Clarence Thomas on Trumpism

[JHan]

"Most significantly, there is the backlash against affirmative action by 'angry, white males.' I do not question a person’s belief that affirmative action is unjust because it judges people based on their sex or the color of their skin. But something far more insidious is afoot. For some white men, preoccupation with oppression has become the defining feature of their existence. They have fallen prey to the very aspects of the modern ideology of victimology that they deplore….They must remember they if we are to play the victim game, the very people they decry have the better claim to victim status."

From "Victims and Heroes in the Benevolent State"

Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Spring 1996,

[irisblue]

1. how awful it is to read those names in context of American history.

[safeinOhio]

2. Thanks, interesting.

[JHan]

5. it is, makes you wonder what he'd say if asked about this quote in these times..

also worth noting that Trumpland is saturated with Thomas acolytes:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/08/clarence-thomas-legal-vision-is-becoming-a-trump-era-reality.html

[sheshe2]

3. Sad he lost the person he was in 1996.

[JHan]

4. Oh I don't think he ever changed, but it's a moment of insight for him.

And what he's saying can't be denied.

The larger context was how he coped with what he saw as the stigma of affirmative action.

Ironically, the party he clung to is the party that made it a point to deride diversity legislation which fed the same stigma and stereotypes he battled.