Read the longer piece and I gather you like the guy - plain and simple. As other commenters have touched on, you leave a lot of valid, non-racial criticism of Justice Thomas out of your piece. Things that call his character and principles into question.
I will say, based off my understanding of your perspective when it comes to race based Affirmative Action, Justice Thomas should have never been nominated to the court in the first place based off "merit." For all intents and purposes, he wasn't a brilliant legal scholar nor did he do anything of compelling legal significance in his career prior to his appointment. Let's face it, as another commenter in the thread pointed out and John McWhorter did too on a podcast episode with you, major drivers of his appointment were his race paired with his conservative perspective, and the fact he was replacing a black justice. I doubt Thomas, a federal judge with less than 3 years of experience on the bench, would've been nominated if the vacant supreme court seat was created by the other justices and not Thurgood Marshall.
Both Glenn and his colleague John McWhorter were, or suspected they were, in part hired for their positions in Ivy League universities due to affirmative action, and they have publicly discussed at great length how difficult it is to be thought of as such, even when they know how fully they now merit their status.
Justice Thomas too has wrestled with that slur on his career , so you are not stating anything original regarding Thomas in saying so. He has IMHO greatly justified his position long since. You talk only of how unqualified you thought he was when nominated - do you not see how far he has come and how powerful has been his original thinking since then?
Read the longer piece and I gather you like the guy - plain and simple. As other commenters have touched on, you leave a lot of valid, non-racial criticism of Justice Thomas out of your piece. Things that call his character and principles into question.
I will say, based off my understanding of your perspective when it comes to race based Affirmative Action, Justice Thomas should have never been nominated to the court in the first place based off "merit." For all intents and purposes, he wasn't a brilliant legal scholar nor did he do anything of compelling legal significance in his career prior to his appointment. Let's face it, as another commenter in the thread pointed out and John McWhorter did too on a podcast episode with you, major drivers of his appointment were his race paired with his conservative perspective, and the fact he was replacing a black justice. I doubt Thomas, a federal judge with less than 3 years of experience on the bench, would've been nominated if the vacant supreme court seat was created by the other justices and not Thurgood Marshall.
Both Glenn and his colleague John McWhorter were, or suspected they were, in part hired for their positions in Ivy League universities due to affirmative action, and they have publicly discussed at great length how difficult it is to be thought of as such, even when they know how fully they now merit their status.
Justice Thomas too has wrestled with that slur on his career , so you are not stating anything original regarding Thomas in saying so. He has IMHO greatly justified his position long since. You talk only of how unqualified you thought he was when nominated - do you not see how far he has come and how powerful has been his original thinking since then?