Why Black people hate Clarence Thomas

[Demovictory9]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/11/politics/clarence-thomas-black-people-blake-cec/index.html



But the latest revelations about Thomas may also have another unintended effect: They should put the to rest the myth about why so many Black people have despised Thomas going back to his days in the Reagan administration, when he chaired the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The myth is that many Black people oppose Thomas because they can’t handle his stern calls for self-reliance and his admonishments to stop looking for free stuff from White people or government programs. According to the conventional story, Black people don’t like Thomas because he is a Republican and a conservative—and because, according to Thomas in a fiery 1998 speech, he refused to be an “intellectual slave.”


But many Black people don’t despise Thomas because he’s a conservative. They reject him because they say he’s a “hypocrite” and a “traitor” who hurts his own people to help himself.


Georgia State Senator Nikki Merritt is one of them. The Democrat says recent revelations about Thomas benefitting from wealthy White benefactors validated what she and others have been saying about the justice for years. She was one of several Black members of the Georgia Senate who opposed a bill last year to erect a statue in honor of Thomas.

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But Thomas, she says, is something else. Merritt says he actively hurts his own people by consistently voting to weaken voting rights and helping to overturn Roe v. Wade, a decision she says disproportionately hurts poor women of color.

“Justice Thomas likes to talk about the myth of pulling himself up by his bootstraps and being resilient, yet he’s benefited from handouts from these White conservatives who have supported his privileged lifestyle,” she says. “That makes him a traitor and a hypocrite in my eyes.”

[apnu]

1. "admonishments to stop looking for free stuff from White people"

Isn’t this exactly what Thomas has done with his wealthy benefactors?

[2naSalit]

3. Yup.

He needs to be removed from the bench.

[RobinA]

9. Yeah, But

like any good Repub, it's OK when he does it.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. He's worse than a house slave that was selected to represent

every free black person in America.

[pwb]

4. I know many people who are ashamed of him

take your pick on why?

[gordianot]

5. It goes further back than that I remember comments about him in the days he worked for John Danforth

This slimeball has a long history.

[Boomerproud]

6. He has lied about his own sister per another thread.

Threw her and her kids under the bus to make a point about welfare. Creep.

[JHB]

8. To make a false point, reaffirming conservative stereotypes of it

From what I recall, the factual version was practically the "poster child" for "what welfare is for", getting on assistance to get through a crisis, then getting off again.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. K&R