On Clarence Thomas

I'm in the middle of reading Clarence Thomas' stirring and provocative memoir, My Grandfather's Son. It was a birthday gift but I had been planning on buying it myself, eventually. I've always admired this quiet judge. It takes hutzpah for a minority to stand up to the established order of thinking within his race. Thomas is one of the very few prominent, conservative blacks in America and, as a conservative, he's been the principle target of, I think it's fair to say, unparalleled invective and unrelenting scorn from the liberal black establishment. One of the most persistent points made throughout the book is his emphasis on the deleterious and wide-ranging effects that the entitlement mentality, and the concomitant overreaching of the nanny state, have had on the black community in America. Equally prominent is the discussion of the swift and harsh retribution that is oft meted out on any black who dares think "outside the box" of the status quo.

The most stirring episode recounted by Thomas is, without question, that of his confirmation hearings. Thomas had already become the favorite punching bag of sanctimonious, white liberal politicians, who reveled in haranguing him throughout the course of the hearings over his "commitment" to civil rights. But the ordeal was made even more unbearable once Anita Hill unleashed her explosive and spurious charges of sexual harassment. Thomas' retelling of the episode in his memoir is nothing short of gut-wrenching. When I read his dramatic closing statement, delivered near the end of the inquisition, chills ran up and down my spine.

Senator...I think that this today is a travesty. I think that it is disgusting. I think that this hearing should never occur in America. This is a case in which this sleaze, this dirt, was searched for by staffers of members of this committee, was then leaked to the media, and this committee and this body validated it and displayed it in prime time across our entire nation. How would any member of this committee, or any person in this room, or any person in this country like sleaze said about him or her in this fashion, or this dirt dredged up, and this gossip and these lies displayed in this manner? How would any person like it? The Supreme Court is not worth it. No job is worth it. I am not here for that. I am here for my name, my family, my life and my integrity. I think something is dreadfully wrong with this country, when any person in this free country would be subjected to this. This is not a closed room. There was an FBI investigation. This is not an opportunity to talk about difficult matters privately or in a closed environment. This is a circus. It is a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, as far as I am concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that, unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you, you will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree.