WASHINGTON – I believe in affirmative action, but I have to
acknowledge there are arguments against it. One of the more cogent is the
presence of Justice Clarence Thomas on the U.S. Supreme Court.
If you caught Thomas on “60 Minutes” Sunday night, you know that he
will probably consider me one of the many people who want to see him
“destroyed” because he doesn’t “follow in this cult-like way something that
blacks are supposed to believe.” That’s what he told CBS correspondent
Steve Kroft — that he’d been persecuted for “veering away from the black
gospel that we’re supposed to adhere to.”
The up-close-and-personal “60 Minutes” piece, timed to coincide with
publication of Thomas’ autobiography, was compelling television. It was
also a useful reminder that whenever my Bush Derangement Syndrome flares up to the point where I’m actually feeling nostalgic for the days when George Bush the Elder was in the White House, I need only recall that it was Poppy who put Thomas on the court. That snaps me back to my senses. Thomas is only 59; we’ll be saddled with him, and that gigantic chip on his shoulder, for decades to come.
Thomas said in the interview that the scorched-earth battle over his
confirmation wasn’t really about him, it was about abortion. Yet at other
points he made clear that the whole thing “was” about him, specifically his commission of the ultimate sin: He is a (drum roll, please) black conservative. Cover the children’s ears.
“I’m black,” he told Kroft. “So I’m supposed to think a certain way.
I’m supposed to have certain opinions. I don’t do that. You don’t create a
box and put people in and then make a lot of generalizations about them.”
Enough with the violins. When Fox News bloviator Bill O’Reilly says
that African-Americans are “finally” beginning to “think for themselves,” I
chalk it up to the fact that his germane experience with black people is
probably limited to that recent dinner he had with the Rev. Al Sharpton and
a room full of shockingly well-behaved patrons at Sylvia’s, the Harlem
soul-food shrine. But Thomas should know better. Either he’s being
disingenuous or he has a persecution complex of Norse-saga proportions.
There are, as he ought to know, plenty of black conservatives. There
are plenty of African-American parents teaching their children the same
lessons of hard work and self-reliance that Thomas’ grandfather taught him.
The black church, I would argue, is one of the more socially conservative
major institutions in the nation.
Black America has never been monolithic in its views, but black
Americans do vote almost monolithically for Democrats. That wouldn’t
necessarily be the case if Richard Nixon hadn’t built an electoral strategy
on a race-based appeal to Southern whites — and if every Republican
presidential candidate and party leader since Nixon hadn’t followed suit.
Just last week, the four leading contenders for the Republican nomination
all skipped a forum at historically black Morgan State University. As long
as snubbing black voters is seen as smart politics in the Republican Party,
black conservatives have good reason to stick with the Democrats.
Back to affirmative action, which Thomas famously opposes: He was 43
and had one year of judicial experience when Bush the Elder nominated him
to replace Thurgood Marshall on the court. Even Thomas can’t seriously
believe Bush’s claim that he was the “most qualified” candidate.
In the interview with Kroft, Thomas spoke of his experience at Yale
Law School, which set aside a number of slots for minority students. He
said he sees his Yale law degree as “tainted,” worth less than a white
student’s degree.
This is why some critics have described Thomas as self-loathing — not
because he holds conservative political views or because he’s a Republican,
not because he objects in principle to affirmative action, but because he
so discounts his own achievement. All Yale gave Thomas was the opportunity; he had to earn the degree. Yet he overlooks his own brains and hard work.
Thomas resents the fact that he couldn’t get a job despite graduating
in the middle of his class. Maybe prospective employers thought his white
classmates were smarter, or maybe they just didn’t want to hire a black
man. But even if the whole world undervalued Clarence Thomas, why does he so undervalue himself that he keeps his law diploma in the basement with a “15 cents” sticker on the frame?
Thomas really should work these issues out for himself. Instead, he
seems to be doing his best to save future generations of disadvantaged
minorities from the indignity and shame of a Yale law degree.
Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com.