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 – that’s it! It must have been a plot that singled me out because of my political affiliation! The next time a government agency does not operate smoothly, I will definitely assume that it was because of my race or affiliation.
Because that seems to be the logic operating here. 🙂
Feynman:
The Republican and Libertarian core values are that everyone deserves a chance of success, regardless of race, creed, or ethnicity.
It is unfortunate that hate groups like the KKK are labelled “far right” as if they subscribe to Republican values of equal opportunity for all.
randyjet – handing out despicable KKK paraphernalia is racist and sick, and in my mind, is a hate crime against Republicans. Prejudice and hate against millions of people, simply because they are conservative, is wrong. I am so glad that this prejudiced Democratic gubernatorial candidate abandoned this stunt.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/257736461.html
Perhaps one day, political affiliation will become a protected status, and hate speech and bullying people for their political opinions will become illegal. We’ll either become more tolerant of different ideas, or less tolerant. Or perhaps everything will have protected status.
Karen, Why do you not protest against the resolution, rather than objecting to the funny thing mocking the GOP for even having this resolution? You seem to think that the passing out of the KKK regalia is bad, yet no problem with the secession resolution. Why is it that you go after the fluff rather than the substance? At least when the LA GOP voted for David Duke to be their candidate for Governor, the rest of the party regulars campaigned for the Democrat Edwards. So it is not absurd or bad taste to note FACTS about the GOP being home to the KKK now. You do not like it, kick them out and do not make common cause with them. simple.
Karen, I once proposed we all donate our old Lionel trains to Progressive politicians, maybe that will help w/ their obsession w/ Choo Choo’s. I think Neil Young, who is a Lionel lover, bought the company. I’ll have to check to make sure.
Those old Lionel sets are worth some money. Mine does not get donated to anybody.
Nick,
I didn’t know I was arguing.
Feynman,
I found your comment mired in the spam filter.
Larry, You appear to be arguing about the KKK w/ yourself. Let me know how it comes out.
Feynman:
You were fair and noted, “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.”
So if the requirement back in 1997 was for Amtrak to be self-sustaining by 2002, and it’s now 2014, why the hyperbole, the “murder” accusation?
There is a saying that there is never enough money for Liberal proposals. They always need more money, higher taxes, more subsidies. I don’t know if it’s accurate to say “never” but from what I’ve followed, it is a troubling trend for someone like me, who is a fiscal conservative. Living within our means and balancing our budget is important, and used to be considered basic responsibility. But now we call it “murder” when we get impatient for a big corporation that is 12 years late getting off subsidies.
It’s rhetoric intended to divide.
About today’s Klan:
Recent membership campaigns have been based on issues such as people’s anxieties about illegal immigration, urban crime, civil unions and same-sex marriage.[153] Like various other far-right groups, the modern KKK is homophobic; Klan publications have endorsed the commission of violent acts against gay persons.[7] Many KKK groups have formed strong alliances with other white supremacist groups, such as neo-Nazis. Some KKK groups have become increasingly “nazified”, adopting the look and emblems of white power skinheads
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I’m anxious for anyone to point out a Klan issue that is supported by any Progressive.
Stop the hogwash on the Democratic Klan.
There are some who contend that at least 50% of the KKK are either FBI or local LEOs. If they dropped out, the Klan could not support itself.
Feynman:
You posted, “Paul Ryan is a Republican. Paul Ryan wants to eliminate subsidies to Amtrak.
It is NOT Progressives that want to murder train service.”
How many times has it been discussed how we should stop subsidizing Big Business?
And I believe that Progressives do not want to murder train service. In fact, Liberals are shoving through a vacation train to San Francisco which I have studied extensively. It will have a significantly lower ridership than the initial rosy prediction, and as very few of our commuters are on their way to SF, it will do nothing to address the grinding gridlock that raises blood pressures every day. We have an embarrassing number of pot holes here in CA, and yet we’re trying to spend billions of dollars we don’t have on a vacation train? And it now has stops, so it will still take hours (you can drive from LA to SF in about 7 hours), AND you’ll have to change trains AND properties are going to be seized as part of eminent domain AND it will run through fault zones AND the corp of engineers has directed it to run any water sources that drilling taps dry which will destroy wells in rural areas where county water is not available. For a vacation train. AND it is projected to cost a whole boatload more money than was told to the voters. AND we have not secured our funds to match federal funds. And the courts have decreed that it did not meet the requirements of the ballot measure. AND it is now estimated to cost travelers almost as much as a one hour plane ticket, AND it will still require going through security. AND the train will need to be rebuilt every 30 years, AND it actually adds to pollution once the ridership numbers were figured accurately. And yet, Liberal Gov Brown just won’t let this project die.
He’d rather have gridlock and potholes than let a vacation train go.
Trains are wonderful in some areas. But they do not work everywhere. We checked schedules to get from CA to ID, and it was going to take days, and we would still have to rent a car and drive 5 hours. And it takes all day to use the Metrolink with all the stops, if you’re traveling a long distance. It works better for short trips.
Nobody’s mentioned southern Indiana as a hotbed of KKK activity? I had always thought they played an important part in Klan history.
Karen S:
“How can you possible draw a conclusion if most of your data is incomplete?”
I think the better question is who benefits from incomplete data?
never mind about the missing WSJ comment. It has now posted. Sorry for the false alarm. OR …….thanks for getting it unstuck.
randyjet:
As someone who has lived in the South, I consider it to be the “heart of the KKK” regardless if it has chapters elsewhere.
“If my friend had been white, she wouldn’t have had a problem.” Your proof? I personally had a great deal of trouble registering to vote when I moved counties in CA. And I am Caucasian. It took multiple attempts to fix it, and I almost missed an election. By your premise, if I was Latina I could have stated that the very fact that I had trouble at all proved racism. Or should I assume that my troubles were a racist plot against whites?
Because I basically blew it off as yet another bureaucratic inefficient system. When I moved, I also notified the DMV. They updated the address of the location of my vehicle, but failed to update the database that sends out registration renewals. And yet, I did not think it was an anti-white plot. It’s government. It’s not very nimble.
Karen – you had trouble getting registered to vote in the land of liberals? Goodness, what happened?
amtrack should be eliminated. let the market work and if trains are supplanted by something else then so be it. I doubt they will be though, considering it is cheaper to ship by rail than by truck.
With all the transportation opportunities currently competing, it is so old fashioned and retrograde to even think government funding of rail is necessary or a good idea. Ho hum another progressive sacred cow is about to be gored, good riddence maybe its carcus will feed a company like Uber.
Help again.
I’ve lost two comments about the WSJ article authored by Popper.
Karen
You will need to point me to the comment about news21. It’s too tough to wade through this mess.
The Uncle Clarence Syndrome has absolutely nothing to do with sex.
The Uncle Clarence Syndrome:
(Love and Stockholm Syndrome: The Mystery of Loving an Abuser). It is the Uncle Clarence syndrome by any other name.
Feynman:
If the News21 study admitted that the vast majority of their data was incomplete or missing, what does it matter the political affiliation of the journalist who points it out?
The group that performed the study admitted their data was incomplete.
Statistically, their conclusions would be null if their data is no good. And it does not matter what my political affiliation is. Missing data is missing data. How can you possible draw a conclusion if most of your data is incomplete?