Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations

James Taranto of OpinionJournal.com has a great analysis of a column by Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe.

Goodman's complaint? that Justice Thomas doesn't walk the walk when it comes to racial preference, despite being the beneficiary of such programs.

He does a great job of breaking down her double standard of race treatment. However, he misses what I believe to be Justice Thomas' views on discrimination. Here's a segment of Goodman's column

A special shout-out to Clarence Thomas, who may embark on his annual road trip in his 40-foot motor home knowing that he's accomplished one life goal. The justice is now talked about even less in terms of race--less as the profligate successor to Thurgood Marshall than as a certified member of the court's right wing. Color him conservative. . . .

Thomas's psyche still intrigues those who search for the biography in his opinions. We know Thomas as a man who benefited from the affirmative action he scorns. He attended Holy Cross with a scholarship established for blacks after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. He was accepted to Yale Law School, where a program committed 10 percent of the seats to minorities. . . .

I have no doubt that Thomas sees himself as the victim of racism and the "racism lite" experienced by many black professionals tagged as "affirmative action babies." He's kept the pile of rejection letters received after graduating from law school. At his searing confirmation hearings, he froze the senators in their tracks by consciously describing himself as the victim of a "high-tech lynching." He also knows that many people questioned his credentials for the Supreme Court.

First, from this commentary, it's clear to Goodman that Thomas never would have been accepted into Yale without a handout. How does she know this? Maybe Thomas was so gifted, he would have been accepted without "special treatment". Maybe he understands and resents whites who think he would have only achieved with the help of white guilt morsels of special treatment. Maybe, Thomas knows that despite being a gifted jurist on the US Supreme Court, there's always going to be some lowly racist columnist out there that writes crap like "hey, you never could have have made it without our white guilt program of help."

Maybe Thomas knows that until there becomes a time when we legislate as color blind society, black achievement will always be viewed in the shadows of white help... how degrading.

I remember an episode of the West Wing where one of the female characters was openly hostile to a bill in Congress to increase the pay of women in the workplace.

When confronted by one of the male characters who said something like "we doing this bill to help someone just like you!"

Her response was "maybe I don't want your help. Maybe I don't want to be viewed as someone who got their success because someone "gave" me a hand. Consider that I'm good enough that I don't need your damn help."

Maybe Justice Thomas wants a life for blacks where they never have to "pay back" white liberals for the help they never ask for in the first place.

Out of curiosity, I wonder if Goodman would be willing to quit her job so that Justice Thomas could take her spot?