We understand why vultures like Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh maliciously misrepresent Judge Sotomayor’s comments about what she brings to the bench as a Latina: by quoting her completely out of context, they can trade places with her on the issue of racism: she becomes the bigot, not the likes of the RePub Right.

Quite frankly, from her record it’s difficult to discern how “liberal” the nominee might be. It doesn’t matter to the RePubs; the hated Obama appointed her, even if Bush the First initially appointed her to the Federal bench. But it should matter that the so-called press – and I’m not referring to Fox “we suck, you swallow” News – would go to such great lengths to make her look like a bigot by not presenting the context of her statement. Then again, from a historical perspective, maybe not.

The non-Hispanic American public has always had a hard-on against the Latin community ever since we finished stealing their northern lands early in the 20th Century. Sensing this fear and hatred, the media has done much to whip up this hostility and turn it into something evil, ugly and dangerous. Back in the 1920s, before the Great Depression, newspapers warned us that Mexicans were swarming across the borders to take our jobs and, hopped up on the Mexican-sounding narcotic “marijuana,” rape our wives and daughters.

They sold a lot of newspapers with this crap, not just in Texas and California (two formerly Mexican areas) but also through wire services all across the easily terrified United States. “Remember the Maine” was still a contemporary battle call. It, too, was a lie, but that didn’t stop Hearst and Pulitzer from selling newspapers.

Our culture represented these defamatory values. In movies and, later, on television, Latinos were represented as lazy, stupid, filthy, and lawless. Worst still, we have denied them their heritage: Mexican, Puerto Rican, Guatemalan, even Brazilian – it doesn’t matter. They’re all greasy spics to these morons.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor may be one of the best-qualified individuals ever to be appointed to the Supreme Court. I haven’t personally checked the credentials of all the others who have been so appointed, but her record is damn impressive. To subject herself through this humiliating ordeal shows us exactly what a strong Latina is made of.

I don’t know her position on several critical issues such as abortion or gay rights, nor should I. She’s supposed to evaluate the issues on their own legal merits, not on the jingoism of the day. But given her vast intelligence and experience, I think we’ll all be better off if she perseveres.

Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking bizarro music and blather show starts up Sundays at www.getthepointradio.com 7:00 PM Eastern, replayed the following Thursdays at 9:00 PM Eastern. At least until he’s committed for constantly referring to himself in the third person.

Likewise, his Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind rants pop up every on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday exclusively at www.getthepointradio.com. The regular Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind rants continue every Monday and Friday on The Point podcasts, available right here at www.michaeldavisworld.com, as well as at www.comicmix.com, www.getthepointradio.com, www.zzcomics.com, and www.ravenwolfstudios.com. You can subscribe to The Point at iTunes by searching under “The Point Radio.”

Gold is also a regular contributor to comicmix.com, and edits their online comic book content. Check out the all-new GrimJack: The Manx Cat #1, now being solicited in this month’s Diamond catalog.