On Wednesday, Social media users were outraged after a Georgia state senator smeared Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as an "Uncle Tom." Georgia State Sen. Emanuel Jones, overstepped his pay grade and compared the Supreme Court justice to one who 'sold his soul to the slave masters'.
When the Georgia Senate, approved placing a statue of Thomas at the state capitol Tuesday, State Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Ga., slammed the justice, the second Black citizen to serve on the Supreme Court, as a traitor to his racial group. He also condemned the idea of building a monument to the Supreme Court justice, using racial slurring. Jones, who is Black himself, said before the Georgia Senate-
"I'm just trying to tell you what we have in the African American community when we talk about a person of color that goes back historically to the days of slavery and that person betraying his own community – we have a term in the Black community," continuing "And Uncle Tom is a either fictional or non-fictional character, I don’t really know the origin of Uncle Tom, but it talks about a person who back during the days of slavery sold his soul to the slave masters."
- Emanuel Jones (D) Georgia State Senate
Apparently social media erupted in a scathing rebuke of Jones, as commentators across Twitter slammed the state senator from a variety of angles for his disparaging comparison. A few of these were-
"Justice Thomas -- one of the greatest Americans in our history, and perhaps the most revolutionary and exceptional jurist of at least the last century -- will never, ever stop paying for the thought crime of being black and conservative," …‘What's old is new again for the Democrats."
- Benjamin Weingarten, The Federalist
Suggesting that Democrats are using double-standards when they criticize him in such terms, other commentators spoke about Thomas’ own history,
Suggesting that Democrats are using double-standards when they criticize him in such terms, other commentators spoke about Thomas’ own history,
Claiming Jones was not aware of the actual Uncle Tom character, or where the term came from, some Twitter users took issue from a completely different perspective, Jones’s obvious ignorance.
Taking to task Senator Jones, these media personalities firmly shredded, the legislators’ poor choice of racial slurring to make a point, using a phrase he seemed ignorant of. History may remember him for his thoughtless attack on an obviously well respected, learned and honorable man. That he will be praised as a great man is doubtful.
Thomas will certainly go down in history for his thoughtfully accurate interpretation of the highest law in the land – our U.S. Constitution. Hopefully, Justice Clarence Thomas will be remembered for decades to come – long after Jones is just a tombstone, growing ivy somewhere.
“A great man is different from an eminent one, in that he is ready to be the servant of the society”
“A great man is different from an eminent one, in that he is ready to be the servant of the society”