Clarence THOMAS has enough of a soul for it to be "divided." Who knew.

[UTUSN]

*******QUOTE*******

The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18255941/

Justice Thomas’s life a mix of poverty, privilege
Race issue shadows only African American on Supreme Court
By Kevin Merida and Michael A. Fletcher

Updated: 2 hours, 39 minutes ago
Adapted from the book "Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas" by Kevin Merida and Michael A. Fletcher, Doubleday, New York, © 2007

.... Thomas's intervention in this family crisis reflects a side of him not widely known. As arguably the most powerful African American in public life, he labors under expectations that none of his fellow justices face. Even as Thomas goes about his work, perhaps the purest conservative on the high court, it is his racial identity that shadows him. For 16 years, there have been questions: Would he be on the court if he were not black? Would his silence at oral arguments cast doubt on his intellect if he were not black? Would he be the subject of such public scrutiny if he were not a black conservative? ....

Ketanji Brown Jackson, a former clerk for Justice Stephen G. Breyer, remembers sitting across from Thomas at lunch once with a quizzical expression on her face. Jackson, who is black, said Thomas "spoke the language," meaning he reminded her of the black men she knew. "But I just sat there the whole time thinking: 'I don't understand you. You sound like my parents. You sound like the people I grew up with.' But the lessons he tended to draw from the experiences of the segregated South seemed to be different than those of everybody I know." ....

Thomas is not popular among the other inmates, the nephew emphasized. Most consider the justice a sellout, believing that a black jurist should not support draconian penalties but should question why the nation's drug laws hit low-level dealers and African Americans disproportionately hard. On the court, Thomas has largely backed the government's position on drug crimes and incarceration, including on questions of inmate property forfeiture, visitation rights and maximum sentences for repeat offenders. ....

But the truth is that Thomas's rise was never anchored in Pin Point, as White House advisers led the public to believe. His family's house had burned down when he was 6, and for most of his young life he was raised comfortably in Savannah by his grandfather Myers Anderson, one of the black community's leading businessmen. When Thomas does return to Pin Point now, he comes quietly and leaves quickly. He is not a frequent visitor. Some residents note he missed Pin Point's last two summer reunions, in 2000 and 2004. Thomas's sister says her brother has never even been inside her home. "No, I don't think so," Martin said. ....

Emma Mae Martin, who was once publicly singled out by her brother as an example of the debilitating effects of welfare dependency, is a high school dropout who later earned her diploma in night school as an adult. She and her brother don't talk politics or law or philosophy. Their conversations tend to be about, "well, not much really," Martin said. "Find out how I'm doing, what I'm up to, that's about it." ....

Though Thomas had not always thought the best of his mother as a parent, ... ....

********UNQUOTE*******

[shenmue]

1. Too bad...

he isn't dividied on the issue of how to be a better justice.

:(

I feel sorry for his sister.

[TahitiNut]

2. Thomas is a racist ... of the most distorted kind, imho.

I'm convinced that he has deep-seated antipathy toward the most disadvantaged African-Americans - the impoverished and poorly educated - solely because he thinks it maks HIM 'look bad.' I really believe he deeply resents his own race and over-compensates by pretending to be 'color blind' and 'beyond race.' I think his attitudes are contorted and deeply-conflicted. That he compounds his conflicts with a kind of sexism that's corrupted by race is appalling.

[UTUSN]

7. Ruben NAVARRETTE fills the same role for Hispanics, but on an even MORE mediocre level

This would be the dude who dumped out of Harvard on Affirmative Action, then went back, then got a name with a book bashing his AA and Harvard experience, and he parlayed this "independent" stance into a fool syndicated column that nobody reads.

He claims that AA is a ghettoizing process concocted by clueless (well meaning) White Lib males, who demand that AA alumni stay meekly (and quietly) in the Lib fold. He constantly lectures the Democratic party on what it should do, although he just LUERVES everything Shrub and Republic.

When Texas Dems were paralyzed by Boss-(Conservative)Dem Bob BULLOCK's alliance with Shrub, NO competitive Dems could be fielded in statewide offices, and one idiotic Victor MORALES, a high school teacher, took the vaccuum hostage, running in 2 or 3 election cycles as a Dem, campaigning only on weekends and traveling in his old pick-up. When Shrub was finally out of Texas and BULLOCK was dead and the Dems started reviving faintly, NAVARRETTE wrote columns ranting that the Democratic Party "OWED" Victor the next nomination because of his services. HAH!!1 When MORALES lost the primary to a potential contender, MORALES refused to endorse or support the Dem nominee and went openly Rethug.

NAVARRETTE claims that minorities, specifically Hispanics, should not commit to any party, should negotiate for best deals---the "cafeteria" approach. HAH!!1 Why should a party choose a cafeteria type over committed members!!1

So much for the "Liberal universities" that implement Affirmative Action. Somehow they tend to turn out historically clueless wingnuts.

Oh, and regarding Beto GONZALES, NAVARRETTE demanded that he be confirmed without contentious hearings or vetting, JUST because he is a Hispanic, and he frequently harps that Shrub has elevated more and highest profile minorities than Dem administrations. He claimed that once GONZALES was in office, NAVARRETTE would keep an oh-so-close eye on him and would be the first to whip him into shape if he fucked up. So now he is defending GONZALES to the death. He must have learned how to watchdog from O.J. who is in HOT PURSUIT of the killers on the golf course.

[KittyWampus]

14. Thanks for your post. I re-read it several times. Will have to think about it some.

It might make for a very insightful short essay, if you had the inkling.

Hmmm.

[TahitiNut]

18. It was difficult to express ... and something that I've seen in Thomas ...

... since the hearings. He enjoys wielding power over others and exploits social divides to do so. It seems obvious he's of a mindset that "paying his dues" (no matter how deeply resentful of it) entitles him to beat up on others. It took a lot of listening to Anita Hill and Thomas' own posturing to even partially unravel his perspective. It's quite possible to be a sexist and racist and not be bigoted in the simplistic sense - it's a matter of elevating some self-serving attitude and appreciating the effect of long-held resentments on an agile mind bereft of any adequate dose of empathy and compassion. He seems to balance/offset pity with disdain, at least in part adopting some Old Testament (or Ayn Randian?) sense that people who have the least deserve the least - a kind of social Darwinism. Inside that middle-aged man is a VERY angry little boy - marginally sociopathic but anything but self-destructive. (He'd have no problem whatsoever climbing a ladder and then knocking it down so others couldn't use it.)

[hlthe2b]

19. agree totally, TahitiNut...

As hard as it is to imagine someone being so totally focused on their own self-interest as to deny the opportunities he has received to others... that is Thomas.

His self-denial of what he is doing is a study in behavioral pathology.

[Bjornsdotter]

3. I knew it!

He's Voldemort!

Cheers

[Colobo]

4. I admire the fact that he is an accomplished professional

But I do think he hates being black... which is one of the worst kinds of racism that can exist (self-hatred).

[Kagemusha]

5. I hear legal experts don't consider him an accomplished justice.

I mean, he spends most of his decisions saying "Me too" when Scalia goes off on his rants. Hard to be considered accomplished as a supreme court justice that way. If anyone has reason to consider him underqualified for the court, THAT is why, and that has nothing direct to do with his skin color; it's that he votes according to ideology, and the ideology is a "Me too" version of Scalia's.

[Colobo]

6. I respect his professional accomplishments and his education

which doesn't mean I believe he is good or excellent at what he does.

But he made it to the SCOTUS, so he had to be good at something.

[Kagemusha]

8. I'm saying it's odd that this is re-framed as an issue of his being black.

If anyone has a reason to doubt whether he should've made it to the SCOTUS in the first place, it's because that subsequently, he's written the least, he's voted in very lock-step manner for the most part, and when he has not, it's because even Scalia wasn't radical enough for him. This is the voting pattern of a crank. Now people want to turn around and what, position criticism of him as targeting him because he's black? I can think of a lot of knocks against him that don't have anything to do with the color of his skin, but rather, the content of his mind and his conduct through his actions.

But I guess that doesn't sell copy like insinuating that liberals hate him because he's black.

Edit: I re-read the original post and saw there is mention of his being "silent" at oral arguments... and then asking, would this be even mentioned if he was not black? Um, YES. In any sane country, mutes on a Supreme Court who behave like members of a political faction far more than justices are looked down upon and rightly so. It would very much be an issue if he was white or some other ethnicity. But apparently the fact he's black means that criticism - even justified criticism - must be racist. Ugh.

[Colobo]

10. This woman says

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4vUpV6eDNk

[hlthe2b]

16. "odd that this is re-framed as an issue of his being black" ????

For someone to sell out his own on every issue that might have helped the African American (and poor of every race and ethnicity), while exploiting his own membership in that race and association with that population to advance HIS own future....? You are surprised his race comes into it? Face it, he was not appointed because of his qualifications.

There were and are countless members of minority races that were immensely qualified, but would NEVER be considered. Thomas was put on that court because it gave the RW "cover" to move in areas that are clearly racist, discriminatory, and in opposition to the best interests of black and other minorities and poor people of all races.

[TahitiNut]

20. I am VERY uncomfortable with the paradigm implicit in "sell out his own".

There's something very distasteful to me that we'd/I'd impose some special expectation on ANYONE according to their skin color or ethnicity. Clearly, as a liberal I tend to assume (like many) that those who've experienced social injustices first-hand are in a position (other things being equal) to best understand what must be done to eradicate those injustices ... but I really rebel when it gets to the point of exacerbating ethnic distinctions to the point of "loyalty to race or sex or whatever" - I've seen and heard altogether too much of that from white male bigots to think it holds any merit whatsoever. I don't believe in race-based obligations - I believe more in the notion the "from whom much is given, much is expected." (Stated another way: "If you're beautiful or smart, it's because you'll need to be for the Universe has higher challenges planned for you.")

[hlthe2b]

21. I agree with that.... "from whom much is given, much is expected"

which is really what I'm getting at... not specifically any race or ethnicity, but the wider population of people who need a chance--the very chance that people like Thomas was given. The quote "from whom much is given, much is expected" absolutely underscores this concept and why Thomas deserves the excorating criticism he receives...

However, it does go further than this. When someone like Thomas allows a unique aspect of himself (in this case his race) to be used as cover for a political party's policies that are often demonstrably racist or discriminatory, THAT is selling out his own.

[UTUSN]

11. What he is "good at" is filling the Poppy template of finding minority WINGNUTS as wedges

to coopt the Dem hold on minorities, to throw the Dems into confusion, to split the Dem opposition.

Just as there is SOMETHING WRONG and LIMITED in the composition of the wingnut mentality in general, so, with minority members who are wingnuts, their thinking is overpowered by their PERSONAL GAIN, whether materially or socially, by their being willing tools.

[UTUSN]

17. Addendum: The Dem ANSWER to the Poppy-minority-wingnut-WEDGE tactic should be:

We oppose THOMAS, ESTRADA, GONZALES on grounds completely unrelated to race or ethnicity. Very simply, they are WINGNUTS, that's all. Whether puppets or tools, NO MATTER----just on the grounds of WINGNUTTINESS. Period.

[saracat]

12. "But he made it to the SCOTUS, so he had to be good at something".You're joking, right?

Do you remember the hearings? He barely made it and shouldn't have. I believe his ratings were NOT good. Some were afraid to vote against him because of his race. Thomas is one of the worst jurists ever.

[hlthe2b]

15. He was good at letting himself be the poster boy for those who

(like himself) hated African Americans and the poor. The ultimate speculator, who took his key "strength" (his own membership in the African American population) to fully exploit others.

[pretzel4gore]

9. well, he said he'd 'get even' with America, and you must admit, he has...

in 'Strange Justice' on the last page, authors Mayer/Abramson recount how Thomas reacted to suggestions he might, in time, 'evolve' or grow, in his rulings: on the contrary, he told aides 'I aint evolving'...nor was he going to step down anytime before retirement age. He vowed he would spend '43 years' (his age at confirmation) as a Supreme Court justice, cuz it would take him that long to 'get even'
that happened in 1994....Thomas must view bush with grim satisfaction....

[hlthe2b]

13. Thomas is worse than a racist... He is fueled by contempt for

his own, IMO... Look at his relationship with his sister, his mother, others.... He's ashamed of them and only engages them or tries to help them when to not do so would add to the negative opinion of HIM... Thomas, himself, escaped the same risks that his brother-in-law and nephews face, when he was farmed out to his grandfather in Savanah, experiencing opportunities the rest of his family could not dream of...

Yet, it appears it was only after his BIL was sent long term down the river, and his nephew, who had been in trouple multiple times was ALREADY sentenced to a long term prison sentence, that Thomas THEN decides to get involved. Give me a break....He continues to exploit his less fortunate members of his family and their resultant mistakes for his own objectives... :puke: