Clarence Thomas Dissents

Clarence Thomas intrigues me. There are a variety of reasons he intrigues me, and I'm sure that there are all sorts of reasons I should just dislike him intensely (which, actually, I do.)

He (along with his buddy Scalia, as per usual) dissented from the majority opinion in Miller-El vs Dretke, which was the appeal of Thomas Miller-El, who was sentenced to death for murder. I actually read the dissent, because I was so curious about how he could dissent from an opinion that seems pretty darned clear to me.

And I found something really interesting. He was unwilling to make the (to many, obvious) assumption that the fact that the state used so many peremptory challenges to eliminate black jurors meant that the state was systematically trying to eliminate blacks from the jury: "The majority simply assumes that all Dallas County prosecutors were racist and remained that way through the mid-1980's." In addition, he says that much of the evidence that the majority used to come to their conclusion was not dealt with by the state courts (and, I guess, thus shouldn't come into play? I'm a bit fuzzy on that.)

But anyway, the upshot is that for Thomas, there just isn't enough evidence of discrimination for him. And I found this amazingly fascinating, in terms of the guy's psychology. Here is someone who, one expects, has experienced active discrimination in his life because he is black, yet he needs more evidence for discrimination in this case than 7 white justices!

But then I had to ultimately admit that he and I have something in common besides being African-American. I don't have much trouble seeing racism and discrimination that happens to other people, in the broader community or country (especially the south.) I have no problem assuming that "Dallas County prosecutors were racist and remained that way through the mid-1980s." But in my personal life, and my interactions with people and organizations, I  tend to assume that something that happens is not due to discrimination, but some other reason. I need more evidence. I have had conversations with (white) friends of mine who'll say stuff like "didn't you see the clerk following you?" and I'll say something like "nah, they just were checking on what was stocked."

I'm glad Miller-El is getting a new trial, and I hope, at some point, we will realize as a culture that putting someone to death, no matter what the crime, is cruel and unusual punishment. I hope we continue to realize that it will take a long, long time for racism to be eliminated as a factor in our criminal justice system. And I'll still be intrigued by Clarence Thomas, even as I revile just about every opinion or dissent he writes. And I'll still assume, however wrongly, that the clerk who is following me likes my earrings.