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So, over on my favorite copyeditor’s blog (You Don’t Say), today’s post is about how many people are calling Sonia Sotomayor an immigrant, or a daughter of immigrants. She’s Puerto Rican. Puerto Rican citizens have been granted U.S. citizenship since 1917 (more than 90 years ago). Puerto Rico is part of the United States.

My curiosity with the use of the word “immigrant” though is this: Are the writers/editors misusing it to make her look like an outsider or to make her look like a person who overcame adversity to get where she is? And then, politically, how does this affect readers? When I read about immigrants or children of immigrants who have worked hard and achieved things, I think, “Well, that’s what America is all about. Good for him/her!” But people of other political leanings might think, “Ugh, another immigrant coming to take a job from an American!” (However, that’s kind of a difficult argument to make, since if you go back a few generations, excepting actual Native Americans, we’re all immigrants’ children.) (Plus, as mentioned, Puerto Ricans aren’t immigrants.) (Plus, also, I mean, it’s not like a ton of people are qualified to be Supreme Court Justices, you know?)

I don’t like to get political on here. I’m more talking about how words have completely different connotations to people, and how we’re manipulated by them, for better or worse.