Clarence Thomas in My Grandfather`s Son, by Clarence Thomas
On Principles & Values:
Raised by grandfather in Geechee culture
In every way that counts, I am my grandfather's son. I even called him Daddy because that was what my mother called him. He was one hero in my life. What I am is what he made me.I am descended from the
West African slaves who lived on the barrier islands and in the low country of Georgia, South Carolina, and coastal northern Florida. In Georgia my people were called Geechees; in North Carolina, Gullahs.
They were isolated from the rest of the population, black and white alike, and so maintained their distinctive dialect and culture well into the twentieth century. What little remains of Geechee life is now celebrated by scholars of black folklore,
but when I was a boy, "Geechee" was a derogatory term for Georgians who had profoundly Negroid features and spoke with a foreign-sounding accent similar to the dialects heard on certain Caribbean islands.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 2
Oct 1, 2007
On Principles & Values:
Raised in both rural poverty and urban squalor
When I was a boy, Savannah was hell. Overnight I moved from the comparative safety and cleanliness of rural poverty to the foulest kind of urban squalor. The only running water in our building was downstairs in the kitchen, where several layers of old
linoleum were all that separated us from the ground. The toilet was outdoors in the muddy black backyard.My mother and brother shared the only bed, leaving me to sleep on a chair. It was too small, even for a six-year-old. We couldn't afford to light
the kerosene stove very often, so I was cold most of the time, cold and hungry. Though there was only one store in [my previous home of] Pinpoint, the rivers and the land provided us with a lavish and steady supply of fresh food: fish, pig's feet, and
plenty of fresh vegetables. Never before had I known the nagging, chronic hunger that plagued me in Savannah. Hunger without the prospect of eating and cold without the prospect of warmth--that's how I remember the winter of 1955.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 6-8
Oct 1, 2007
On Welfare & Poverty:
Opposed to welfare as the "ruination" of blacks
I was opposed to welfare because I had seen its destructive effects up close in Savannah. Most of the older people among whom I had grown up felt as I did, sharing Daddy's belief that it would be the "ruination" of blacks, undermining their desire to wor
& provide for themselves. I added that my own sister was a victim of the system, which had created a sense of entitlement that had trapped her and her children. I went on to say that I opposed busing, preferring to give school vouchers to poor children.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 132-3
Oct 1, 2007
On Families & Children:
As child, worked on family oil truck & family farm
Our small, soft hands blistered quickly at the start of each summer, but Daddy never let us wear work gloves, which he considered a sign of weakness. After a few weeks of constant work, the bloody blisters gave way to hard-earned calluses that protected
us from pain. Long after the fact, it occurred to me that this was a metaphor for life--blisters come before calluses, vulnerability before maturity.He never praised us, just as he never hugged us. Whenever my grandmother urged him to tell us that we
had done a good job, he replied, "That's their responsibility. Any job worth doing is worth doing right."
The family farm and our unheated oil truck became my most important classrooms, the schools in which Daddy passed on the wisdom he had acquired
in the course of a long life as an ill-educated, modestly successful black man in the Deep South. Despite the hardships he had faced, there was no bitterness or self-pity in his heart. As for bad luck, he didn't believe in it.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 25-27
Oct 1, 2007
On Education:
In high school, considered journalism or priesthood
I joined the school paper during my sophomore year, and later attended a journalism seminar at Savannah State College. I was so impressed by the school that for a time I imagined I might go there and become a newspaperman. But having long been one of St.
Benedict's most dependable altar boys, I'd also been thinking vaguely about the possibility of becoming a priest. A few months shy of my 16th birthday, I decided that I wanted to enter St. John Vianney to prepare for the priesthood.The fact that St.
John Vianney had yet to admit a single black didn't worry Daddy, who was an active member of the local chapter of the NAACP and had routinely put up his property as bond to bail student protesters out of jail. The fall of 1964 Daddy drove me out to St.
John Vianney. I walked into the seminary building, opened the door, and saw a sea of strange white faces. But their interest in me, though it made me uncomfortable, didn't seem hostile, and no one treated me badly or showed any signs of outright bigotry.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 30-32
Oct 1, 2007
On Principles & Values:
Learned standard English only in high school
The fall of 1964 Daddy drove me out to St. John Vianney. I walked into the seminary building, opened the door, and saw a sea of strange white faces. But their interest in me, though it made me uncomfortable, didn't seem hostile, and no one treated me
badly or showed any signs of outright bigotry.The panic I felt on my first day gave way to a constant state of controlled anxiety. My new teachers assigned even more homework than the nuns at St. Pius X, and the classes required more preparation.
I wasn't used to that kind of pressure, and I started to worry about flunking out. Propelled by fear and excitement, I started reading in closer detail and with deeper understanding than ever before.
My grades were more than good enough. Father Coleman
told me matter-of-factly that I didn't speak standard English and that I would have to learn how to talk properly if I didn't want to be thought "inferior." Yet it motivated me, too: I vowed that day that no one would ever again say such things to me.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 32-34
Oct 1, 2007
On Education:
Graduated high school with strong discipline & strong grades
Discipline was an invaluable gift. I finally hit my stride, both academically and as a seminarian, and by the time I graduated, my grades were so outstanding that my yearbook photo bore a flattering caption, courtesy of my classmates: "blew that test,
only a 98." I treasured that caption--and their friendship--more than any academic prize. Yet I also knew that good grades wouldn't solve all my problems, a lesson hammered home when a priest took some of us to eat at a nearby Big Boy restaurant.
The waitress & the other customers (all white) stared at me with disgust as I walked through the door. Once I would have been content merely to be served. Now I expected to be treated with respect.I'd always believed that I could do as well as whites,
but now I KNEW it: my grades were the proof. Yet hope soon succumbed to reality, since I also knew that it would be all but impossible for a black kid like me to get into other schools and I decided to stick to my religious studies.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 37-38
Oct 1, 2007
On Principles & Values:
If Church had been more anti-racist, I'd be a priest
Treatment of blacks in America cried out for the unequivocal condemnation of a righteous institution that proclaimed the inherent equality of all men. Yet the Church remained silent, and its silence haunted me.
I have often thought that my life might well have followed a different route had the Church been as adamant about ending racism then as it is about ending abortion right now.I'd come to the conclusion that the priesthood was not for me.
I was still torn by indecision when I walked into the dormitory one April afternoon and heard someone shout that Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot. "That's good," another student replied. "I hope the son of a bitch dies."
His brutal words finished off my vocation--and my youthful innocence about race. This was the real world: the seminary was surreal, far removed from the momentous turmoil in which America was now immersed.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 42-44
Oct 1, 2007
On Principles & Values:
Early member of Black Student Union at Holy Cross
Holy Cross was far more than just a school to me. It had become the embodiment of all my hopes for the future, my last chance to do more than merely eke out a bare living in the segregated South. It would be my escape, my emancipation.
Holy Cross was still an all-male school in 1968. It was also nearly all white: I was one of 6 black students in a class of about 550. I was the corresponding secretary of the newly organized Black Students' Union.
Our race, we thought, separated us from whites in ways that only we could appreciate. It gave us a swagger, a sense of moral superiority. We were the aggrieved and the righteous.
[During my time at Holy Cross] one of the biggest changes was that I parted ways with the Church. It was all about Church dogma, not the social problems with which I was obsessed.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 50-55
Oct 1, 2007
On Civil Rights:
Preferential policies should apply to disadvantaged whites
Preferential policies intended to help blacks adjust to life after segregation were very much on my mind in those days, and now I began to think them through in a more systematic way. Talented blacks stuck on the bottom rung of the socioeconomic ladder
clearly deserved such help, but the ones who most often took advantage of it were considerably higher up on the ladder. Most of the middle-class blacks with who
I discussed these policies argued that all blacks were equally disadvantaged by virtue of their race alone. I thought that was nonsense. Not only were some blacks more economically successful than others, but many light-skinned blacks
believed themselves to be superior to their darker brethren, an attitude that struck me as not much different from white racism. And I also thought the same politics should be applied to similarly disadvantaged whites.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 56
Oct 1, 2007
On Civil Rights:
Affirmative action forever discounts black achievements
Affirmative action (though it wasn't yet called that) had become a fact of like at American college and universities, and before long I realized that those blacks who benefited from it were being judged by a double standard. As much as it stung to be
told that I'd done well in the seminary DESPITE my race, it was far worse to feel that I was now at Yale BECAUSE of it. I sought to vanquish the perception that I was somehow inferior to my white classmates by obtaining special permission to carry more
than the maximum number of credit hours and by taking a rigorous curriculum of courses in such traditional areas as corporate law, bankruptcy, and commercial transactions. How could anyone dare to doubt my abilities if
I excelled in such demanding classes?It was futile for me to suppose that I could escape the stigmatizing effects of racial preference, and I began to fear that it would be used forever after to discount my achievements.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 74-75
Oct 1, 2007
On Civil Rights:
Affirmative action has stigmatizing effects
Affirmative action (though it wasn't yet called that) had become a fact of life at American college and universities, and before long I realized that those blacks who benefited from it were being judged by a double standard. As much as it stung to be
told that I'd done well in the seminary DESPITE my race, it was far worse to feel that I was now at Yale BECAUSE of it. I sought to vanquish the perception that I was somehow inferior to my white classmates by obtaining special permission to carry more
than the maximum number of credit hours and by taking a rigorous curriculum of courses in such traditional areas as corporate law, bankruptcy, and commercial transactions. How could anyone dare to doubt my abilities if
I excelled in such demanding classes?But it was futile for me to suppose that I could escape the stigmatizing effects of racial preference, and I began to fear that it would be used forever after to discount my achievements.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 74-75
Oct 1, 2007
On Civil Rights:
Analyzed and advocated unpopular positions on race
The problem with my "adverse impact" analysis, of course, was that it was of no help to those black students who had already finished law school and now found themselves unable to pass the bar exam. But the adverse-impact theory had its own built-in
problem, which was that its advocates appeared to be suggesting, knowingly or not, that blacks could never catch up with whites. Neither alternative was attractive to me, and I had no easy solution of my own to offer, but at least
I'd thought the problem through for myself instead of jumping to a quick and easy conclusion that might be emotionally satisfying but failed to fit the facts. This, I decided, was the right way to approach any problem that excited my passions, and if
it led me to disagree with the solutions that were generally accepted, or to advocate positions that would make me unpopular--especially when it came to matters of race --then so be it.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 80
Oct 1, 2007
On Civil Rights:
Questions "adverse impact": blacks can catch up with whites
The problem with my analysis, of course, was that it was of no help to those black students who had already finished school and now found themselves unable to pass the bar exam. But the adverse-impact theory had its own built-in problem, which was
that its advocates appeared to be suggesting, knowingly or not, that blacks could never catch up with whites. Neither alternative was attractive to me, and I had no easy solution of my own to offer, but at least I'd thought the problem through for
myself instead of jumping to a quick and easy conclusion that might be emotionally satisfying but failed to fit the facts. This, I decided, was the right way to approach any problem that excited my passions, and if it led me to disagree with the
solutions that were generally accepted, or to advocate positions that would make me unpopular--especially when it came to matters of race --then so be it.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 80
Oct 1, 2007
On Crime:
As radical, imprisoned blacks were political prisoners
As a criminal-appeals attorney, I would have to argue in favor of keeping blacks in jail. I still thought of most imprisoned blacks as political prisoners. I had no facts to back up this opinion, a reflex response left over from my radical days. Blacks
were responsible for almost 80% of violent crimes committed against blacks. This was a bitter pill to swallow. I also grew more wary of unsupported generalizations & conspiracy theories, both of which had become indispensable features of radical argument
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 94-95
Oct 1, 2007
On Crime:
In criminal-appeals, saw blacks were not political prisoners
Our office was grossly understaffed. What bothered me more was that as a criminal-appeals attorney, I would have to argue in favor of keeping blacks in jail. I still thought of most imprisoned blacks as political prisoners.
I had no facts to back up this opinion, a reflex response left over from my radical days. Blacks were responsible for almost 80 percent of violent crimes committed against blacks, and killed over
90 percent of black murder victims. This was a bitter pill to swallow.
I also grew more wary of unsupported generalizations and conspiracy theories, both of which had become indispensable features of radical argument.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p. 94-95
Oct 1, 2007
On Civil Rights:
Black problems should be solved by blacks
The problems faced by blacks in America would take quite some time to solve, and the responsibility for solving them would fall largely on black people themselves. It was far more common in the seventies to argue that whites, having caused our
problems, should be responsible for solving them instantly, but while that approach was good for building political coalitions and soothing guilty consciences, it hadn't done much to improve the daily lives of blacks.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p.105-106
Oct 1, 2007
On Civil Rights:
Black problems should be solved by blacks
The popular political answers of the day, I saw, had hardened into dogma, making anyone who questioned them a heretic. Having turned my back on religion, I saw no reason to accept mere political opinions as gospel truth.
The problems faced by blacks in America would take quite some time to solve, and the responsibility for solving them would fall largely on black people themselves.
It was far more common in the seventies to argue that whites, having caused our problems, should be responsible for solving them instantly,
but while that approach was good for building political coalitions and soothing guilty consciences, it hadn't done much to improve the daily lives of blacks.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p.105-106
Oct 1, 2007
On Civil Rights:
Improve black lives, consistent with conservative values
What I cared about more than anything else, I decided, was the condition of blacks across America. The only way I could hope to find personal fulfillment was to spend the rest of my life trying to make their lives better, & to do so in a manner that was
consistent with the way Daddy had raised me. As a young radical, I had found it easy to cloak my belief in the necessity of black self-reliance in the similar-sounding views of Malcolm X & the Black Muslims. It wouldn't be so easy now. To unhesitatingly
proclaim the rightness of Daddy's way of life would be to court ridicule. Though I feared the consequences of saying so publicly, I knew that someday I would have to confront that fear.Sen. Danforth wanted me to come join his staff. I said I was
interested, so long as I wouldn't have to work on civil-rights issues or matters involving race. Though I cared deeply about these issues, I knew I wasn't yet ready to expose myself to the bruising criticism that would follow once my views became known.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p.118-119
Oct 1, 2007
On Principles & Values:
Member of Black Republican Congressional Staff Association
I was neither a joiner nor a Republican--yet--but I made an exception for Black Republican Congressional Staff Association , since it helped to relieve the isolation that each of us felt working in our separate offices.
It wasn't exactly fashionable to be a black person working for a Republican, and it was comforting to meet others in the same boat.I had reflexively disliked most Republicans prior to going to work for
Senator Danforth in Jefferson City. "Black is a state of mind" one staffer told me. That kind of all-us-black-folks-think-alike nonsense wasn't part of my upbringing, and
I saw it as nothing more than another way to herd blacks into a political camp.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p.124-125
Oct 1, 2007
On Government Reform:
1980: Voted for Reagan & against ever-larger government
In the fall of 1980, I changed my voter registration from Missouri to Maryland--and registered as a Republican. I had decided to vote for Ronald Reagan. It was a giant step for a black man, but I believed it to be a logical one.
I saw no good coming from an ever-larger government that meddled, with incompetence if not mendacity, in the lives of citizens, and I was particularly distressed by the
Democratic Party's ceaseless promises to legislate the problems of blacks out of existence. Their misguided efforts had already done great harm to my people, and I felt sure that anything else they did would compound the damage.
Reagan, by contrast, was promising to get government off our backs and out of our lives, putting an end to the indiscriminate social engineering of the sixties and seventies.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p.130
Oct 1, 2007
On Education:
School vouchers preferable to busing & welfare
I was opposed to welfare because I had seen its destructive effects up close in Savannah. Most of the older people among whom I had grown up felt as I did, sharing Daddy's belief that it would be the "ruination" of blacks, undermining their desire to
work & provide for themselves. My own sister was a victim of the system, which had created a sense of entitlement that had trapped her & her children. I opposed busing, preferring to give school vouchers to poor children trapped in dysfunctional schools.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p.132-133
Oct 1, 2007
On Education:
Focus on improving black colleges, not desegregation
When I arrived at the Education Department, Secretary Bell and his staff were in the process of finalizing a number of higher-education desegregation plans. Rather than focusing solely on increasing the percentage of blacks attending the previously
all-white colleges and universities, the department was trying to place more emphasis on upgrading historically black colleges.It was widely accepted that black children were better off in integrated schools. Why, then, wasn't it enough to upgrade
historically black colleges to the same level of quality as the predominantly white institutions? He replied that integration had nothing to do with education: the point of busing white and black children to each other's schools was to encourage their
parents to move to those neighborhoods. I was aghast. All the black parents I knew tolerated the disruption of busing solely because they wanted better educational opportunities for their children, not so that they could live next door to whites.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p.141-143
Oct 1, 2007
On Civil Rights:
Censure Bob Jones University for interracial dating ban
Bob Jones University was a Christian college and seminary in South Carolina that maintained a number of racially discriminatory policies, including a ban on interracial dating among its students. The Internal Revenue Service revoked the university's
tax-exempt status because of these policies. I supported the original IRS decision and was shocked when the Justice Department backed down and let the university off the legal hook.I came close to resigning from the Department of Education over the
Bob Jones case. The only reason I stayed was because I still believed in the Reagan administration's commitment to limiting the role of the federal government in the lives of blacks (and everyone else). I feared that the unintended effects of
social-engineering policies like urban renewal would be at least as bad as the problems themselves. Above all I wanted to do what I could to keep historically black colleges from being thoughtlessly swept away in the rush toward integration.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p.146-147
Oct 1, 2007
On Civil Rights:
EEOC had difficulty enforcing equal opportunity laws
EEOC had great difficulty in enforcing the equal-opportunity laws. At EEOC, I inherited a major case involving General Motors. The GM settlement included a payment of more than $40 million, of which more than $10 million was to be distributed to various
colleges for permanent endowments to assist deserving students, preferably minority and female employees of GM. Many endowments were established at historically black colleges and universities.My main quarrel with the Reagan administration as that
I thought it needed a POSITIVE civil-rights agenda, instead of merely railing against quotas and affirmative action. This was my top priority at EEOC: to do what I could to make things better for ordinary people. I regarded the General
Motors settlement as a prime example of what I thought the EEOC ought to be doing.
Toughening EEOC's approach to enforcement, improving its management, and automating its data processing were our main priorities at EEOC--and our biggest successes.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p.153-187
Oct 1, 2007
On Government Reform:
Judge's role is to interpret law, not to make policy choices
I was informed that I would be confirmed for the Court of Appeals, but that I could expect things to be very different if I were to be nominated to the Supreme Court. Despite their grilling, and the months of preparation that had led up to it, the actual
hearings proved to be uneventful. The questioning proceeded fairly briskly. By the end of the day, it was over and done with.As I reflected on the long, unpleasant process that had led up to this brief public performance,
I was struck by how easy it had become for sanctimonious whites to accuse a black man of not caring about civil rights.
Given my initial ambivalence about becoming a judge, I was surprised to find that I liked the job. Part of what made it so agreeable
was that I got along so well with most of my new colleagues.
"What is my role, in this case--as a judge?" The role of a judge is to interpret and apply the choices made in the legislative and executive branches. Not to make policy choices of his own.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p.201-204
Oct 1, 2007
On Principles & Values:
A poor Southern black child CAN make it to Supreme Court
As President Bush introduced me to America, I thought of my wife, my grandparents, and all the other people who had helped me along the way. The president had been looking for someone who was competent at doing the job but who had also been tested in
political battle and thus could be counted on not to cave in under the pressure of a confirmation battle, or to change his views after being appointed to the Court.My nomination was an affirmation of the American dream: a poor black child from
the segregated South had grown up to become a Supreme Court justice. My opponents couldn't deny that I'd been born into rural poverty, so they cast doubt on everything I'd done since leaving home, twisting and
belittling my escape from the poverty and ignorance of my young years.
"You were confirmed: 52-48." Mere confirmation, even to the Supreme Court, seemed pitifully small compensation for what had been done to me.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p.214-286
Oct 1, 2007
On Principles & Values:
Sexual misconduct is age-old accusation against black men
Questions about my relationship with Anita Hill: The age-old blunt instrument of accusing a black man of sexual misconduct. I felt sure that I had never said or done anything to her that was even remotely inappropriate.I'd grown up hyperconscious of
the need to avoid even the appearance of such impropriety, for I was intensely aware of America's long and ugly history of using lies about sex as excuses to persecute black men who stepped out of line. I was up against a phalanx of smart, well-heeled
interest groups and powerful politicians who opposed my nomination. They were out to kill me, and they'd stop at nothing.
And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for
themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that, unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you, you will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by the US Senate rather than hung from a tree.
Source: My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir by Clarence Thomas, p.214-286
Oct 1, 2007
Page last updated: Feb 06, 2014