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. Come on, Karen. Your antipathy to Amtrak is obvious. You ask me why we need trains; I supply a fair number of reasons. Then you are annoyed and play silly word games as to exactly which type of train your family objected. Come on.

    Who says balanced budgets are bad? Several Nobel laureates and a whole school of economics with which you will not agree. There will be no shortage on the Milton Friedman side of the equation. I’m sure you know of him and his colleague – Mr. Greenspan – who did a damn fine job of bringing this country to it’s knees. This is just another subject on which we will not agree.

    Perhaps we would be better off discussing the fine art of becoming a cheesehead. There seems to be some interest in the topic – at least when they are not busy insulting someone.

  3. Paul, A big time Dem and a feminist according to him! The special election elected my councilman, a moderate Republican. He trounced a Mexican Dem in a city of many Mexicans. Filner the Feminist was the first Dem mayor elected in San Diego in 20 years. After that travesty, it will be 40 years before another Dem gets elected.

    1. Glad to see the GOP rejected that part, but they still hate the Common core standards which mandate teaching science without evolution included. So they are not as crazy as some of them. I can assure you that such a resolution would pass in Texas and nullification despite the civil War would pass as well. So I doubt that any black American would feel too friendly in their convention.

  5. Detroit, Vallejo, San Bernadino, Vallejo, all bankrupt. Ca., run by Dems, teetering on bankruptcy. Chicago a recession a bad year away from bankruptcy. NYC poised for bankruptcy under its new socialist mayor. A one termer, guaranteed. Nooo, we’re doin’ just fine said Nero as he fiddled.

    1. San Diego’s problem was a mayor who was sexual harassing what appears to have been the entire female office staff.

  6. Karen

    We are not Greece. We are not Iceland. We are not going bankrupt.

    Did you see how the deficit is falling? Do you know who owns our debt?

  7. Karen, Unlike people who like to spread lies to support their ideology, you know San Diego DID NOT GO BANKRUPT. Facing difficult decisions due to greedy public unions, the people of San Diego, supporting clear thinking politicians, changed the city pension plans, avoiding bankruptcy. How many times can a person be flat ass wrong[generous adjective] before we just not even respond?

  8. Feynman:

    I never said my family members do not ride trains. I said that my family in small towns vehemently opposed the vacation train to SF.

  9. Feynman:

    My grandfather worked for the railroad. I am aware of its contributions, both in the past and in the present.

    I find this vehement resistance against any slight attempt to make Amtrak self supporting so odd. The subsidy was supposed to be temporary, ending 12 years ago. How strange that there is this strong rhetoric.

    1. Karen, AMtrack is simply a government subsidy to the RAILROAD companies. The problem is that when passenger service became unprofitable, the government took it over and the railroad companies kept the facilities like the tracks, right of way, physical plant like stations and yards. AMtrack PAYS the railroad companies to use the track and facilities. When the first big bankruptcy of the Penn Central happened, rather than the US government taking over the whole thing, they bailed out the company and let them keep the profitable part of the operation, the freight business. So that the railroad companies are profitable is mainly thanks to the government payments and forgiveness. It would have been better when it went bust to takeover the whole thing. THEN if it was not profitable, you could blame the government for it

  10. We also have an Italian Fest in Milwaukee, ugly toothless old bald obese men eating meatball sandwiches, dribbling down the front of their bib overalls. Nasty.

  11. And the creep in question is an elected official now seeking the Governorship.

  12. If people follow the thread all my comments make sense. It seems the same people show an impairment. Read carefully, take notes if you must, and I’m sure it will make sense. Diagram sentences, it’s OK to go back to basics if you’re struggling.

  13. You know that Media Matters is fighting their staff unionizing? That is very unliberal and unprogressive of them.

  14. Karen, he IS creepy. There are some creepy folks in Wisconsin, sadly so.

  16. Randyjet – you don’t expect black Republicans to attend a Republican convention? Not all Republicans supported the resolution going to the floor.

    Would you still think it was a funny stunt if a black or Latino GOP was handed a hood?

    1. First off Karen, you dismiss the resolution which has passed many hurdles to get to the convention floor which calls for the right to secede as meaning NOTHING. Yet you are outraged at the idea, of a guy proposing to hand out KKK hoods to go along with that convention. Of course, you forget he did not DO it, and said he proposed it to get attention. You dismiss a serious resolution which will have an major political effect as just nothing, yet can get outraged at something which has not happened. Does that not bother you?

      You are also unaware that even the Nazi party had Jews in it, and recently, the Hungarian fascist anti-Semitic party which has a large political base, found out a major leader, is in fact Jewish. So yes there may be a few blacks in the GOP. Most black and Latinos have more sense today. In fact when I was young, the GOP in CT was the party of the black community stemming from the era of the Civil War. Since the GOP has spit on its past, there are damn few blacks in the GOP today which is why blacks have left it. It is also why the KKK has found a welcoming home in the GOP in the South. I don’t know why you are so upset that the so called Southern strategy the GOP pushed has succeeded. The KKK now has entry into the GOP in the North and the Tea Party types have pushed it further to the extreme right. You got what you wished for. Why complain?

      This is quite similar to what the right wing parties in Germany did when they made Hitler Chancellor. They thought that making an alliance with him would moderate him. The only people who were compromised were them when they gave in to maintain their posts. They then had no choice other than to join the Nazis on THEIR terms. I know that many GOPers are not racists, but by not standing up to them and kicking them out, YOU are compromised NOT THEM. It is the same reason I would never join the Democratic Party as long as there were outright racists and right wing hacks in power in it. It would have been a violation of my principles. All those Dixiecrats have left or were kicked out and gone to the GOP now. You are welcome to them. We do not want them back under any circumstances.

      1. randyjet – it is not so much that the GOP has spit on its past as the Dems have enslaved the blacks and Latinos again with free stuff. The Roman emperors knew that if they gave the hoi poli bread and circuses it was all good.

      2. Annie – you clearly do not understand what a corner man does, do you?

  17. Paul, If you want to see real Cheeseheads you have to go to the Wi. State Fair. They have a building, big as 2 football fields, packed w/ people doing just one thing. It is the cream puff building and obese Cheesheads eat them by the dozens.

  18. Annie, I thought it was a very bizarre comment. Attributed it to a little too much vino and a sentimental moment. You mean it might have not been so innocuous?

  19. It looks like there are a few Republicans that have a resolution underscoring Wisconsin’s right to secede under extreme circumstances. Party leaders do not expect it to pass, and Gov Scott Walker has distanced himself from it. Sounds like a stunt.

    And the Dem candidate got into some trouble for flipping a little boy off an inter tube and photographing him. Sounds like a creep.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/02/wisconsin-dem-to-hand-out-kkk-style-hoods-at-gop-convention/

  20. Balanced budgets and recessions, increasing populations , shrinking revenues, play havoc with economies. Brown seems to be helping things at the state level.

    1. Annie – the comment seemed very general to me. And good advice. A happy wife is a happy life.

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