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What Barack Obama owes Clarence Thomas?

Started by baratunde aka jack turner · 12 months ago

Hat tip to Booker Rising

Sometimes you read stuff and go WTF?

What Barack Obama owes Clarence Thomas:
Lately, I’ve had the most spirited debates with my students and friends, and I always come away feeling like the loser.
Is Clarence Thomas’ Supreme Court appointment the biggest development in U.S. race relations since ... Continue reading »

41 comments

  • msmartin

    12 months ago

    I read this bullshyt over at the root last week and thought WTF! It's mind boggling so much so I couldn't even comment.
    reply
  • msmartin

    12 months ago

    Thomas' placement on the Supreme Court had as much to do with aiding race relations as Jesse Helms did.
    reply
  • TruthSeeker

    12 months ago

    I give Thomas credit for confirming that men should stay home and bake cookies.
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    12 months ago

    Oh shit. I'm laughing my head off.
    reply
  • TruthSeeker

    12 months ago

    Sigh, what he proved was that blacks are fully human. We are prince and prick. Complex, magnificent and also deeply disappointing...human.

    In case there was ever any doubt.
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    12 months ago

    And then you come back with this to sober me right up.

    I'm changing your name to TruthSpeaker.
    reply
  • TruthSeeker

    12 months ago

    Blush.

    Keep commenting, I'm looking forward to you knocking D off the 'top commenters' page.
    reply
  • msmartin

    12 months ago

    yep.
    reply
  • GreenLadyHere

    12 months ago

    How about - Uncle Clarence owing Mr. Obama for showing him how a successful Black government/political figure ought to serve the people. It's NOT too late for him to learn since he has a few more years on the "bench".
    And why choose Uncle Clarence? He was not the first "brotha" to obtain Justice status. Do you remember Justice Thurgood Marshall [1967-91]??
    reply
  • Geewiz

    12 months ago

    Amen Sister!!!
    reply
  • TruthSeeker

    12 months ago

    For all Thomas' book learnin', dick still had the final say. It is not race that hobbles us; it is that mad drive to procreate, and all the mutant contortions we undertake in pursuit of the beloved, but forbidden.
    reply
  • icebergslim

    12 months ago

    Clarence Thomas? forgetit....

    If anything, Clarence Thomas owes US. If is was not for the laxing of funding for education in this country, his ass would not be sittin' up there a SCOTUS, NOW.

    And if you can donate to Obama do so, after reading this.
    reply
  • PTCruiser

    12 months ago

    This piece was posted at the Root.com for more than a week. I didn't bother to read it because I found the title and premise ridiculous. None of us, including Obama, owe Clarence Thomas jack s**t.
    reply
  • Geewiz

    12 months ago

    I DON"T THINK SO! Clarence Thomas, in no way opened the door for Barack Obama or any other Black moderate or liberal for that matter. It is probably more accurate to say that someone such as Thurgood Marshall may have help Obama's chances but in NO WAY has Clarence Thomas, whose pathetic conservatism is in direct opposition to most of what Black Americans, including Obama stand for.
    reply
  • khia213

    12 months ago

    I'm not sure why you respected Fulwood before now. He routinely writes articles that make black folk in N.E. Ohio bang their heads against the wall. This ode to Uncle Thomas is no surprise to regular readers of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
    reply
  • Inmyforces

    12 months ago

    I remember a 60 Minutes interview Thomas did where he told the reporter how hurt he was that Black America didn't accept him in the same light that we revere Thurgood Marshall. He's not perfect, but neither is a lot of leaders we have looked up to in the past. You can't disown a drunkard uncle because of his ailment. I think that Thomas' ailment is he's a conservative, and he seems to spit on his people. I don't think he quite gets it, but he is part of the family just the same.
    reply
  • PTCruiser

    12 months ago

    "You can't disown a drunkard uncle because of his ailment."

    Yes, you can if his problems result in him abusing your aunt, cousins, other relatives or you. I once told my paternal grandfather that although I was related to a first cousin, I did not consider him to be part of my family. Black folks like to forgive too much even if the transgressor does not apologize, repent or make restitution to his victims.
    reply
  • RonnieB

    12 months ago

    If Barack owes anything to any jurist, it would be Thurgood Marshall. And if he owed a debt to contemporary Blacks who succeeded in rising to prominence in government, I'd recommend a nod to Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, Ron Dellums, Ed Brooke, Colin Powell (my jury's still out on Condie Rice).

    But let's turn the tables; after Barack serves his two terms in office, retires honorably from public service, will people like Fullwood suggest that the first Black Conservative president will owe a debt to Barack?

    O.T.
    What's the secret to uploading an avatar? I've tried, but can quite get it.
    reply
  • rikyrah

    12 months ago

    RonnieB,

    check the Saturday Open Thread. Another poster had the same question, and I believe someone answered it.
    reply
  • CraigHickman

    12 months ago

    Jesse Jackson gets props for his 1988 run. He ran on a message of Hope and won some primaries. Barack ran on a message of Hope and secured the nomination.

    We can say whatever we want about JJ, but without him...
    reply
  • Slave Revolt

    12 months ago

    How race relations, respect, and tolerance/differences arise and are mediated is enigmatic, complex, and awesome.

    As much as I want to psychologize Thomas, I have to respect his right as an individual to make his own way, and hold his own political views and alliances.

    Indeed, there were freed black folk back in the days of slavery that advocated slavery, kissed up to money, and were allowed extensive priviledge within that slave, white supremacist society.

    It takes all types to make the world go round, however, using democratic mechanisms, and solid arguments I believe that it is possible to convince the majority of humans that way of equality and human liberation is something worth striving for.
    reply
  • Town

    12 months ago

    If anything, Clarence Thomas owes his rise to Cliff Huxtable, if the premise of the man's op-ed piece is that Clarence Thomas not being "like other black people" made white people comfortable enough to conceive of black men being in professional positions of power. I guess the op-ed writer totally forgot about Thurgood Marshall, huh?
    reply
  • dwhite10701

    12 months ago

    I think Clarence Thomas helped black people mature politically. We now no longer support someone just because he's black. We learned what Thurgood Marshall tried to tell us, that a black snake is just as bad as a white snake.
    reply
  • NMP

    12 months ago

    Revisionist history? At the time, the vast majority of African Americans DID support Thomas' confirmation. That's would rendered the Democratic opposition impotent.
    reply
  • dwhite10701

    12 months ago

    Right. And we learned a valuable lesson from that.
    reply
  • Sepia

    12 months ago

    Is this guy serious? He just totally overlooked Thurgood Marshall!

    And since when has Thomas, Powell and Rice "wielded global power"? Thomas is controlled by Scalia and The Unholy Trinity of Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Cheney undermined both Powell and Rice. That's not wielding power, that's being a puppet!
    reply
  • NMP

    12 months ago

    "wielding" may be a subjective term, but there is no disputing that the face that world leaders have seen sitting across from them the last 7 1/2 years has been Black. THAT has made it possible for Senator Obama to avoid what would have been the overarching question of his campaign, "are world leaders ready to accept a Black US President?"
    reply
  • Sepia

    12 months ago

    But there has never been a question about whether or not "world leaders" would accept a Black US President. The question was always are AMERICANS ready for a Black President.

    And while the world leaders saw two black faces sitting across from them, they knew who was REALLY in charge.
    reply
  • Admiral_Komack

    12 months ago

    Barack Obama don't owe Clarence Thomas a damn thing.
    reply
  • NMP

    12 months ago

    Clarence Thomas? NO! George Bush? YES! As much as we disdain George Bush's policies--and we should--we have to admit that his appointment of both Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice has helped paved the way for Senator Obama. Yes, the question still remains is America ready for a Black President, but NO ONE is asking is the international community ready for a Black President in large part due the fact that the face of international affairs for the most powerful country on Earth the last 7 1/2 years has been a Black man and woman. Before that, the same Black man was head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. If I had to point to one person Senator Obama owes, as crazy as it may sound, it would have to be George Bush.
    reply
  • Town

    12 months ago

    To that, I would say that if that's the case, Obama would owe George H.W. Bush, not George W. Bush because Bush I is the one who brought Colin Powell to the stage in the first place, as well as appointed Justice Thomas. And we can take it a step back and say that had Johnson not appointed Thurgood Marshall in the first place, Bush I wouldn't have appointed Thomas to be his replacement, so Obama would really have owed Lyndon Johnson. But Johnson nor Kennedy probably would have done what they did on civil rights had MLK not been there with his non-violent movement shaming the United States on a world stage, so the person Obama really owes is not Clarence Thomas or George W. Bush, but Martin Luther King, Jr....who showed the entire world, not just the United States, how a black man in power can really be seen.

    Besides, wasn't MLK Jr. a Republican, too? {snicker}
    reply
  • Sepia

    12 months ago

    Well said! :-)
    reply
  • rikyrah

    12 months ago

    I agree with you on this, NMP. As I said before, I'm not willing to give Uncle Clarence ANYTHING.
    reply
  • Justin Pugh

    12 months ago

    Barack Obama doesn't owe Clarence Thomas anything...
    reply
  • Pamela

    12 months ago

    I'd be more persuaded if Mr. Fulwood had pointed to any actions by Mr. Thomas that had benefited Mr. Obama. The hearings were Clarence Thomas being acted upon (being appointed, being humiliated). If Fulwood had stuck to Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, ok. But Clarence Thomas? Unh uh. (I say this without hatin' on brother Thomas.)
    reply
  • D.

    12 months ago

    Barack owes his ascendancy to those "first blacks" who paved the way for him.

    Justice Thomas doesn't fit into that category, as his nomination to the SC was to replace another black justice.
    reply
  • Val

    12 months ago

    Barack owes his ascendancy God, his Mother and grandparents, and his wife and family for their continued loving support.
    reply
  • Val

    12 months ago

    oh forgot to answer the question. he owes Clarence -- nothing.
    reply
  • heartsandflowers

    12 months ago

    Obama would 'owe' Thomas if House Negros ruled the world. Is the guy that wrote this piece a Republican? Or friend of the Bushes? To discount Thurgood Marshall is deliberate AND insulting. Thomas has always seemed ashamed of being Black imo. He's married to a white woman. He sexually harassed the esteemed Dr. Anita Hill [and I'm sure other women]. He has not done ANYTHING to help Black people and EVERYTHING to elevate himself. He is the antithesis of Obama.
    reply
  • GreenLadyHere

    12 months ago

    Hearts: Co-signing!
    reply
  • Charles

    10 months ago

    As a farmer once said " they or him,Clarence Thomas ;"They run with the hounds while
    pretending friendship and brotherhood with the rabbits." Like Thomas; When Black-White Conservative alignments occur, Black Conservatives becomes a liability to Blacks
    and ab asset to Whites. This puts Black people in serious danger.
    reply
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