About Sonia

So what if Sonia Sotomayor's experiences affect the way she reads and enacts the law? And by posing this question I am not dismissing the interference of personal background in the rational thinking of people. Quite the opposite. It is only through the study and understanding of one's background and psychology that it is possible to see, declare and adequately channel our emotions and passions towards certain topics or causes.
I just heard Rush Limbaugh speak and say that Sonia Sotomayor is a racist. P-lease. My visceral reaction comes from the disgust with people that are uneducated about bias and therefore bias the thinking of the masses. Sadly Limbaugh has a wide access to "the masses". His role is the opposite of that of an educator. An educator presents thesis and antithesis and allows students to make their own conclusions. An educator says "I believe in this and that" but you are free to make your own conclusions.
To say that Sotomayor has a bias because she is Latina and to ignore that other justices have a bias because they are Anglo-American or Italian-American is to insult the intelligence of people.
And yes, I am biased towards Sotomayor because her story reminds me of my own story. And I have no problem acknowledging this. Now, this would be a bias only if I pretend it doesn't exist. But since I am making it explicit, I can deal with it. If I were in the position to select Sotomayor to the court, or if I were to ask questions in the confirmation hearings, then I would need to compensate my position with that of others that my not have my same bias. This is the old process through which science deals with its own biases, through peer review.
It is sad to see arguments like this one (bias and rational thinking, how they interact, etc) dumbed down to a caricature. Does J-Lo like tight clothes? will she wear them to her next social event? Those are not the relevant questions...