Clarence Thomas rejects idea Black Americans must hold liberal views

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said many people assume he should hold liberal political views simply because he is Black, pushing back on that expectation during a wide-ranging interview with Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican.

“When I came to this town, one of the greatest difficulties, if you think about it, was that there were those who thought that I should think a certain way,” Justice Thomas said, according to Newsmax. He added that critics who called him “confused” had it backward: “You confuse me with someone who’s been in indentured servitude or something.”

Justice Thomas made the remarks on “Verdict With Ted Cruz,” a podcast the senator co-hosts. According to Fox News, Justice Thomas rejected the idea that Black Americans should be expected to hold particular political views because of their race, at one point summarizing that mindset with the phrase “stay Black and die” — a retort, he said, to those who had “these sort of requirements for us… because of our skin color.”

To illustrate his point, Justice Thomas compared efforts to dictate which ideas Black Americans should embrace to the restrictions of racial segregation, invoking the once-segregated Savannah Public Library of his childhood and asking why he’d face criticism now for embracing certain ideas when segregating those same ideas by shelf or floor would have been considered wrong.

Mr. Cruz has written a book, “Going Further: The Incomparable Clarence Thomas,” drawn from roughly nine hours of interviews with the justice. Mr. Thomas credited his grandfather with shaping his conservative outlook, recalling him asking, “What country is better than this country with all its problems?”

Justice Thomas also described his political evolution, saying he had embraced radical left-wing politics in his youth and was present at a 1970 demonstration near Harvard Square — organized to protest the trial of Black Panther leader Bobby Seale as well as the Vietnam War — that turned into a riot. He later said his shame over that episode prompted him to reject left-wing activism and reconsider the self-reliance his grandfather had preached. Justice Thomas called the moment a “Road to Damascus” turning point, recalling that he prayed before the Blessed Sacrament afterward and vowed never to hate again.