Clarence Thomas Is The Most Destructive Black Person America Has Ever Produced by Robert Covington Jr.
Typically, when we conjure up thoughts or discussions about Black History or Black People, it’s in the context of breaking color barriers, black history month, our resilience, suffering, inequities, disparities, and accomplishments amid living in a racist society — and rightfully so. Our blood, sweat, sacrifice, and tears have often been the reason why America did not become a slavocracy and still clings to the idea that it can be a democracy.
The constancy of this reality has been draining, tiring, and quite frankly unfair to an individual and collective group of people that have only asked to be human and free to live, love, and die without the burden of saving a nation from itself.
Nevertheless, as millions of us look to Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Dr. Martin Luther King, along with everyday black Americans for inspiration, context, and courage, there is a dark side to the American experiment that involves black people — and to understand that horrifying reality — look no further than Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
When his life and story are finally written, Clarence Thomas will go down as the most destructive and dangerous black person America has ever produced. And this metric will be easily quantifiable because of the privileged position of power he has been given and the outcomes of his decisions that have impacted millions of Americans.
First and foremost, to understand a human being’s path toward destruction and dangerousness, it is often a combination of negative experiences, a disproportional and unhealthy pathological response to trauma, societal influences, and a person’s character — that are weighted differently, depending on the person.
With regards to Clarence Thomas, only he knows as to what degree having his black father abandon him and his mother sending him to live with grandparents impacted his sense of self-worth. Or the experience of subtle and overt racism that may have contributed to the posture of self-hatred that seems to ooze from his life as a jurist. Only he knows why it’s been paramount for him to seek proximity, acceptance, and validation in conservative and white circles throughout most of his professional career.
We’ll never know publicly what was the breaking point for this damaged man. But what we do know is that Thomas is a black man that has used his power to harm, contribute to American regression, and has given a lot of control to some of the most dangerous entities in our society. His disastrous history of Supreme Court decisions, whether it’s allowing white supremacists to enact voter suppression laws that hurt all Americans, but disproportionately hurts Black and Latino Americans, environmental laws, corporate control of our elections, labor laws, women’s rights to self-determination, discrimination, affirmative action, the constitution and the rule of law, he’s proudly been on the wrong side of history and humanity.
Clarence Thomas is married to a white woman who is a right-wing extremist, basks in conspiracy theories, and is a strong Trump supporter. And as Mark Joseph Stern from Slate points out, Ginni Thomas expressed support for the Trump insurrection. On top of that, the ethically and morally repulsive Clarence Thomas (as of this writing) refuses to recuse himself from cases that may involve his wife.
It is no coincidence that Republican white supremacists would like to erect a statue of Clarence Thomas in his home state of Georgia. They intrinsically, instinctively, and substantively know Thomas is a black face that has reliably represented their cruel and anti-democratic interests.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will always be recognized as a black American, but he’ll never be honored as one.
On its merits, something that Clarence Thomas would claim to support, he’s been an enemy to black advancement and progress. As previously outlined, the record speaks for itself. This is not a partisan assessment, it’s a human assessment. His impact has been real and devastating in the present, and likely for generations to come.
His inevitable infamy happens because, at his core, Clarence Thomas is an awful human being. This man will forever be a source of disdain and embarrassment for large segments of the black population. And in the end, a cautionary, yet catastrophic reminder of what could happen when a black person has lost their soul.
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