The Enigma of Clarence Thomas in The Majority Report Podcast Goodreads Group

Dec 30, 2019 Jacob rated it really liked it

Shelves: race, zgarland-lib, non-fiction, politics, law

Justice Thomas is popularly known for the Anita Hill incident and saying little to nothing during oral arguments. Combined with his blackness and being the most conservative member on the court in an era when conservatives have been working against the black community in every respect has often led left-leaning people to conclude that Thomas is simply stupid, a puppet or has his clerks write his opinions for him, etc. Robin points out these are criticisms that Thurgood Marshall also caught in hi Justice Thomas is popularly known for the Anita Hill incident and saying little to nothing during oral arguments. Combined with his blackness and being the most conservative member on the court in an era when conservatives have been working against the black community in every respect has often led left-leaning people to conclude that Thomas is simply stupid, a puppet or has his clerks write his opinions for him, etc. Robin points out these are criticisms that Thurgood Marshall also caught in his time as the first African-American on the court, and quickly dispenses with them by showing why Thomas's worldview is not only quite coherent, it is more aligned with the left's than one might suspect.

Because of Thomas's roots in the 60's as a radical Black nationalist (fellow academic Mehrsa Baradaran in a review on this website does question the label, so I will raise that here) whom identifies himself as being on the left, following people like Malcolm X and Angela Davis, many of Thomas's initial precepts about race and racism as well as process wouldn't be unfamiliar to people on the far-left. Robin shows from Thomas's own court opinions and occasional interviews that he believes racism is insurmountable; that white people will forever be racist and the government forever be a tool of white people controlling black people. He believes that the programs that liberals enact are simply ways to control the black populace, to put it crudely, and keep them from achieving something better. And he feels that there will never be anything accomplished through government for blacks.

Why is this so relevant to his jurisprudence? Well, as Robin shows us, he uses this reasoning to nudge the door shut for black people whether it be on the voting rights act or on welfare. Essentially, he doesn't want to give hope. Robin lays out his theory that he idolizes his grandfather, and from this he acts like all of black folk are like extremophiles that thrive in bad conditions. Because of this, he is a natural reactionary, even if he does actually have black people in his best interest.

It's a very interesting book that I highly recommend to anyone that managed to read this far down. The undemocratic courts are going to be one of the biggest sources of national trauma in the coming years and this book will give you a bit of direct and indirect exposure to it. What is evident with Thomas, and I think would be evident with anyone you wrote a book like this about, would be that their opinions are political. Their opinions stem from their worldview, and there's simply no such thing as "objectivity" when it comes to the courts, because there's no such thing as objectivity in humans. In science and math, we at least have the shroud of numbers, and it's harder to fool. But here it's quite literally an opinion. To ask for an objective opinion in and of itself should sound like a ridiculous request.

Yet, so many elite law institutionalists believe in this, or at least act as though they do. Why? Well, after reading this, it's at least a little less hazy. Thomas's reasoning is legitimately impressive. Robin doesn't inject his own analysis much, so you are mostly getting straight into his head, and at times, he almost convinces you, until you really start thinking about it. Most right-wing thought is eye-rollingly stupid, but this is not. It's dark as hell, but it's not dark in the same way normal conservatism is. It's almost... a passionate darkness. It frames things from the point of view of the underclass and the victim, and actually acknowledges hard realities much of the time. You realize Thomas's vision of despair is winning. Half of Americans simply don't believe our political process is worth the time. But all the same he's making it worse, further depressing the vote, further making sure it all happens the way he foretells.

Thomas is a political actor with immense power. As the book jacket says, he's likely the most powerful black man in the country. It's highly unsettling that all of this was in the public record and still the public perception of Thomas was as it was. We cannot keep pretending Supreme Court justices are non-political actors. The only people who seem determined to do this of this are law professors and conservative justices who benefit themselves. It's true there are "activist judges". All of them are activist judges. It's time to acknowledge this and reform this branch of government that can functionally rewrite or veto our laws. ...more

Like · see review

Jan 13, 2021 Pat Malone rated it really liked it

Corey Robin is the best there is when it comes to understanding American conservative thought. This is a fantastic work, but the reader is kind of left to their own to contextualize Thomas and his views. Robin is getting at something really crucial here, but refuses to spell it out until the (painfully brief) epilogue.

Like · see review