• Says a well educated black man sitting on the supreme Court of the United States only because of brown v. Board.

    His point is that the harm of segregation is that it simply blocks Black people from accessing society’s resources, which he experienced directly as a child being forced to use a segregated library until he was 13. What he’s arguing against is the idea that Black children need white children around them in the classroom in order to achieve.

    He was born in a literal shack to a family descended from slaves. The theory that he needed more than just having the door unlocked for him is what is so deeply offensive to him.

    • @lolcatnip@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      111 month ago

      The ruling in Brown is essentially that “separate but equal” public services and facilities are impossible in practice. I’m other words, his “point” has been very specifically considered by a past Supreme Court, and explicitly rejected. Educate yourself on history before defending that asshole.

      • I’m not defending “separate but equal” and I think you’re wrong if you think he is. He’s saying it’s a harm if Black people are prevented from attending Harvard by law. Same goes for any of society’s resources. It’s a matter of locked doors.

        What he’s arguing against is the theory that Black children need help from their non-Black peers to succeed in school. He’s correct when he states that this theory is founded in an ideology of racial inferiority. His experience growing up in a family of grinding poverty and rising to the highest court in the country is proof against that. It’s easy to see why he would be deeply offended by any theory which invalidates his accomplishments.

        I’m not defending him as a person though. He has some serious issues with conflicts of interest that are deeply undermining the judicial independence of SCOTUS. But the idea that he somehow lucked out and got a free ride through life is preposterous and demonstrably false.

        • @Natanael@slrpnk.net
          link
          fedilink
          71 month ago

          He’s incorrect because it’s not founded in racial inferiority, it’s grounded in unequal access to resources and opportunities.

          By denying racist policies being in place to create and maintain inequality he helps ensuring the kids can’t escape racism.

          These people are arguing it’s racist to acknowledge reality, centering the logic around denying that their racist policies have any racist outcomes, and accusing the kids of being at fault for circumstances outside their control.

          These same people would never agree that nepotism driven preferential access for rich white kids is a sign of “racism of low expectations”, but when the kids are poor they will scream that same argument at the top of their lungs.

    • @Doomsider@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      101 month ago

      Ah yes, because the separate but equal worked out so fine in the past. This splitting hairs nonsense is what leads people to believe it was state rights that caused the civil war.

      No, segregation was the problem just like slavery was the problem. Thomas is riding the coattails of all the people who fought for his rights and then spitting in their face.

      That he lucked out, betrayed his own kind, and became a Supreme Court Justice is not some dramatic success story. He was put their to prove a point. And the point is monied interests win over everything.

      Here is a man who could care less for anyone less fortunate than himself proving that corruption is color blind. A man who fashions himself as self made who relied on society every step of the way.

      A man who is so hypocritical that he is unable to comprehend how far he is denigrated his position. Or perhaps he does and that is the whole point

      • He was put their to prove a point

        So you’re telling me there was a grand conspiracy to secretly tutor and groom Thomas through elementary school and high school, through university, law school, and his whole legal career in order to install him in the Supreme Court in order to prove a point… what point is that exactly?

        • @Doomsider@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          31 month ago

          Why the crazed conspiracy nonsense when a simple explanation will suffice. He was pushed through the ranks by Reagan and then nominated by Bush for his ideology not for his experience. The anti-thesis to Thurgood Marshall if you will.

          The point is money and power win.

    • Yeah, black kids don’t need the help of white kids to succeed. They need their schools funded as if rich white children went to them though.

      Also, school isn’t just about success, it’s about learning to live in a society, one which isn’t just a monoculture. Hard to learn to live together (for all kinds of races & identities) spending entire childhoods separated.

      • Queen HawlSera
        link
        fedilink
        English
        21 month ago

        Clarence knows this, he’s just throwing out bullshit hoping someone will bite.