Joe Biden andKamala Harrisare officially the president and vice president of the United States.
The swearing-in went mostly smoothly, despite fears of protests breaking out (viaVox).
There was one unfortunate hitch, though.
When Supreme Court JusticeSonia Sotomayorswore in Harris, she mispronounced her name.
“Not even a mispronunciation can stop me from sobbing,“tweetedone such person.
“Madam Vice President will do after today.”
“First, my name is pronounced ‘comma-la,’ like the punctuation mark,” she wrote.
“It means ‘lotus flower,’ which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture.
When she was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2009, people struggled to pronounce her Spanish last name.
Television hosts David Letterman and Jon Stewart ran segments poking fun at the myriad mispronunciations (viaHuffPost).
We have the right to have them correctly pronounced.”
So how do you pronounce Sotomayor’s name?
According to theLos Angeles Times, it’s “SOHN-ya soh-toh-my-YOR.”
Both are women of color in positions of power that, historically, have been dominated by white men.
This is what breaking the glass ceiling looks like.”
Harris has spoken about her admiration for Sotomayor in the past.
In atweetin September 2019, Harris paid tribute to the Supreme Court Justice.
“As a critical voice on the bench, she’s showing all our children what’s possible.
“There will be a lot of thoughts going through my mind at that moment,” she said.
“I will be thinking about my mother, who is looking down from heaven.
