Clarence Thomas: Nobody Knows the Trouble He's Seen
You have to feel sorry for the judge. Like George Bush he has failed upwards until the poor guy is now hopelessly out of his league. Unlike our president, however, he doesn't have to pretend to understand the complexities of his job for just eight years and then retire to the back nine. Poor Clarence is stuck there for life. He seems caught in some sort of chilling Twilight Zone episode, cursed for what he wished for. His new memoir, My Grandfather's Son,"is yet another sad chapter in his lifetime of self-hate.
Am I being too hard or condescending on what should be one of the wisest people in the nation? How else do you explain his terror of asking a single question from the bench? His excuse is that the other justices "talk too much."
It's called doing their job.
They arrive with questions that need to be answered, instead of dogma that needs to be adhered to. Justice Thomas is clearly that terrified kid in every class that knows that if he opens his mouth everyone will realize that he didn't understand today's lesson. Instead of being a beacon of pride for young black kids that, like him, might have been raised in poverty, he is an embarrassment.
His supporters point to his writings, but back in his chambers he is backed up by clerks who are some of our very smartest legal minds. Kato Kaelin could sign off on their briefs and sound like he knew what he was talking about.
George Bush the First's appointment of a black man who was patently unqualified to the highest bench is exactly what affirmative action is not supposed to be about. The point is to open up gatekeepers like elite law schools and medical schools. Once the students graduate, however, they, and every other job applicant has to rise to a certain standard. My sister is a heart surgeon. Nobody is going to let her cut somebody open just to fill a quota. She has to be excellent at what she does. The bar for a lifetime appointment to our highest bench should have been just as high.
My mom went to Yale law school a few years after Thomas, after having graduated Magna Cum Laude from Howard. She was a thirty-five-year-old black mother of two teenaged kids. She knew she was brilliant, the best of the best, and thrilled at debating the other students. She never once said, "Oh, I'm only here because they needed a brown body. I really belong at the DeVry College of Law."
And that's how she raised me. Old school. Yes, racism still exists, she would tell me. So a B+ might do for the white boys, but you have to be that much better. How pathetic is it that Clarence Thomas writes that he graduated from Yale Law School with his head hanging low, convinced that the world knew that his diploma came with an asterisk of inferiority? When my mom's friends graduated they burst out of law school ready to kick ass and take names.
The most odious part of Thomas's memoir is his continued insistence that his contentious confirmation hearings elevate him to the canon of tragic black heroes like Native Son's Bigger Thomas and To Kill a Mockingbird's Tom Robinson. As Jane Meyer and Jill Abramson clearly demonstrate in their book, Strange Justice, Anita Hill was only one of several and Thomas, now one of the nine highest judges in our nation, lied repeatedly during his confirmation hearings. The bitterness that seems to be eating away at him and spews out of this book might stem from the fact that he was the head of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission while he was sexually harassing Anita Hill and he is now sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America because he lied his ass off in the United States Senate.
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Clarence Thomas has one hell of a BIG GUILT COMPLEX.
He needs a good shrink. He cannot rise above his depression, self-victimizing, seeing all through a bleak lens.
He sold out to cynical white USERS, a lazy man's way, a phony way.
He passed by the courage of black men, leaders in white America throughout history, and chose the phony way. Justice Marshall is one example of courage, clout, accomplishment against great odds.
C. Thomas is a loser. He cannot see how it's possible to be another way.
Justice Marshall's tremendous shadow will loom large over Thomas'legacy in comparison. Thomas
was (is?) a politically ambitious fellow who seized an opportunity for "employmen
Well, I'm glad YOU said it.
Wouldn't have the same impact
coming from an old white woman.
He is one of the neo-con theocrats that would have been better suited working for any other branch- maybe the legislature- but like others in power right now; they are ill-suited, lack skill, and did remarkably well moving up to the highest posts simply do to the need at the time to fill this spot- being qualified has nothing to do with filling a job slot when you're a Republican; it's who your daddy or uncle is- or are you the color we need to balance an imbalance?
Catfish John,
Get the story straight. The majority of us with mucho clarity of thought ran for the hills when Mr. Thomas offered up his 'electronic lynching' whine. However, there were a number of black men and women who felt sorry for 'the brother' and who criticized Anita Hill for telling the truth out loud and in a public venue. Can't find one of them willing to take any responsibility for 'the brother's' abysmal voting record to date.
You may join Al and Jesse in presuming we unthinkingly almost reflexively think alike.
I agree with you- Affirmative Action is an enabler - just as your mother viewed it and used it- a door was opened & your mother entered joyfully & everyone benefited!
How lucky for you to have had such a strong role model!
How sad that obviously Thomas did not have that in his life- and even sadder that we now have him as a Justice of the Supreme Court - for life.
I was present at an oral argument at the Supreme Court and was impressed by the majority of the Justices, their intellect, their grasp of the issues. One Justice slept during the argument. Seriously. Guess who that was? Mr. Whoop-dee-damn-doo himself. 'Nuf said.
Lifetime appointments are senseless in a democratic society -- this man needs to be held accountable for his (in)actions.
Justice Thomas, like so many conservatives was raised to believe his sexuality is flawed and perverse. As a consequence, that is the way it is manifested. After so many years since his confirmation, Justice Thomas could have chosen a path of healing an forgiveness in contrast to the one he is currently following. After all, nobody is going to fire him. The paradox of a man sitting in judgment of others while battling the truth of himself preempts any empathy.
mkelch: Eloquently put!
I don't think an average guy belongs on the supreme court. I am always sad when a minority, including a woman is put in a very visible position of prestige and power and that person doesn't do very well. I always want them to shine so they can show the US that they and many others just like them in background deserve to bring their gifts to our citizens. From a Caucasian woman.
Justice Thomas is the only one on the current supreme court that wasn't rated "well qualified" by the American Bar Association.
The ABA's votes were: 12 votes for qualified, two votes for not qualified and one recusal.
That makes him average at best.
From a caucasian man (the root of evil).
We have a ways to go before Martin Luther King Jr's. dream comes to pass: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Clarence Thomas has lack of content in his character. He is an embarrassment to intelligence and compassion. Race has nothing to do with it. Cheney is white, yet no one claimes he's a blight on the White race (although he is by default).
If it makes you feel any better I claim Cheney is a blight on the Wite race, along with many others. I just won't write the entire list here, but it starts with George Bush--both of them.
We must never underestimate the power of stating the obvious. You're right. We all know who the blights on the white race and humanity in general are. It's obvious, and the list IS too long.
Race has nothing to do with it. Cheney is white, yet no one claimes he's a blight on the White race (although he is by default).-
Not only Cheney, but Bush, Rove, Rumsfeld, Perle and Brownie and the whole other slew of these incompetent and corrupt folks. Yet is highly unlikely that whites are going to feel that these folks badly reflect on their race and obviously gained their position by the good ole boy system.
Clarence Thomas is a flawed man who happens to be black. He spouts the republican line regarding all subjects, including his dislike for AA and set-asides and any other race-based preferences. My issue with Thomas is that he seems to ignore that the system will not be pure if he votes away AA; in fact, if he and the other anti-AA do not concern themselves with 'white priviledge' they have done nothing to rid society of its double-standards. Thomas seems to be a person who personally feels trapped inside his skin, he doesn't sound pleased that he is black and has to fit within the historical model of second-class citizenship which he sees as a perpetual battle he faces.
When Bush replaced Thurgood Marshall open spot with Thomas, many of the traditional voices within the black community were disappointed, since most knew that Thomas was not concerned with 'civil rights' nor did he seem concerned with continuing the legacy of Justice Marshall.
We will have moved beyond race when we non-whites can talk about a Clarence Thomas like we do about Donald Rumsfeld; without intoning that his race was relevant in his failure as a man.
Many times I think the racial issue is actually brought into play by individuals who want to use it as an excuse for their own lack of character. Example: White Supremacists hate because they can't compete with anyone who is smarter and better educated than they are, so they try to claim other races are inferior, or that women are inferior and that the system is giving them a bum deal. It's self pity. Rather than face their own shortcomings they project them onto everyone else who is not them.
It's that old victim, poor me mentality. I've never met a racist who wasn't a blight on his own race.
I watched the 60 minutes interview and thought Thomas was making some good points. I tried to be objective and rational in my thoughts during the interview. I wanted to hear what he had to say since he never talked to the press. My basic problem with him is
1) He felt he had no responsibility to explain his position or his views.
2) In his quest to do justice because of the perceived injustice dealt him, he may have created more harm for the people he thinks he is trying to help.
His argument that you "don’t put people in a box" and expect them to act a certain way has merit.
On a broader note, what I realized with these SC Justices is that they are all weirdo’s. As absurd as some of Thomas claims were, equally absurd is the other justice who does not own a computer, cell phone or did not know what diet coke was when he joined the bench. WTF? And these are the people we are asking to write opinions? I am scared.
Finally, i believe if we give Thomas a chance to explain himself more, we may get to understand his position, even though we may not agree. I don't agree with everything he says but i understood his position. It is tragic!!
"He felt he had no responsibility to explain his position or his views."
Sound familiar? Bush told Bob Woodward that the great thing about being president is that you don't have to explain yourself to others.
Maybe Thomas and Bush should start a self-help group of affirmative action victims.
If Thomas wanted people to understand him better, maybe he should talk on the court and write some more opinions. As far as I know, nobody in the last 16 years declined to hear him speak out. It was his choice.
Interesting that so many people are concerned about where they graduated in their class. George B. McClellan, commander of US forces int he Civil War graduated 2nd out of 59 cadets at USMA, while U S Grant graduated 21st out of 39.
and John McCain graduated last, or second to last in his class at Annapolis.
I could only stand watching the occasional odd moment of "60 Minutes." That long, petulant, self-pitying face. Then it came to me--Bill O'Reilly, Clarence Thomas--twin brothers of different mothers! Think about it. Have you ever seen them together in the same room?
Have you ever seen or met a "conservative" who isn't full anger, petulant, bull-headed, self-righteous, and ..... (fill in the blank)?
Thomas was and is the poorest prepared and qualified individual appointed to the Supreme Court, and he has issues which would send him straight to some serious counseling within most organizations.
I find it remarkable that he is anti-affirmative action and deplores the declarations of civil rights leaders within the African-American community and says that playing the racism card demeans them, and that they need to stand on their own two feet, and then the only manner in which he got on the court, was to play it.
Let's face it, there would have been a better investigation, and, undoubtedly, had the Democrats demanded a better investigation into his background and defended Anita Hill and others who came forth with the truth, long enough to verify their cases, he would not have been confirmed. The Republicans just went ballistic on the matter but a position, which is a lifetime position of such importance to the country, deserved to be conducted without the rush and the denial of time to thoroughly explore his background and his views.
Thomas thwarted that by PLAYING THE RACE CARD. He sat down and called them racists, for questioning his character, after serious questions had arisen, by playing the HIGH-TECH LYNCHING THING. Let's face it, the people who should have stood tall against that tasteless and totally untrue depiction by Thomas, slunk back because they feared being seen as racist. I rather doubt that a prosecutor would have permitted an individual a slide by just bringing up that term, but that is what the Senate did, and the Republicans and Thomas knew that and used it.
Thomas has not and does not hesitate to use his race as a trump card, while savagely attacking it within civil rights, when it is to his advantage.
Let's face it, NO ONE WITH SO LITTLE JUDICIAL AND REAL LEGAL BACKGROUND SHOULD EVER HAVE BEEN PLACED ON THE SUPREME COURT, AND THIS GUY HAS SERIOUS, PERSONALITY AND MENTAL FLAWS, most of whom were keenly on display in that interview, which was as soft as mashed potatoes.
Oh boo freaking hoo. Heard on CNN that Thomas felt "humiliated" by the sexual allegations that arrose during his confirmation hearings. That's a shame. I wonder how Bill Clinton felt during his impeachment trial, or every time some right winger calls him a rapist?
Man up, buddy.
Humiliated by women, and one in particular who didn't understand her position as an underling. Bummer!
As with so many positions of power on the right, they range from average to nearly vegetative. They seem to love to empower the every-man and thereby degrade intellectualism. They talk about how bad our public schools are and yet they insult those who attend academic elitest institutions, which of course they too attended but with less than stellar results. I can't figure out if they place such lackluster minds in high places because they know they will make decisions that will guide the country toward very common (in its basest sense) ends. Do they use these people to make a connection with the general public. Most people don't want to be around people with intimidating intelligence so if your leaders are dullards, dullards will flock to them. I could have said dodos, but opted not to.
People used to quote the president--past presidents that is--with pride. They used to quote Supreme Court justices with admiration. Now, we quote them for laughs. I can't understand why, no matter which side you're on, you wouldn't want to be blown away by the intelligence of your leaders. But I suppose if your idea of discourse is, "Liberals suck!" an appreciation for thought is not your strength.
Justice Thomas is just one of many in a plan to destroy education, develop a theocracy, and turn the country into a fascist oligarchy.
the intellectually lazy don't seem to even understand what a fascist oligarchy means to them personally and for generations to come. It is a godawful prospect.
The power of Abraham Lincoln's writings were that he was able to capture very powerful ideas in down-to-earth and succinct (oops...bi
If US citizens don't want to spend the rest of their lives getting poorer and poorer and sending their kids off to some horrendous never ending wars, they had better wake the flock up. Its free advice from an 'intellectual'.
Burying a child who is killed in war that serves no purpose but enrich some already rich people is something a person any level of 'intelligence' dreads...t
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