Bringing out the Malcolm in Clarence.

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My man Rippa shot me an e-mail earlier today and wanted to know what I thought of my favorite uncle's take on the Second Amendment. Seems CT was unusually animated during the most recent supreme court hearings while listening to arguments in the McDonald v. Chicago case.

Now Clarence, you need to quit. You might fool some of these other Negroes with your new found pro- black stance, but you aren't fooling me. This is a new low, even for you.

Let me quote from Courtland Milloy's article and then I will make my point:

"He hardly ever speaks during oral arguments, often appearing asleep on the bench. But in his written opinion Monday supporting the right to bear arms, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas roared to life.

Referring to the disarming of blacks during the post-Reconstruction era, Thomas wrote: "It was the 'duty' of white citizen 'patrols to search negro houses and other suspected places for firearms.' If they found any firearms, the patrols were to take the offending slave or free black 'to the nearest justice of the peace' whereupon he would be 'severely punished.' " Never again, Thomas says.

In a scorcher of an opinion that reads like a mix of black history lesson and Black Panther Party manifesto, he goes on to say, "Militias such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Knights of the White Camellia, the White Brotherhood, the Pale Faces and the '76 Association spread terror among blacks. . . . The use of firearms for self-defense was often the only way black citizens could protect themselves from mob violence."

This was no muttering from an Uncle Tom, as many black people have accused him of being. His advocacy for black self-defense is straight from the heart of Malcolm X. He even cites the slave revolts led by Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner -- implying that white America has long wanted to take guns away from black people out of fear that they would seek revenge for centuries of racial oppression.

If I may use another quote which I am sure many of you have heard: "Nigger please!"

Like you really care about poor Otis McDonald and his right to protect himself against urban terrorist. (AKA "street pirates") The only thing that Clarence Thomas wants to protect is a right wing ideological agenda, and a powerful gun lobby that pours millions of dollars into the pockets of his friends.

Shame on you Clarence! Reasonable people are trying to do everything in their powers to protect their cities against the scourge of gun violence and you wake from your usual oral argument stupor to lecture us about Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner? Do you think Shakuwrah Muhammad's life would have been spared if she was packing? Do you think that six month old baby in North Philly would have been spared from that urban terrorist's gun if her parents were packing? Right outside of Philly there is a small city under siege. Do you think one of those eleven murders that have taken place in the past couple of months could have been prevented if every law abiding citizen was packing? A police officer was shot there yesterday, I am guessing he was armed as well. These thugs and criminals aren't running into homes and shooting people, they are shooting each other, and decent law abiding citizens are getting caught in the cross- fire.

" This was no muttering from an Uncle Tom, as many black people have accused him of being"

Yeah, Ok, Courtland, I see he has you hoodwinked as well. And I have to start seriously questioning your smarts as a journalist. If that's really what you are.

"He dismissed the cogent gun-control arguments of his retiring colleague, John Paul Stevens, conjuring up the abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens instead: "When it was first proposed to free the slaves and arm the blacks, did not half the nation tremble?"
Let 'em quake, Thomas appears to be saying.

From Frederick Douglass, Thomas writes: " 'The black man has never had the right either to keep or bear arms,' and that, until he does, 'the work of the Abolitionists was not finished.' "
Because of his conservative take on affirmative action and prisoners' rights, he has been cast as an uncouth African American who didn't understand black history, a dupe for arch conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and a man who couldn't think for himself.

What Thomas has created, however, is a legal defense of the Second Amendment so thoroughly original and starkly race-based that none of the white justices would even acknowledge it, as if it were some blank sheet crafted by an invisible man.

That ought to be a clue enough for black people that this document is at least worth a look. You may not agree with his conclusion, but there'll be no mistake about where he's coming from. " [Article]

I know exactly where he is coming from. And I hope he keeps a lot of toilet paper with his briefs. He will need it to wipe off all the s*#t.

*Pic lifted from kerrywaghorn.com