You can’t picture Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas anymore without also picturing his inordinately influential, conservative activist, white, and second wife Ginni Thomas.
So when the news of the justice’s lucrative friendship with Harlan Crow – billionaire Republican mega-donor and Nazi memorabilia mega-collector broke, I couldn’t wrap my head around how a couple in an interracial marriage would keep that sort of company. And really, even deeper than that, I struggle to understand why this couple’s politics seem to fly in the face of what one might believe a couple like this encountered in their marriage.
And I understand that just because Crow’s collection smacks of Nazi fetishism doesn't necessarily qualify him as a Nazi sympathizer, but it’s not a collection of WWII memorabilia – it's a hyper-specific collection of not only the nastiest Nazi knick-knacks – moreover he tends a garden of evil – a statue garden featuring many of the world’s most brutal dictators.
But, that’s not the big story here. The “story” is that the justice benefitted from expensive travel and lavish gifts from the creepy collector and never disclosed these gifts through reporting – something Thomas argues wasn’t required of him, at least not until recent changes to reporting rules were enacted. But that pesky left (investigative journalists) is calling for his resignation or impeachment based on the financial benefits of his close association with this man and his failure to disclose it.
All gifts and luxury travel aside. Thomas and Crow are buds. Homies! Like how did that even happen? How is this interracial couple, Clarence and Ginni, comfortable in the company of Crow who owns a copy of Mein Kamph autographed by the Fuhrer himself? Gross!
What’s grosser than gross? How about this excerpt from the book:
“It was and is the Jews who bring the Negroes into the Rhineland," Hitler wrote, "always with the same secret thought and clear aim of ruining the hated white race by the necessarily resulting bastardisation."
The Nuremberg laws outlawed marriage between Jewish people and Germans, but black people were also included in that law. Mixed-race children faced forced sterilization. Black people were sent to concentration camps. Black people were exterminated.
One of my dearest friends (who doesn’t collect Nazi memorabilia – because I know how to pick my friends) is mixed race. Her father is black, her mother is white. They fell in love and married in 1970 after searching high and low just to find a clergy member willing to officiate. They chose to live in Connecticut where the black male in this relationship faced a lesser risk of being lynched for who he loved. They raised two children — my friend, and her brother. They worked, retired, and settled down here in Virginia Beach to be close to their daughter. They became a part of our circle and our family. They are the mom and dad every grown-up kid still needs and we love them, collectively. Yesterday, we all celebrated Easter together – The first Easter for their daughter and new husband – a white dude – as a married couple.
So, I was busy reading all the goodies on Thomas and Crow on my phone while my husband drove us to Easter dinner at their home. We arrived and I was trying not to stew on what I had read, not be too political – relax. It was lovely. The food, the company, the adorable condo they have lovingly renovated – the love. It radiates off the two of them. Fifty-three years together and they still can’t get enough of each other – the way it should be. But it was, and still is in places like Virginia, hard-won.
There are still people out there who disapprove of their love. Still, people who believe they shouldn’t have had children. Still, people who wouldn't rent to them or hire them. These attitudes aren’t history, they are deeply ingrained in our society. Having “black friends” doesn’t keep white women from clutching their purses if an unknown black man approaches. And it's ridiculous to think that a black man in an interracial marriage who sits on the highest court in the land, in Thurgood Marshall’s former seat, doesn’t know this? Maybe he was absent that day? Maybe he and Crow were enjoying a picnic in the Garden of Evil.
Clearly, the justice has no judgment. And THAT is the REAL story.
That’s right, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin got a $40,000 boodle from the billionaire. Why is he being silent right now?
Silence is violence.
US Congresswoman Jen Kiggens (R) Virginia, how about you there in Washington, DC representing me and the people in my district?
If you see something, say something. Did you “nazi” this?
State Senator Bill DeSteph (R) — VA Senate District 2 — are you outraged? I bet your Democratic opponent, US Navy vet, and anti-racist, Victoria Luevanos is. twitter.com/…
And my Republican incumbent opponent Anne Ferrell Tata? Not a peep out of her.
Why are they all so quiet? Why aren’t Republicans anywhere speaking out?
Wanna help put the heat on the haters? Donate to Dems like me and let’s get this done!
