The Clarence Thomas "thing"

Back in the Fall of 1991 when classrooms were not "cableized", I thought it was a great idea to take my US History classes to the library, oops.... media center, to witness the confirmation hearing for Clarence Thomas. Several other teachers joined in and to the media center we went....

It was a great opportunity for students to see the confirmation process as it happened. The Senate Judiciary Committee was discussed, the Constitution was consulted, i.e the students were prepared to understand what they would be observing.

It must be pointed out that the empty seat on the Court was that of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Justice. Marshall had made a major contribution to society in his role as an attorney for the NAACP when he argued Brown v Board of Education before the Court in 1954. It seemed that he should be replaced by an equally talented and intellectual individual. George Herbert Walker Bush was President and it was taken for granted that the appointment would be an individual whose mind was to the far right of center. Woe was them...the Judiciary Committee was controlled by the Dems...Biden, Kennedy, et al. They would balk at a conservative appointment, but if Bush nominated the one Black conservative, the liberals would be in a conundrum. After all, how could they vote against a Black man? Intellect and judgement played no role in the appointment of Clarence Thomas...he was after all Black the Republicans reasoned. The American Bar did not recommend Thomas, virtually no one and no group proclaimed him qualified to fill one of the 9 most important positions in the free world.

You are wondering about taking the kids to the media center...oh yeah. Well, a woman who had worked with Thomas at the Federal Office of Economic Opportunity, Anita Hill, was testifying when we arrived and you all know what happened...coke cans, Long Dong Silver, pubic hair. YIKES! What were their parents going to say? I was freaked out but the students seemed unfazed. They watched and the committee was not swayed by Anita's testimony accusing Thomas of sexual harassment especially after a poll showed a slim majority of Americans believed Thomas over Hill. Thomas was confirmed by a very narrow majority and I realized that we had entered a new phase of decency when it came to TV. Well, the point of this is that Clarence Thomas' wife, Virginia, left Anita Hill a message on her office phone on October 9, 2010 (Hill is now a professor at Brandeis) asking Anita to apologize for what she had done to Clarence 21 YEARS AGO! What the heck? Oddly enough, on the same day, the New York Times ran a front page story about Virginia Thomas' active participation in the Teaparty movement and how absolutely unusual this is...or rather how unethical this is...or inappropriate...or how no one can recall a spouse of a Supreme Court Justice being a political activist.

We followed this confirmation in class and one of the students was the niece of Virginia Thomas. Thomas is a nonentity on the court. He has never asked a question in open court. He has ALWAYS voted with Scalia and Alito...he should never have been confirmed. Anita Hill will not apologize.