Thinking Citizen Blog — Amazon Cancels Clarence Thomas And Why This Matters a Hell of a Lot
Thinking Citizen Blog — Saturday is Justice, Freedom, Law, and Values Day
Today’s Topic: Amazon cancels Clarence Thomas and why this matters a hell of a lot
A line has been crossed. The Rubicon. The Red Line. The Rhine. Mark this week on your calendar. Am I exaggerating? I don’t think so. Honestly. Clarence Thomas, the second and only sitting black justice on the Supreme Court, the descendant of slaves, born into poverty and speaking Gullah as his first language, has been de facto cancelled by Amazon. Why? Because his views on race which comport with those of Frederick Douglass are not consistent with current progressive orthodoxy on the subjects of affirmative action and equality before the law. This cancellation matters so much because it is not an isolated incident. The connection that is most painful to me is the recollection of a conversation with the head section leader in Harvard’s introductory African American Studies course about five years ago. She had not heard of Thomas Sowell, the black economist who is in my judgment and that of many others the greatest American public intellectual of the last fifty years! With the mind of a Nobel Prize winner he writes in elegant, readable sentences. But he has been de facto canceled from the Harvard African American studies curriculum! Why? Again because he is a conservative thinker in the tradition of Booker T. Washington who emphasized the importance of economic productivity rather than political action as a road to black advancement as championed by WEB Dubois. How can students or citizens learn to be critical thinkers when they are exposed to only one point of view? Today, excerpts from an article by Jason Riley, a black columnist for the Wall Street Journal. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
CREATED EQUAL: CLARENCE THOMAS IN HIS OWN WORDS (2020)
1. “Early last month Amazon deleted a documentary film about Justice Clarence Thomas from its popular streaming service.”
2. “Culled from more than 30 hours of interviews with the subject, the film recounts Justice Thomas’s rise from poverty in segregated Georgia to Yale School and, eventually, to the Supreme Court. Along the way, viewers learn about the justice’s views on race, religion, politics, and the role of the judiciary.”
3. “The documentary began airing on PBS in May 2020 and streaming on Amazon in October. But it was taken down by Amazon on Feb. 8, according to the director, Michael Pack, and has never been told why.”
NB: “They have the right pull anything from their site, and they don’t have to give an explanation. So it’s not a contract violation. But many people have complained, and they haven’t put it back.” (Michael Pack)
THE SHELBY STEELE PRECEDENT: “WHAT KILLED MICHAEL BROWN?”
1. “If this episode sounds familiar, it’s because Amazon pulled a similar stunt last fall. Eli Steele’s “What killed Michael Brown?” — a critique of liberal social policies that was written and narrated by his father, the race scholar Shelby Steele — was slated to stream on Amazon in October,, then held up for reasons the company never fully explained.”
2. “Amazon eventually relented and made the film available, but only after these pages weighed in and made a fuss.”
3. This is true and last week I watched the film. It is not a great documentary but it is very much worth watching, especially if you are not used to hearing the opinions of a knowledgeable, thoughtful black conservative. Warning: it is rather slow with the second hour much more so than the first. I tried my best to find the Clarence Thomas documentary but failed. If anyone out there can provide a link, that would be awesome.
FEBRUARY WAS BLACK HISTORY MONTH!!!!! WHAT A TIME TO CANCEL BLACK HISTORY!!!!
1. “Mr. Pack was particularly dismayed that his film was pulled during Black History Month.” (Riley)
2. “Clarence Thomas, to my mind, is the most important African-American leader in America today.” (Pack)
3. “People ought to be exposed to a range of black opinions. He’s right, and what Amazon has done is a disservice to anyone — black or white- who is interested in the rich history of black Americans.” (Riley)
NB: “The spectrum of thought amongst African-Americans is and has always been much broader and multifarious than commonly perceived,” the black legal scholar Randall Kennedy wrote in a recent essay for Heterodox Academy. “Fervent debates about scores of subjects — indeed every imaginable subject — have roiled African-Americans ideologically: accomodation versus protest; interracial socialism versus black nationalism; Gandhian non-violence versus ‘by any means necessary,’ support for affirmative action versus detestation of ‘lowered standards,’ ‘integration’ versus ‘black power.’” One reason for this misperception is Black History Month, whose emphasis is on celebrating the achievements of blacks who fit the liberal narrative while ignoring or minimizing the achievements of those who don’t. If you are prominent black figure who has been more focused on black development than on black victimhood (Clarence Thomas, Shelby Steele, Robert Woodson), or someone who is more interested in the results of a policy than its intentions (Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams), there is an attempt to write you out of black history. Wittingly or not, Amazon has used its power to abet this effort.”
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FOOTNOTE
1. When I entered the PhD program in the History of American Civilization program at Harvard, I was a passionate Marxist whose career goal was to overthrow American capitalism.
2. A book by Thomas Sowell (above), “Race and Economics” was on the reading list of the undergraduate survey course in which I was assigned to teach a section. His incisive analysis shook my beliefs at their very foundation. Today, Harvard undergraduate and graduate students are not even given the opportunity to have their beliefs challenged by the likes of Sowell.
3. A Rubicon has been crossed.
Opinion | Why Did Amazon Cancel Justice Thomas?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Economics
Affirmative Action Around the World
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_Economics
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PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to justice, freedom, the law or basic values. Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to justice, freedom, the law, or basic values. Or just some random justice-related fact that blew you away.
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply about something dear to your heart.
