Sam Fulwood III has a curious piece in the Dallas Morning News arguing that Clarence Thomas' appointment to the Supreme Court was "the most significant development in U.S. race relations since the end of the civil rights movement" -- and that Thomas paved the way for Obama's presidential run. I was in elementary school during the Thomas hearings, but having just profiled Janet Napolitano, who first came onto the national political stage as an attorney for Anita Hill, I've been thinking frequently about the episode.
My sense is that any bursting of stereotypes that Clarence Thomas facilitated by being an affluent, conservative Republican black man with a white wife was severely mitigated by the allegations that he crudely sexually harassed Hill, his young, black, female employee. The Thomas hearings were undoubtedly a significant event in American race and gender relations, and had the positive outcome of introducing the broad public to the concept of workplace sexual harassment. But Thomas a path-breaker for black Democratic politicians? I think not.
Here's what rikyrah had to say about it at Jack & Jill Politics: "Personally, I believe, if Obama owes any Black Republicans, it’s Colin Powell and Condi Rice. Yeah, I’ll never give Uncle Clarence credit for anything. I admit it."
--Dana Goldstein
