Clarence Thomas, enigma

The Enigma of Clarence Thomas by Corey Robin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is an edited and expanded version of my review of Corey Robin's "The Enigma of Clarence Thomas."

An excellent, succinct book on some of the roots of Clarence Thomas’ thinking. Basically, Robin’s thesis is that much of Thomas’ approach to the constitution is driven by a black nationalism that flowered in his collegiate times and that still burns inside him despite his move rightward since then.

Robin doesn’t just say this out of nowhere. He gets information from collegiate classmates, takes seriously Thomas’ own comments on his formative influences (beyond black nationalism, he has actually read Ayn Rand) and more.

Unfortunately, given Thomas’ penchant for not commenting to people like book authors, or to much of the media BESIDES conservative ideological media — as Robin shows, he comments to them in spades — Robin can’t bounce all of these thoughts off Thomas, though most of them seem largely correct.

The book opens by noting some white liberals have treated Thomas to the same “lazy black” and “ideological puppet of a white justice on the court” motif that Thurgood Marshall faced from white conservatives. Thomas is encouraging readers to take Thomas at his word, through this. (I saw a white liberal former editor of The New Republic, Isaac Chotiner, do just this, claiming on Twitter Thomas didn’t understand the word “deign” when he used it during his confirmation hearings, while I was reading this book.)

I found this very good, probably borderline 4/5 stars, and gave it the bump upward.

I have a few observations, as well as a couple of questions I posted for Robin on social media. I’ll update this review with any response.

Observation: I never thought it was worth my time reading Thomas Sowell and Robin confirmed that. If Sowell really thinks capitalism allowed black slaves to limit the power of slaveowner capitalists, he needs to read the likes of Edward Baptist’s “The Half Has Never Been Told.” Fact is that white masters new from experience just how much torturous punishment to use. Fact is that white slaver ship captains knew from experience what an acceptable loss rate was. Sowell also ignores “Breeder” slaves. He also ignores W.E.B. Dubois’ estimates on how many black slaves were illegally brought into the U.S. after 1807.

That said, Sowell made a left-to-right pilgrimage similar to Thomas’ and Thomas was introduced to his writing for just that reason.

Robin shows that part of black nationalism is an emphasis on black patriarchy. The 60s peace and love movements had problems with women and gender issues in general; the Black Panthers had them in spades.

Robin has two takeaways from this. One is that Thomas basically makes no effort to extend his constitutional jurisprudence on race to issues of gender. Unspoken: To do so would empower black women and undercut an old-time patriarchy.

Second, because of this, Anita Hill was an “overdetermined” challenge for Thomas. Black and female both, an “intersectionality” hit, if one will. That said, Thomas still believes “his truth” about the confirmation hearings and his time working with Hill. And, his anger was real.

That said, I would have liked some additional pages here. Have any black nationalist orgs of today, like The New Black Panthers, or even Nation of Islam, asked Thomas to speak to them? Did Robin think to ask any of these groups for their thoughts on Thomas?

After all, Thomas praised Louis Farrakhan in 1983 — twice, but then repudiated his anti-Semitism in 1991, kind of like Obama and Rev. Wright. (Corey didn't mention this, for whatever reason.)

Robin also shows that, contra traditional modern black (and white) liberalism, blacks should not expect salvation at the ballot box. His hostility to most Voting Rights Acts claims are as great or greater than any white conservative justice. His bottom line, per Robin is that “we’re outnumbered.”

So: Why does Thomas (if he says anything) think the 2nd Amendment will uniquely save black America when, per his "We're outnumbered" thesis, there are a lot more whites with guns just like there's a lot more white voters? I’m sure that, since Thomas is as selective in his constitutional theorizing as any other justice, he has no answers.

Question: Does Thomas really reconcile 13th-15th Amendments with his "original Constitution" or is this more a rhetorical trope? Thomas himself of course wouldn't answer such questions if presented them by Robin, but Robin could have made an educated guess as to whether this is reality or trope.

Related observation: I know Lincoln et al appealed BEYOND the Constitution to the Declaration; sounds like Thomas is trying to have his cake and eat it too. Again, thought, this is something that he probably would have no answer for.

I did think Robin, on a related issue, did probably “force” the idea of dividing Thomas’ thoughts into “White Constitution” and “Black Constitution.”

One last question, which I indirectly asked on Twitter before I started reading.

Everybody who knows Thomas knows that Ginni Thomas is white. People who know more know that he was married before and his first wife was black. Given the black nationalism issue, and that black pride and purity were emphasized by groups like the Panthers, when did Thomas shift in his personal life and why? Was this a calculated move, just as it was to hire a couple of constitutional scholars for “coaching” not too long before his was nominated to the appellate bench?

And, did Robin at least try looking for anything that, given Thomas' race solidarity on relationship issues when younger, led him to abandon that?

Not having received answers after a month, and with more reflection, I dropped this to four stars.

Thomas' second marriage has long been a matter of curiosity to me, and, when I first heard about some of his black nationalist background, even before word of Robin's book, it moved beyond low-level curiosity.

Perhaps there is no public answer to this, and even to his closest friends, Thomas hasn't revealed his heart and mind. It would have been nice to get an official "I tried" from Robin, though.


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