Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently made the highly offensive and insulting claim that Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas’ opinion on striking down race-based college admissions is “profoundly insulting” on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. AOC’s accusation is unfounded and ignorant of the context of his full statement.
In his opinion, Clarence Thomas drew attention to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s viewpoint that all black people are deemed victims, a claim Thomas believes is unfathomable and an insult to achievement. Thomas argued that individuals should be judged not by their race, but by their individual accomplishments and that race should not be blamed for everything that happens, good or bad, in their lives. Thomas’s concurring opinion expresses a deep respect in principle and principle in practice, and one can only conclude that this constitutes an intellectual argument.
By contrast, Justice Jackson’s dissent was not grounded in fact and was instead based on broad observations with regard to statistical relationships between race and select measures of health, wealth and wellbeing. AOC’s assertion that Thomas was being disrespectful to his colleague is unfounded and a weak attempt to make a point.
The case of race-based admissions policies surrounding Harvard University and the University of North Carolina ultimately led to a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, with the Supreme Court justices deeming these policies to be a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Unfortunately, Clarence Thomas and Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott often face harsh, racially-toned criticisms from the political left, as well as from the liberal media. MSNBC anchor Joy Reid crudely refers to Thomas as “Uncle Clarence” in November 2020, an offensive reference to “Uncle Tom”, and “The View” co-host Joy Behar claimed in May 2021 that Thomas and Scott do not understand racism.
AOC’s commentary hastily disregards the nuanced implications of Thomas’s concurring opinion. By making a comparison to Jackson’s dissent, it is evident that Justice Thomas believes in the importance of each individual’s accomplishments, their agency and personal skills, and most importantly, the necessity of holding oneself accountable in an anti-racist society. It is deeply disheartening that such a visionary statement has come forth from such an ignorant source.