Clarence Thomas is Fed Up With People Playing Victim By Kevin Daley
February 15, 2018 at 4:51pm
Justice Clarence Thomas decried the contemporary culture of victimhood during remarks Thursday, telling an audience at the Library of Congress that constant aggrievement would exhaust the country.
Ever a touchstone for controversy on racial issues, the justice-related a story from a recent trip to Kansas, where a black college student told him she was primarily interested in school work, and less interested in the political tumult gripping college campuses.
At some point were going to be fatigued with everybody being a victim, he said.
Thomas has struck similar cords throughout his public life.
He appeared on Laura Ingrahams Fox News program in November 2017, and suggested contemporary activists could learn would benefit from the example of his grandparents, who exhibited quiet fortitude during the heady days of white supremacy.
He made his Thursday remark in the context of a broader discussion about his childhood.
Thomas was born in Georgias coastal lowlands among impoverished Gullah-speakers and spent his childhood working his grandfathers farm.
He likened his upbringing to Kathryn Stocketts 2009 novel The Help as most of the women in his life, including his mother, were domestics in white households.
Given the few options open to blacks in the Jim Crow south, Thomas family felt they had no choice but to do the best with what they had.
The justice detects the hand of providence in those select opportunities open to him, like parochial education and Savannahs Carnegie library, which served the black population.
You always have to play the hand youre dealt, he said. If youre dealt a bad hand, you still have to play it.
As detailed in his 2008 memoir, he inherited these sensibilities from his grandfather.
Thomas was sent to live with his grandparents after a fire ravaged his mothers home during his childhood.
By Thomas telling, his grandfather was the defining figure of his life. When he joined the Supreme Court in 1991, his wife commissioned a bust featuring his grandfathers favorite quote.
His favorite quote was Old Man Cant is dead. I helped bury him, Thomas said.
Poster Comment:
Justice Thomas' grandpa had a good saying.