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. Spike Lee was calling Justice Thomas “Uncle Clarence” back in 2006. I found this on Google Search:

    Uncle Clarence

    (Pejorative) An African American who has improved his lot by kow-towing to the white establishment; an Uncle Tom; an oreo. So-called as Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas is considered a traitor to his race by many African Americans.

    “Uncle” (or “Aunt”) was a term given to older African Americans during slavery and in the post-bellum period of the South. “Uncle” is objectionable to many African Americans when used in this context, as it was a form of address used because African Americans were denied courtesy titles such as “Mr.” and “Mrs.” or “Miss”. “Uncle Clarence” conjures up deeply disturbing images to contemporary African American sensibilities, such as “Uncle Remus”, the epitome of the “coon” who put the interests of white folks ahead of his own self-interest and those of his people.

    Spike Lee has been quoted in the press as saying that “Uncle Clarence Thomas is nothing but a bandana-wearing, watermelon-eating Uncle Tom.”

    by Tummy AuGratin February 26, 2006

  2. Nick,
    Are you suggesting that I did not read all of the comments? I don’t care what other people were claiming. The KKK was a terrorist organization from its beginnings and that is how they should be discussed, IMO.

  3. Paul Ryan is a Republican. Paul Ryan wants to eliminate subsidies to Amtrak.
    It is NOT Progressives that want to murder train service.

    “But perhaps the most headline-grabbing item in his plan is the mention of eliminating support for Amtrak. That’s right — not reduction, elimination.

    “Buried deep in the pages of Congressman Paul Ryan’s proposed 2015 federal budget today is a murder,” Midwest High Speed Rail Association Executive Director Richard Harnish said in a statement. “The victim of this crime is Amtrak, the nation’s federally supported railway system.”

    To be fair, the Amtrak proposal is listed as an “Illustrative Policy Option,” not an essential pillar of the plan. But Ryan says that “the 1997 Amtrak authorization law required Amtrak to operate free of subsidies by 2002,” and he’s clearly getting impatient for Amtrak to make “the structural reforms necessary to start producing returns.”

  4. It was terrible of me to introduce the term “Uncle Clarence” yesterday on the blog. Yet, I did not invent it. I heard about it on another blog where some folks chimned in who had worked in the Supreme Court library and said that the name was passed around by court clerks and others there all the time.

  5. The imaginary Voter Id monsters under the bed of the kiddie imaginations of Gov. Scott Borg in Wisconsin did not hold up when they went before rational adults:

    The evidence at trial established that virtually no voter impersonation occurs in Wisconsin. The defendants [Gov. Borg & Drones] could not point to a single instance of known voter impersonation occurring in Wisconsin at any time in the recent past. The only evidence even relating to voter impersonation that the defendants [Gov. Borg et al] introduced was the testimony of Bruce Landgraf, an Assistant District Attorney in Milwaukee County. Landgraf testified that in “major elections,” by which he means gubernatorial and presidential elections, his office is asked to investigate about 10 or 12 cases in which a voter arrives at the polls and is told by the poll worker that he or she has already cast a ballot. Tr. 2056–57. However, his office determined that the vast majority of these cases—approximately 10 each election[out of 12]—have innocent explanations, such as a poll worker’s placing an indication that a person has voted next to the wrong name in the poll book. Tr. 2057. Still, about one or two cases each major election remain unexplained, and the defendants contend that these one or two cases could be instances of voter-impersonation fraud. I suppose that’s possible, but most likely these cases also have innocent explanations and the District Attorney’s office was simply unable to confirm that they did.5 Moreover, the most Landgraf’s testimony shows is that cases of potential voter-impersonation fraud occur so infrequently that <b<no rational person familiar with the relevant facts could be concerned about them.

    (Federal Trial on Voter Id Laws, Wisconsin, emphasis added). Beam-me-up Gov. Scotty Borg had two whole weeks to come up with evidence.

    He came up with the fears his mummy and dada had instilled in him as a young bully.

    Like Uncle Clarence.

  8. Regarding that WSJ link….

    Robert D Popper wrote the WSJ OPINION piece. WSJ Opinion is certainly right wing. Here is some interesting stuff about Popper

    http://www.epluribusmedia.org, 6 Aug 2007 [cached]
    has interviewed sources who once worked in the Department of Justice and they suggest that Robert Popper, Special Litigation Counsel for the Voting Section, may have been instrumental in the disintegration of voter rights in minority districts.

    Popper joined the Voting Section of the Justice Department at the beginning of 2006 during the wave of new hires that replaced attorneys who were allegedly forced out because they were not “loyal partisans” and replaced by members of organizations such as the Republican National Lawyers Association and Federalist Society. As Special Litigation Counsel, Popper’s charter is to be one of the chief “enforcers” of the Voting Rights Act. Ironically, Popper has been involved in at least a half-dozen cases which purportedly tried to accomplish exactly the opposite of guaranteeing the rights of those he has been charged with protecting.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Popper is an extreme partisan. Note when he joined the Voting Section at DOJ. That was when the Bush administration was politicizing DOJ. And where did their work begin? Why the Voting section of course. Probably right in league with that girl fresh out of Liberty U. who was only hiring right wing Christians.

    Dirty, ugly politics and a dishonest conversation here.

    1. feynamn, Reagan did the same thing to the NTSB. He totally politicized it so that only the GOP linked companies or parties could get preferred treatment.

  10. It’s always helpful if people get up to speed by reading all the comments prior to posing questions.

  11. Larry, Have you read the thread??? This is about race, politics, and double standards. That was a desperate question, at best. It is very “pertinent.” Geez! And, I’m sorry for bringing accurate history. Some people w/ poor historical knowledge were claiming the KKK was about secession!! Why don’t you ask them some questions. I STATED the KKK devolved, but the inception of the KKK was specifically relevant to combat those poorly educated in history.

  12. Thanks for the link, Byron. Again, rafflaw’s conclusions were based on articles that were based on the News21 study, which admitted that most of its data was missing or incomplete. But articles get written, and then picked up and cross-referenced. The original data is never checked.

    Did FL “try” to remove valid voters from its rolls, or were valid voters removed accidentally as part of purging the rolls of legitimate fraud? Because that makes an enormous difference. When you purge fraud, you also have to have a system in place to address erroneous deletions.

  13. Choo Choo’s are a good idea in A FEW markets. We discussed here how an LA to Vegas train would be a great idea. But it has to be upscale, express, and well run. The “Progressives” want trains to be like bus service, lots of stops, low budget. The only way it works is different classes of service and nonstop like airlines.

  15. Gotta have a mighty strong stomach to wade through all the misinformation here.

    When some insist on calling the 2014 KKK a Democratic organization it’s time to pull the plug. Same goes for true-the-vote and Paul’s example of some election, in some unnamed place, won by some unnamed candidate, by some unstated number of fraudulent votes, it’s time for a glass of wine. And when some protest they are only intending to help those poor and elderly get a needed photo ID so they can fly to Paris and use an ATM, and secure a POA it’s time for a nap. POA! What a laugh.

  17. Karen, Win by cheating is epidemic in our culture, sports, entertainment, etc. all are ripe w/ cheaters. Honor is on the endangered species list. But, I made my living proving liars are lying. Biz is always booming.

  18. nick:

    The top marginal rate in the 50’s was 90% on incomes over $400k but since the majority of people did not make much more than $5,000 the actual rate on most income was less than it is today.

    Choo choo trains are actually a good idea but the progressives favored automobiles, trucks and buses and got rid of trains. They thought it would be a good idea to intervene in the market to grow the economy.

  19. Nick,
    any symbol of hate is not welcome by me. And what the wisconsin gubernatorial candidate did is pertinent how? Secondly, who cares what the KKK may have done besides killing and maiming people? Bringing up the claim that they were against blacks voting is glossing over their main claim to “fame”. A dead black person cannot vote.

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