Supreme hypocrisy

What does it mean to be black in modern America? I hardly claim to have the authority to give a legitimate answer to this question. I would think, however, that it is much more than simply the color of one's skin. I would suggest that being black in America has a lot to do with a shared history that is comprised of many years of institutionalized repression and many moments of joyous triumph, of decades of inexorable progress and events which reveal the distressing stubbornness of the old ways.

I do not pose this question in a vacuum; I feel that it is an appropriate way to open a discussion of arguably the most influential African-American in America today: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The notably media-shy Thomas granted his first television interviews in his tenure on the high court over this past week, speaking at length with "60 Minutes" about his life as put forth in his newly released book, "My Grandfather's Son."

If there were ever a life which embodied that phrase which has been reduced from a glorious national virtue to an overused cliche, Thomas' journey from the Gullah villages of the Georgia lowcountry to a seat on the most powerful bench in the world would certainly be it. I do not feel that I am contributing to the dilution of this concept by terming this 59-yearlong adventure the American Dream.

Thomas grew up among the racism of mid-century Savannah, Ga., flirted with the radicalism of Black Power during his adolescence and graduated from Yale Law School as a self-described radical Democrat. After meandering through several legal and political circles across the country, he emerged during the Reagan administration as a conservative Republican. It is in this last transformation where he went horribly wrong.

And this leads us back to our original query: What does it mean to be black in modern America? I attempted to offer a modest response, but my postulate has been tossed asunder by the modern left-liberal political atmosphere.

In his opening to a lengthy interview, "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft noted that Thomas has at times been labeled "a traitor to his race." Spliced into the interview, the viewer sees video of Rev. Al Sharpton inciting a crowd carrying signed with the epithet "Uncle Thomas" emblazoned across them. It is clear that modern political "blackness" is much less about history or even physical appearance than it is about politics.

The first insult is extraordinarily troubling. In order to be a "traitor," one must first have sworn allegiance to something. By being born an African-American, therefore, Thomas is expected to ally himself with those of a similar background. One would think that, by ascending to the most powerful legal institution on the planet, he has in a way fulfilled his obligation by setting a standard of excellence for those who share his background to strive to achieve. But, according to supposed black leaders such as Sharpton, this is not only insufficient, but his position of power is, in fact, despicable, worthy of taunts and insults.

To be a true African-American in modern America, one must not simply look the part, but act and think the part. Blackness is more about a way of thinking, a political ideology, than about any other factor. Influential conservative leaders such as Thomas, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice have been excommunicated from the black political establishment in a manner that would have made the 16th-century Catholic Church giddy.

Thomas, Powell, Rice and many like them have ascended the political ladder through hard work and intellectual acumen, and they should be held as examples of the potential generated by these values for not just every African-American, but every American. They have earned the ire of the same men who pompously travel the nation proclaiming racial solidarity because their political ideologies do not fall in lockstep with those espoused by the black establishment. Men like Rev. Jesse Jackson and Sharpton have crowned themselves lords and overseers of Black America and have successfully turned self-promotion and aggrandizement into an art form.

This Black America of Jackson and Sharpton is more about liberal political solidarity than racial solidarity, more a political party than a racial minority. And therein lies the terrible irony. The liberal and black establishments do not so vehemently attack the rest of the Supreme Court's conservative cohort simply because they were born into a race for which there are no political expectations, for which there is no mold into which they must fit. Thomas aggressively refuses to fit into the liberal mold which has been so carefully cast, and as such they try to destroy him because he is black. Brandon McGinley is a sophomore from Pittsburgh, Pa. He can be reached at bmcginle@princeton.edu.