Letters to the Editor
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So...
Does Thomas think that Anita Hill confused him with a different black man?
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I think he lied in the interview
Thomas claimed that he left the seminary because of King's death:
Thomas says he was going to be a priest. "I went into the seminary when I was 16," he recalls.
His grandfather's reaction?
"He made it very clear this was gonna be a huge financial burden but they would find a way as he said. His only requirement was that I not, he said, 'You can't quit.' And then he looked at me in the face, 'Boy, don't you shame me and don't you shame your race.'" ... But by 1968 Thomas had doubts about the priesthood. He had read the books of James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright and began to question the church's commitment to civil rights...
"The nail in the coffin of my vocation was in the spring of 1968 when Dr. King was assassinated. I was going back into the dorm, to my dormitory and someone said in front of me when we heard that Dr. King had been assassinated. He said, 'Well, that's good. That's, I hope the SOB dies.' And that was it. That was the end of seminary. That was the end of the vocation. That was the end of for all practical purposes my Catholic faith," Thomas remembers.
Thomas remembers breaking the news to his grandfather. "I had to go back home. That's the hard part. And tell him. You know, I had made my promise I wouldn't quit. So, I told him. And he immediately kicked me out of the house." ... He said to me, 'You let me down and, you know, you're on your own,'" Thomas remembers.
I do not believe that this statement on King would have affected this man the way he claims. Who would believe the comment of one unidentified person (a comment that was likely uttered a lot around that time) was enough to drive a man away from his ambition? Makes you wonder if there wasn't something else at play (sex?). Too bad his grandfather isn't around to confirm.
Also have to add that the 60 Minutes piece was so kind that it was a betrayal of journalism. It presented Thomas' confirmation process as though it was a high-tech lynching and that history is decided on this matter.
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I stopped him because he wuz speeding,
It had nuttin to do wit hymn bein black, colored, afro, operator.
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Bigger's crime
Though Bigger doesn't rape Mary, the rich white girl, he does smother her to death, and he also rapes his black girlfriend before murdering her. Bigger is not a poor, repressed Negro like the characters in his earlier collection of short stories, "Uncle Tom's Children". In that collection the Black men and women who suffer racist hatred and violence are like Prince Mishkin in Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot" -- almost Christlike. The point Wright wanted to make with Bigger is more complex: racist violence and hatred can be liberating for Blacks just as much as their passive resistance. It's an important distinction -- one that might open up Clarence Thomas's attempt to link himself to make Bigger his allegorical other self.
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So Whiney...
Tom, in To Kill A Mocking Bird, ended up dead. Thomas eneded up with a life time appointment to the Supreme Court. Yes, it is a good analogy.
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Clarence Thomas
Here we have a man who has been placed into a high position, from which he can never be removed. He makes important decisions, and no one - NO ONE - can touch him with any important sanction, save impeachment, which is not going to happen.
And so, what do we have? We have a man who has nursed resentment and bile for 16 years. All he appears to care about is revenge against his enemies.
I hope that Anita Hill, a woman who he libels in this book, sues him for defamation.
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I've always believed AA didn't go far enough
Getting in to college doesn't mean that racism ends. AA students should be given a letter grade boost through college as well. And placement at the head of the recruiting and job hunting lines in the college placement programs as well.
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Thank you
A hearty thank you to George H.W. for nominating and the Repugnican dominated Senate for confirming this apparent hypocrite to his position.
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A simple answer
How can a justice with such a keen sense of his own persecution be so blind to others'?
The simple answer is the man is egocentric and self-centered.
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Sad....
Getting in to college doesn't mean that racism ends.
Sadly, this is the one true statement in you letter, wingnut. But you still don't get it, do you? It is because of the racism that has persisted for for centuries, and still does to this day, that we have to continue to balance the playing field. Many AA families live in poverty because when the parents where young they were not allowed to get a good education, they were not allowed to go to college, they were not allowed to get good jobs and they were not allowed to advance. Now that they live in poverty, because of conditions our society placed upon them, their children are short changed. Children raised in poverty do not get the same opportunities and education that upper middle class or wealthy kids get. They are not only frowned upon and shortchanged for being black, but for having the nerve to be born to a poor family.
Now that Clarence Thomas has used affirmative action to get his, he wants to shut it down. What a swell guy. That he further paints himself as the victim is rather hilarious. Of course he is a hypocrite, but what Republican has turned out not to be?
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Great post
What a devastating point-counterpoint piece. Tim, you're awesome (although you ought to re-read Native Son -- Bigger Thomas did kill a white woman).
It's also fascinating that Justice Thomas finds parallels to his experience in fictional characters that were invented to serve a literary purpose, but apparently fails to see similarities between himself and real, live human beings.
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Rephrase that last question
How can someone with such a keen sense of his own persecution, yet who seems utterly blind to that of others have been made a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States?