Clarence Thomas, Liberal Racism, and the Ongoing Denigration of Black Conservatives
Star Parker /
Presidential candidate Joe Biden stirred up controversy during the 2020 campaign, when, in an interview with a black radio host, he said: “If you have a problem figuring out if you’re for me or Trump, you ain’t black.”
Biden got pushback on this, but he captured a pretty common view among liberals: that liberalism is genetically emblazoned in black DNA.
They see blacks who are not liberal as not normal, not really black.
As a black woman and a conservative for many years, I can testify to the prevalence of this view.
Now the liberal media is getting into a new version of this. Same story, but slightly different version.
The big scoop is that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has hired as one of his clerks a young woman who has been accused of racism.
Crystal Clanton, a magna cum laude graduate of Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University who most recently was a clerk for highly respected conservative Judge William Pryor on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, was just hired by Thomas.
Clanton, according to liberal accusers, posted remarks back in 2015, while working at Turning Point USA, saying, “I hate black people”—along with some profanity accompanying the statement.
Far-left journalists, such as Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post, and Jane Mayer of The New Yorker, have been on the story for years. Mayer first reported about it in 2017.
This despite no definitive evidence that the racist post was the work of Clanton.
Now that Thomas has hired Clanton, liberals have shifted into high gear.
With all the supposed concerns of the Left about racism, none seem troubled or confused by the allegation that a black judge—no less the most prominent black jurist in the nation—would hire a racist.
How does that compute?
The answer is that in liberal eyes, black conservatives “ain’t black.”
Certainly, a black conservative as sophisticated as Thomas could in no way be black.
And therefore, he could even be a racist and sympathetic to racists.
Absurd? Of course. Is it demeaning and insulting to Thomas? Of course.
Liberals are not only very tolerant of sloppy thinking. They are also tolerant of sloppy journalism.
Mayer’s latest coverage of Clanton, which she first reported in the New Yorker in 2017, appears under the headline “The Scandal of Clarence Thomas’s New Clerk.”
What is the scandal? Thomas has hired Clanton, “who became notorious in 2015 for apparently sending texts that said, ‘I hate black people … ‘”
“Apparently” is enough for Mayer and her liberal compatriots to convict.
When Pryor hired Clanton, who had a previous clerkship with Judge Corey Maze in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, seven congressional Democrats called for an investigation. An investigation was conducted by Chief Judge Debra Ann Livingston of the 2nd Circuit.
The end of Livingston’s investigation of the incident was a green light for Clanton.
Livingston pointed out that both Maze and Pryor knew of the allegations when they hired her, rejected their validity, and found her to be highly competent.
As part of the 2nd Circuit investigation, Thomas sent a letter saying, “I know Crystal Clanton and I know bigotry. … Bigotry is antithetical to her nature.”
Thomas and his wife, Ginni, have known Clanton for years. Clanton actually lived with them for almost a year.
If she was a racist, how could Thomas not know it?
Yet despite this, liberal journalists continue on about Thomas’ hiring a racist as his clerk.
When will we realize that the real racism belongs to liberals who see every black American as a liberal mannequin, denying their uniqueness, integrity, and individuality? When will we realize the disservice to black Americans and all Americans in denying the humanity of black Americans who are conservative?
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