Congress, Courts, Politics, Society

Congressman Calls Clarence Thomas An “Uncle Tom” While Few Denounce The Race-Based Attack

220px-Clarence_Thomas220px-Bennie_Thompson,_official_portrait,_111th_CongressI have been a long critic of many of Justice Clarence Thomas’ opinions which often reject basic individual rights while embracing police and national security powers. However, I believe that Thomas is often treated unfairly for being a black conservative on the Court. While others like Justices Alito, Scalia, and Roberts routinely vote along the same lines, Thomas’ race is commonly cited in commentary while that is not a factor in the other justices on the right of the Court. This unfairness was vividly shown by the comments of Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) that Thomas is an “Uncle Tom” and suggested that he was not an authenticate black person. He has refused to retract or apologize of the attack. In the meantime, Democrats are uniformly silent in the face of this uncivil and outrageous attack.

In an interview with CNN, Thompson said that Thomas apparently “doesn’t like black people, he doesn’t like being black.” After raising votes in areas like voting rights, he added that “All those issues are very important and for someone in the court who’s African American and not sensitive to that is a real problem.”

Let’s be clear, I did not view Thomas as someone who was well-suited for the Court. However, many of these justices and their predecessors were on an the top lists of legal experts. They were selected for their lack of prior controversy or other more political factors. What concerns me is that his race is constantly raised by critics. He has every right to be a conservative and has shown a consistent and committed jurisprudence supporting those views. I do not agree with those positions but I fail to see why he should be defined by his race. Indeed, I thought that one of the key objectives of the civil right movement was to allow African Americans to be judged not by the color of their skin. Thomas follows the same interpretive approach as his colleagues — an approach mind you that is not supposed to be based not on a jurist’s personal desires or association with any group. He is not supposed to show loyalty to a particular group or fulfill expectations due to his race. I have no problem with criticizing Thomas for his votes in the same way as we often criticize his colleagues, but he should not face a race test by critics.

Thomas deserves better. I have always been moved by his life’s story. His father was a farm worker and his mother was a domestic worker. They were poor and both descendants of American slaves. The family spoke Gullah as a first language. His mother literally worked for pennies a day and his early life was spent in a home without indoor plumbing. The second of three children, he later lived with his grandparents when they became homeless. Thomas was the only black person at his high school in Savannah and yet was able to remain an honor student. He went on to attend college and Yale Law School. While few seem to want to admit it, that is a remarkable and inspiring life. He developed conservative principles and values in his life. Some find that incomprehensible but his incredible struggle produced a strong personality and will that can be admired even if you strongly disagree with his views.

What concerns me most is the virtual silence from Democrats to denounce this type of race-based attack. Being called an Uncle Tom is obviously deeply offensive to African Americans. Thomas and his family have gone through too much suffering and struggle to be treated so unfairly in my view. The suggestion is that being genuinely black requires you to reach the right conclusions and support the right positions. However, the very struggle that Thompson is describing was a fight to allow black men and women to be treated as individuals and not categorized by the color of their skin. Thompson should apologize and Democrats should show that they are not selectively outraged by race-based attacks.

What do you think?

Source: Washington Post

657 thoughts on “Congressman Calls Clarence Thomas An “Uncle Tom” While Few Denounce The Race-Based Attack”

  1. Annie:

    Voter fraud is not a myth. There are convictions in every state, although one of the complaints is that prosecutors do not investigate voter fraud as they should. That is one of the things True The Vote supports – actually reviewing the rolls for fraud.

    Would you be OK if Republicans started double and triple registering to vote?

  2. rafflaw – even Obama and Holder admit that there is voter fraud.

  3. Dredd – that is either going on appeal or the statute is going to be rewritten.

  4. Karen S.,
    The laws created by ALEC and passed in many states to fight the imaginary voter fraud are a scam. Look at the laws and see who they impact the most. Check out the Florida experience with knocking valid citizens off the voter rolls and removing voting machines from busy districts to create long lines. The judge in Wisconsin got it right and bluntly stated the truth.

  5. Nick – true. One of the reasons the KKK was formed after the Civil War by Democrats was to suppress the black votes for Republicans. It was also formed to suppress the black community in general. Whites were minorities in some areas. The black former slaves were understandably furious, and many wanted revenge.

    I think things would have turned out differently if Abe Lincoln had not been assassinated.

    The KKK is such a scary mob. My own grandfather stood down such a mob, by himself at first, in the middle of the street. He was a tough man.

    1. Annie – the problem is that voter fraud has affected elections. There is a case where so 1200 felons illegally voted. The margin of victory was 300 votes for the Democrat. The court agreed there was voter fraud, but since he could not figure out who they had voted for (felons vote Democratic by in large) he would not overturn the election.

      I have already cited the huge number of people who are double registered in both Virginia and Maryland. That is potential voter fraud on a large scale and Virginia is just really getting started on their data lists. They are now trying to see who voted in both states as well as being registered.

  7. Voter ID laws are imaginary ventures into making laws for a state, nation, or planet that does not exist.

    Legislatures should only make laws for the state or nation they are elected in.

    After all, they do not want foreign nations making our laws for us, so they should not make laws for mysterious places “out there”

    So held a federal court after a two-week trial where the state of Wisconsin could not provide evidence of voter fraud (Kolob is not a planet In Out Solar System).

    We can expect Uncle Clarence to claim that Kolob really does exist, and that he is skert of it.

  8. Hi Paul

    Yes, I checked out True the Vote when they were the source of a brouhaha a while back. It turns out they were much maligned. They, like me, oppose voter fraud by any party.

    When I hear people blow off voter fraud done FOR Democrats, such as the woman who voted 6 times in OH, or thousands of people double registered, I assume that they only oppose fraud that harms their party. And that is a shame.

    We should all be united against voter fraud. And we should support any efforts to curb it, such as voter ID and purging the rolls of fraudulent entries.

  9. Feynman:

    You appear to think that the elderly do not need an ID if they do not drive.

    That is not true. They need a photo ID in order to get any document notarized, such as a trust, medical power of attorney, or loan documents.

    We need a photo ID to engage in a great many transactions here in the US. Efforts that help people get a photo ID in order to vote, will also help them engage in these other, usual transactions.

    And unless every single transaction that requires an ID is suppressive, then none of them are.

    Is is suppressive or racist to require someone to prove who they are to have a document notarized?

  10. “Although the phrase “Southern strategy” is often attributed to Nixon’s political strategist Kevin Phillips, he did not originate it,[11] but merely popularized it.[12] In an interview included in a 1970 New York Times article, he touched on its essence:”

    “From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don’t need any more than that…but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That’s where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.[2] ” wikipedia. Guess it worked as most southern states are solidly in the republican column.

  11. Feynman:

    True the vote is against fraud (and who is not?) and they also give support for people who need help getting an ID. They have a link to any programs available in their state.

    Honestly, who is against weeding out voter fraud?

    1. Karen – Democrats seem to be against weeding out voter fraud.

  12. Paul and Karen, It was just Byron and myself most often, trying to speak, the majority calling us epithets like you would not believe, but they are part of the record.. Good to have a couple more. We are still greatly outnumbered, but we know history. Great to have you good people here!

  14. randyjet:

    You appear to allege that your friend was denied her voting rights because she had a hispanic name. You also state Texas is the heart of the KKK and the GOP. (Having lived in the South, I disagree with you on that one.)

    But it sounds like the problem was the database they were using to validate voters. You just assume that they had a problem with her because of her ethnicity. And yet you yourself said she had just moved.

    I had problems registering to vote in CA when I moved, and my name is not Latina. It took forever to resolve, and I almost missed a vote.

    1. Karen, I said my COUNTY,not Texas is the heart of the KKK in Texas. If my friend had been white, she wouldn’t have had a problem. The FACT that she was registered in Dallas and was changing her address would have sufficed. It is easy to check voter registration on line by the way. Takes about one minute, and you send the change of address to the NEW location which THEN has to sent notice to the old one. So her voter registrar KNEW FOR A FACT she was a legal voter in Dallas and Texas. This is how one keeps the wrong folks from voting. You do not go back to the old days when they took one look and denied you. Please try and think.

      For facts about the stealing of elections, I suggest you go to Greg Palast’s site and he has all the detailed FACTS about this. He is also barred from US TV because he does not follow the rules of self censorship. He is on BBC.

      1. The BBC is not barred from American TV, it has it own cable channel.

  16. Karen S:

    Such sound thinking has been dismissed here in the past. Apparently obtaining a photo ID is, in itself, an act of voter suppression/oppression.

  17. Annie – if you can defeat the facts of True the Vote then go for it. State by state.

  19. feynman:

    Are you a fan of Karl Marx or VI Lenin or maybe Robert Owen? Fourier? What is your philosophy?

    But to answer your question, yes, I like much of what she has to say about economics and individual rights and limited government. But then I also like what Thomas Jefferson, Frederic Bastiat and John Locke have to say about limited government, economics and individual rights.

    So if the point of the question is to dismiss what I have to say because I like Ayn Rand, fine dont read what I write.

  20. Paul, just bookmark this page so as to remember those who believe passing out KKK hoods is righteous.

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