor cocktail!
You may be unaware of the ways in which coffee metaphors have been and are still used in racialized discourse with respect to Latinos, Latin American and Caribbean people. By inviting these responses, you unintentionally open the door to the possibility that readers who are also unaware of this problem will be complicit in what is in effect stereotyping and an essentializing of 'color.' This would sadly replicate the poor behavior of some of our senators that you have rightly criticized.