I 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
Paul – you’re right.
And it is concerning how Democrats appear to only protest fraud that hurts their own party, but completely ignore fraud that helps their party.
I am troubled, because I oppose fraud of any party. I don’t want to “win by cheating”.
All of these articles about the dirth of fraud stem from the same News21 study, which was admittedly shockingly incomplete.
Karen, My wife abides these horrid bulbs. However, when our kitchen looked like a Chechen apartment stairwell, I played the safety card. I do all the cooking and one must have good light when using knives.
raff, Then can we put you down abiding the Dem candidate for Wi. Governor passing out handmade KKK hoods @ the State Republican Convention. Or, as I expect, do you think that is hideous. And, make no mistake the KKK devolved from it’s roots to hating many people. Indeed, it has several incarnations, But, when first formed in Tn. in 1865 it was about blacks voting and white Republicans supporting.
Nick I see that you choose to ignore inconvenient FACTS. I have not seen your response to my post as to why handing out KKK regalia is quite appropriate since the WS GOP convention will be debating a resolution in favor of WS being able to secede. Care to give a guess as to whether or not it will pass? Which side of the debate would you fall on by the way? Pointing out this fact is not slander or defaming them either. Then one has to wonder at how debased the GOP has become to reject their founding fathers. They now SPIT on Lincoln and anything that ensures fairness in the US. They need to wear their hoods now with this debate to get rid of their heritage.
Karen – you are wasting your typing with Dredd. He gets on a meme and he sticks there. We might be seeing this for a month or more.
Dredd:
Please stop calling him “Uncle Clarence.” It is obviously referring to Uncle Tom. Racist slurs disgust me, and most people here. It really does detract from any point you might try to make.
Nick – could you be referring to the mercury-filled compact fluorescent light bulbs, which must be disposed of as hazardous waste and must NOT be vacuumed up if broken, according to the EPA? And definitely not thrown in the trash where it will contaminate landfills with mercury? Those progressive light bulbs?
Karen – I have 3 CFLs that are ready for disposal. I am just trashing them. The government made me buy them, they can deal with the fallout.
rafflaw – Please read the WSJ article above. Voter fraud does indeed happen, sometimes on a larger scale than others.
Would you support voter ID if states did a better job providing them to the poor and the elderly? If ease of access was addressed, would that remove your objection? Because it is a valid point that we need to ensure that getting ID is not a difficult barrier to overcome.
Hi Annie:
Anyone who repeats that statement that voter fraud does not exist in significant numbers, please do read the Wall Street Journal that Paul linked to at 5:42.
Obama, and all others, cite a study perfumed by students for News21, in which most of their requests for information were ignored or incomplete. Apparently, officials are not required to answer these requests.
“Crucially, News21 noted that “nearly all the data” it received had “some vital piece of information that had been requested specifically but that was missing.”
I have reviewed many studies myself. And that article just blew their data out of the water. It is inconceivable to me that they would release such a document when their data was missing or incomplete, or that anyone would ever reference such a paper.
http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/sites/default/files/ssn_key_findings_minnite_on_the_myth_of_voter_fraud.pdf
The misleading myth of voter fraud in American elections.
Annie – even you article admits to a 5% rate of voter fraud in reports. And that is just reports. It is like running stop signs. The police only see some people who run the stop signs, not all of them. So, if they are under reporting, how much voter fraud is there really?
Annie:
That was an interesting article but the examples given didnt seem like a concerted effort to suppress votes. It seemed like an effort to make sure that one man/woman one vote was upheld.
As Karen S. points out, this works both ways and protects both parties. I am curious as to why democrats protest so volubly?
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/04/wisconsin_s_voter_id_decision_judge_lynn_adelman_destroys_the_conservative.html
Wisconsin voter ID law struck down, why this is a big deal. And if anyone doesn’t like the source, oh well, too bad.
Karen S.,
“It was also formed to suppress the black community in general” ! I think suppress is far too nice of a term for what the KKK did to the Black community. How about kill, maim and intimidate and control the black community and keep them in a state of fear? Along with Jews and Catholics.
Swarthmoremom:
Anachronism is when we apply today’s standards, culture, or thinking to the past. We find this in novels supposedly set hundreds of years ago, in which characters nevertheless call each other by their first names immediately upon meeting.
You are to recall that the Civil Rights Act was in 1964. So when you look for quotes from politicians in the 1970s, a mere decade afterward, you will find racist language and philosophies from both Republicans and Democrats. Because adults of that era had grown up with segregation, and all sorts of racist norms that we would find abhorrent today. And yet, the opinions of many of those people evolved over the next several decades.
Another example is the social mores concerning women in the 1940s, compared with today. Or the opinions from abolitionists who ran the Underground Railroad. Many who fought passionately for freedom for the slaves nonetheless did not believe they were their equals. And yet, for their times, they had very advanced ideas of social justice. To judge them by today’s standards is anachronistic.
Too often, people place quotes from 60 or more years ago into context with today.
The gold standard for a Progressive is to claim,” I’m off the grid.” I was listening to NPR on Earth Day a few years ago and they asked people to call in to tell everyone how they “got off the grid.” It was hilarious. Forward to the Stone Age!!
Byron, Progressives want us to use inferior light bulbs, ride choo choo trains, pay 90% taxes like in the 50’s, use windmills like they did in the Dust Bowl, and ride bikes like folks do in 3rd world countries. There is little progressive about Progressives.
Swarthmore Mom:
you quote an article from 40 years ago? You are living in the past.
Salon, Way left of center. Everyone knows that.
As I’ve said, Wi. merely needs to tweak a few things and it will then comport w/ the Constitutional Indiana law. Seeing some folks here giddy that it can’t happen before November is “a tell” as they say in poker.
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/21/study_confirms_every_bad_thing_you_suspected_about_voter_id_laws_partner/
Study confirms every bad thing you suspected about voter ID laws. There is a plethora of information out there that voter fraud in any large numbers (it’s miniscule) is a conservative construct.
Paul Schulte:
Using Dr. Stanley’s logic, almost the entire country is racist since most of the counties in the US voted for Romney:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcommoncts.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F11%2Fus-2012-election-results-map-by-county.html&tbnid=Aq2wm5WDkCO2lM:&docid=pk3R6C6OOEZgbM&h=472&w=776
The left thinks their ideas are so marvelous people couldnt possibly oppose those, no, the opposition is to the color of his skin not to the content of his ideas.
It is far easier to debate the evil of racism, what person in their right mind would disagree racism is evil, than the total vapidity and obsurdity of collectivism. The left is so impressed by their malignant ideas, they truly believe we are rejecting President Obama based on the color of his skin rather than on the character of his insidious philosophy.
Or maybe they understand how unwelcome their philosophy is to the average American and chose a black man with malicious forethought? Knowing they could use racism as a billy club if anyone dared oppose his agenda.