Logic Times
Clarence Thomas Isn't Black
Commentary by Aslan, 11/29/05, 11:46pm. Comments (0)
"In losing a woman, the court with Alito would feature seven white men, one white woman and a black man, who deserves an asterisk because he arguably does not represent the views of mainstream black America." – The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 31, 2005.
The Journal Sentinel suggests here that effectively representing a group requires one to express the majority (or mainstream) opinion of that group. For Clarence Thomas to be acknowledged as a representative of blacks on the Supreme Court, he should think like "mainstream black" people.
Set aside for a moment the implied racism and consider the value judgments behind this statement:
- that to not represent the mainstream of a group is substandard, and,
- that America is divided into groups requiring representation on the court.
In the first instance, minority views – from Galileo’s disagreement with the Church on the position of the Earth or Rosa Parks’ objection to transportation policy in the South – have inferior standing. Conversely majority views, by definition, are superior.
Jefferson and Adams (and most rational people) disagree:
"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." – Thomas Jefferson
"Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide." - John Adams
The Law in our representative republic is designed to constrain the majority and protect the minority, to avoid raw democracy in action.
"Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority." -- William Howard Taft
In the second instance (the idea that America is divided into groups requiring representation on the court), the editorial implies that there are competing interests between mainstream black people, out-of-the-mainstream black people, mainstream white people, out-of-the-mainstream white people, and all other mainstream and out-of-the-mainstream peoples. Yet the purpose of Law is to provide equal protection:
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. (emphasis added)
The Equal Protection Clause embodies the spirit of Jefferson’s words in the Declaration:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. (emphasis added)
Clarence Thomas's views should have nothing to do with his race and everything to do with the Constitution. Every other member on the court should be attentive to the Constitution only, not to groups, be they blacks, whites, Europeans, or terrorists.
In its eagerness to weaken President Bush, The Journal Sentinel displays a profound ignorance of the role of the Law in our representative republic, tacitly promoting the idea that people of different races rule differently on constitutional matters, and that those rulings should reflect the majority opinion of their subgroup. And The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel actually has the temerity to say that Alito is "liable to divide America rather than unite it."
Further proof of the Media Uncertainty Principle in Quantum Physics and the Media.
Copyright © 2005 Dan Hallagan. All Rights Reserved.