Uncle Thom speaks

[winterbadger]

"People get bent out of shape about the fact that when I was a kid, you could not drink out of certain water fountains. Well, the water was the same. My grandfather always said that, 'The water's exactly the same.'"

From Clarence Thomas's new autobiography. As one of my friends commented, "The seats at the back of the bus were just the same as the ones in front, too..."

Comments

[silme.livejournal.com]

Yes, and when you had to stand to give up your seat in the back to a white person because the front was full, heck, that was just exercise and was good for you.

*sigh*

[winterbadger]

I can only imagine that the twists and turns that your psyche has to sustain to really believe this sort of bumpf is truly amazing.

[silme.livejournal.com]

I think he sold his soul to some demon somewhere.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Good ol' Clarence, continuing his lifelong practice of missing the point.

[histoire68.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask, "is this quote real?" and then I figured I should click on the link first. Well...

It appears he is trying to make some kind of larger point but I'm not sure what it is. I /think/ he is saying that somehow liberal people are mean to conservatives in a way that is analagous to Jim Crow. The article doesn't provide enough context for me to figure out WTF this "fountain of knowledge" he's talking about is supposed to be.

I have a button/pin thingy that says, "Yes, actually, I do hate George W. Bush." I've worn it once or twice, when the occasion called for it. I guess that's exactly the same as segregation. Bad, bad, naughty, wicked me.

[winterbadger]

Yeah, the article is not well written, especially the bit where it suggests that he says the Klan are actually worse than the liberals who he finds patronising. I *think* he was trying to say that the *liberals* are even worse than the Klan (since saying the Klan are worse is hardly an earth-shattering observation). And, yes, it isn't clear how the "eevil libruls" are oppressing him. Since he's fiercely opposed to affirmative action, I think he's saying that they denied him access to knowledge by admitting him to college without making him really *earn* it. That doesn't make much sense, but it makes more sense than anything else I can figure out. I get the feeling he really *is* a poster child for the evils of affirmative action and the way it can promote people for reasons of race who wouldn't be able to earn their position through merit. He certainly doesn't strike me as someone who would normally be considered smart and insightful enough to be considered Supreme Court materiel.