Posted on 12/21/2004 5:03:52 AM PST by johnny7
Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the incoming Senate minority leader, called Justice Clarence Thomas “an embarrassment to the Supreme Court” during a recent appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press.” The remark came amid speculation that Justice Thomas might be promoted to the position of chief justice.
Tellingly, Reid's critique was short on details. No mention was made of any actual decisions made by Justice Thomas. In all likelihood, Reid has never even read an opinion by Justice Thomas. So let's call this what it is — a desperate attention grab by a neophyte politician trying to fatten himself on an easy target.
I say easy target because I was around during Thomas' 1991 confirmation hearings. I remember that black Americans overwhelmingly supported his nomination. I was told about the focus group meetings during which Democrats discovered that they could discredit Thomas by labeling him unqualified and focusing on his marriage to a white woman. After that, every time a Democrat appeared on television, references to Thomas' wife and charges that Thomas was unqualified resulted. The Democrats tapped into a latent river of racism, and it worked. Everyone was suddenly willing to believe that this black man was some sort of pitiful mental defective. Even black Americans went along. So much so that a decade later, the mere mention of Thomas' name generates derisive snorts from blacks, much of their aversion stemming from Thomas' opposition to affirmative action. Sadly, these attacks have very little to do with reality.
Thomas believes that protecting individual rights, rather than legislating group rights, best serves genuine equality. As the chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, this meant vigilantly pursuing claims of discrimination. As a Supreme Court justice, it has meant eschewing the victim status that is inextricably bound to racial- and gender-based quotas. Though Thomas has lauded civil rights activists for pushing issues relating to discrimination into the mainstream, he also noted that “the (rights) revolution missed a larger point by merely changing their status from invisible to victimized.”
With these remarks Justice Thomas has attempted to strive for dignity and genuine change. His willingness to embrace the complex social problems before him — rather than simply saying we're owed reparations — is a lot more thoughtful than anything that has come out of Sen. Reid's mouth. Yet, there is Sen. Reid dismissing Thomas. Sadly, many Americans agree with him. Not because he's right, but because such remarks give the latent racists in our society an excuse to say about black conservatives what they think about all black people.
Everyone laughs when newspapers run editorial cartoons that compare Condoleezza Rice to Aunt Jemima. People nod in agreement when Harry Belafonte calls Colin Powell an Uncle Tom. No one talks about how this is the first time in this country's history that a black man is in charge of worldwide diplomacy or that a black woman is in charge of national security. This is profound, but all we get from Reid and people like him are derisive snorts. And everyone gives him a free pass because his remarks are directed at black conservatives. Hispanic appointees aren't marginalized like this. No one dared call Miguel Estrada a sell-out. But when black commentators called Judge Janice Rogers Brown a “Jim Crow-era judge in natural blackface,” no one batted an eye.
Sen. Reid's remarks about Justice Thomas are no different than using the “N-word.” This needs to end now.
Visit Mr. Williams on the Web at www.armstrongwilliams.com.
The MSM and the pol's on Capitol Hill have let this issue pass without the commentary it deserves.
He's not ignorant. Reid's a racist slug.
The Democrat Party has been playing the Race card for 150 years and they are skilled at dealing that card from either side of the deck.
Either they're wrong, or I'm missing something here. Harry "Dasch(o)le II" Reid said Justice Thomas is, in so many words, ignorant. Then, seemingly only because Justice Thomas happens to be black, a lot of 'conservatives' reflexively yell, "RACIST!"
So, who's the racist (if anyone)?
Has anyone ever explained why the NV GOP gave this man a "pass" in 2004?
There must be something else that riles Reid, a case before the Supreme Court that involved NV maybe? Justice Thomas is a fair-minded judge and has a record to prove it. Why Reid made that disastrous remark is the question. Whatever the reason, this marks Reid a racist, another bad choice by the Democrats as with Nancy Pelosi, both are poor leaders for the Democratic Party as both are Socialists.
It is not ignorance, it is institutional racial discrimination, based on the combination of high intelligence and excellence in learning combined with an African heritage. To Democrats, the excellence in learning seems to be the part of the equation they cannot deal with.
Because of the learning experiences, many Americans of African descent have come to realize that whatever the Democrat party claims to be doing, surely does not augur well for real advancement of the majority of that particular constituency. The program appears to consist largely of "keeping them dependent and near illiterate", an objective that seems to be working especially well in the ghetto areas of our larger cities, and in the slum enclaves in rural regions.
It is a truism that the Americans of African descent have to work twice as hard, sometimes much more than twice as hard, to achieve the same goals that Caucasians appear to reach rather easily. Most of this effort is expended in resisting the extreme pressure exerted to drag that individual back to his (or her) origins.
The tyranny of low expectations. Until expectations are raised, this tyranny shall never be overthrown.
This was the standard. It is not the standard now.
If the Democrats have their way, black Americans will be the perpetual underclass. Asians, and now hispanics, have stopped looking at the DNC plantation as their benevolent provider.
Many have come to realize that it is a Party of 'enablers'.
There's really no reason for the President to elevate Justice Thomas. Why waste political capital on that? Justice Thomas already has a life seat thanks to George Herbert Walker Bush.
Instead, the President should appoint California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown. I want to see if DiFi and BaBo have the stones to filibuster a black woman from California who did better in her statewide election than either of them did. Somehow I don't think so.
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