George Takei: Clarence Thomas is a "Clown in Blackface"

Looks like Takai used the old trick of saying something then "apologizing" later and long after the point was made.

It's a brilliant tactic.

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: grandmakdw

This "what if" is crucial to proving my assertion that extreme hypocrisy is at work here.

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask

If I started throwing out the N word just to prove a point it would still be racist.......

The OP is a real life illustration of something, a reaction, that apparently, you object to. Can you give a real life example of something that occurred that is comparable to George Takei's reaction to what Clarence Thomas said that isn't a "What if?" scenario?

Please see my post on page 5, for the real life examples you requested.

Aren't you proud of Takai
admitting he was wrong
in saying what he did?

a reply to: grandmakdw

Did George wade in on that topic? No? Then how can he be a hypocrite? Nice try.

a reply to: grandmakdw

Hmm.
Sorry, grams, but from MY point of view, all I see is SOME Christians going apoplectic.

Things aren't going your way. Too bad.

I am perfectly willing to admit when I am wrong.
But in this case, I am not. No amount of huffing and puffing and bold type will change that.

The Christian Religious Right is imploding right before your (and my, and our) very eyes. It's something you all are doing to yourselves; or at least some of your own are doing. It occurred to me the other day that how you "feel" now is probably how the moderate, tolerant Muslims felt shortly after 9/11.

I've seen Christians on here that, like you, are projecting onto others what you are feeling yourself - and don't even realize it. Every single one of those who are foaming at the mouth about the SCOTUS decision keep flinging insults and self-righteousness around as though you are all so special; strangely (and much to your surprise and chagrine), you are not ---- it'd be funny if it wasn't so sad.


(Addition: my exchanges with Beezzer are between him and me. I am not under the impression that he is insulted or offended. If he is, he can tell me himself.)

a reply to: grandmakdw

Aren't you proud of Takai
admitting he was wrong
in saying what he did?

I am proud of George Takei!

Let me remind you, once again, George Takei and his family were forcible removed from their home and placed in a Japanese Internment Camp, not for anything that they did, but for their race. As a gay man, Takei has also had to endure being called such things as mentally ill and a filthy abomination and has been placed among the ranks of pedophiles, rapists and murders because of the person he is and who he loves.

Now, a Supreme Court Judge wants us all to believe that these kinds of things, as well as the treatment that his own people received as slaves, CAN'T take away a person's dignity, and if they think it does it's a reflection on their (poor) character.

Having personally experience 2 out of 3 of those humiliating experiences Takei, understandably, lost his temper and blurted out, in an interview, something that could be taken as racist. However, when taken in context, "blackface" isn't really a racist slur in this case, in my opinion.

Blackface was used by white minstrels to play black characters, because black people were so unequal that they couldn't even be in the audience of such shows, little alone on the stage. For George Takei to call out Clarence Thomas as a "white man in disguise" because of the rationale of his dissenting decision, because Thomas appears to be betraying his black roots and ignoring the atrocities committed against his people during American slavery, blaming his brothers and sisters downtroddeness on their lack of character and their inability to fight against the indignities of slavery, is a brave thing for Takei to have done and Thomas deserves all of our outrage!

Please see my post on page 5, for the real life examples you requested.

Thanks for trying, but I don't see any of those examples as comparable. Giuliani said the Obama doesn't love America....Not racist. Michelle Obama may have seen racism where is wasn't,.....Not a racist thing in and of itself. Perhaps you can't see how calling Obama a "Food stamp president" suggests "Black Welfare Queens" I can't help you understand the controversy.

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
a reply to: grandmakdw

Hmm.
Sorry, grams, but from MY point of view, all I see is SOME Christians going apoplectic.

Things aren't going your way. Too bad.

I am perfectly willing to admit when I am wrong.
But in this case, I am not. No amount of huffing and puffing and bold type will change that.

The Christian Religious Right is imploding right before your (and my, and our) very eyes. It's something you all are doing to yourselves; or at least some of your own are doing. It occurred to me the other day that how you "feel" now is probably how the moderate, tolerant Muslims felt shortly after 9/11.

I've seen Christians on here that, like you, are projecting onto others what you are feeling yourself - and don't even realize it. Every single one of those who are foaming at the mouth about the SCOTUS decision keep flinging insults and self-righteousness around as though you are all so special; strangely (and much to your surprise and chagrine), you are not ---- it'd be funny if it wasn't so sad.

(Addition: my exchanges with Beezzer are between him and me. I am not under the impression that he is insulted or offended. If he is, he can tell me himself.)

Ok then, as per your multiple insult posts that I was discussing earlier and to which you responded.
I challenge you to go for one month
without spending an entire post insulting
another member and not mentioning the OP
or staying on topic with the thread.
But I don't think you can,
it appears you will not respond with an intelligent
and on topic response.
Your default actions have been to lash out
with a personal insult .
In the process the words you used to insult others
look like a member who is unable to make
a cogent or intelligent response.

I do challenge peoples words
and will continue to challenge words and statements
that I disagree with,
but that is far different from sending insults
in place of an argument defending an on topic stance.

If you can't handle an intelligent discussion
without replying with only a personal insult,
please stay away from responding to me.

All posts are public,
if you insult Beezer or anyone
and don't mention the OP or stay on topic,
I have every right to point out you are causing thread drift.
If you don't want anyone to comment on your insult only posts,
stop making insult only posts.

From now I will report to the Mods
each and every insult only post you make
that I observe
where you do not stay on topic or refer to the OP
and simply resort to personal insults to any member on ATS.

Now report me if you want to
and we'll check out what the Mods say about
creating a post simply for the express purpose
of personally insulting another member.

The T&C clearly forbids personal insults
and insult only posts,
ask a Mod and report this post
if you don't believe me.

I still find the words of many of the people who responded to this thread before Takai apologized to be hypocritical because they only supported him because they agreed with his politics. However, if someone they disagreed with (a gasp Christian as per your example) would call a black man a clown in blackface, they would excoriate that person with the ugliest words they can think of and remain T&C.


Your response above is also off topic
and thread drift referring to SCOTUS
and not discussing Takai or racism,
read the T&C and find out for yourself.

[/thread] for me

a reply to: grandmakdw

I still find the words of many of the people who responded to this thread before Takai apologized to be hypocritical because they only supported him because they agreed with his politics.

I don't know anything about George Takei's politics, other than he supports marriage equality, obviously. I support his reaction because 1) I sympathize with his pain and 2)what Clarence Thomas said was a terrible insult to the American Japanese, Blacks, LGBTQ and anyone else with half a brain.

I must stand in awe at the most amazing irony I've ever witnessed at ATS:

originally posted by: grandmakdw
So that makes it ok to slam a prominent black leader in the US
with a racist and bigoted remark?
That excuses his behavior?

originally posted by: grandmakdw
Where is Jesse? Where is Al?
They are hypocrites also because they say nothing
because it is always in their eyes ok for a liberal
to say as racist of things as they want
as long as the racism is directed toward a conservative.

originally posted by: grandmakdw
Just because the racist bigotry is directed at someone you disagree with, a conservative, it doesn't make your remark any less racist or bigoted or hate filled.

You just can't make stuff like that up.

Frankly, I think Takei took the high road here...Personally, I think Thomas is the clearest modern day example of an "Uncle Tom".

Clarence Thomas:

Racial imbalances do not always disfavor minorities. At various times in history, 'racial or ethnic minorities...have owned or directed more than half of whole industries in particular nations.

These minorities 'have included the Chinese in Malaysia, the Lebanese in West Africa, Greeks in the Ottoman Empire, Britons in Argentina, Belgians in Russia, Jews in Poland, and Spaniards in Chile — among many others ... and in our own country, for roughly a quarter-century now, over 70 percent of National Basketball Association (NBA) players have been black."

People get bent out of shape about the fact that when I was a kid, you could not drink out of certain water fountains. Well, the water was the same.

We've talked more about civil rights after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than we talked about it before 1964.

Clarance Thomas Quotes

originally posted by: soulpowertothendegree
a reply to: windword

Well having been one that was abused by someone and understanding it from a deeper level, I refused to give the actions of another the right to take away my dignity.

Dignity is defined as:

dignity
[ ˈdignitē ]
NOUN
the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect:
"a man of dignity and unbending principle"

You do not have the right to take away my worthiness or self respect through your actions.

As a survivor of abuse, I agree. I think that Justice Thomas' agenda is counterproductive to society as a whole. But I agree. Just because you abuse me does not take my dignity away unless I allow it.

Takei basically called Thomas an uncle tom. Its bad enough when black people do that to each other over disagreements about social positions. Sheesh

originally posted by: LeatherNLace
Frankly, I think Takei took the high road here...Personally, I think Thomas is the clearest modern day example of an "Uncle Tom".

George didn't apologize for what he said. He apologized about the way he said it. Righteous.

originally posted by: intrepid

originally posted by: LeatherNLace
Frankly, I think Takei took the high road here...Personally, I think Thomas is the clearest modern day example of an "Uncle Tom".

George didn't apologize for what he said. He apologized about the way he said it. Righteous.

Oh, I know he didn't apologize...I'm happy that didn't!

This is the wonderful thing about free speech.

Without it, in a PC environment, you'd never be able to discern how a person thought.

Let's be fair. Justice Thomas is a great hero of conservatives in this country. He is, arguably, a great conservative leader who is Black.

Based on everything I've ever heard or read by Black Americans about Thomas, they do not feel that he is an important leader for their community or their race. In fact, the source of the "Uncle Thomas" remarks comes from the Black community.

There are quotes.

Takei's comment that Thomas is in "blackface" echoes most commentary that I can find made by Black people about Thomas.

Again, there are quotes.

When we say that something is "racist" ... surely the arguments I have seen time and time again from conservative ATS members is that people basically need to be a lot less sensitive and that just because someone has an opinion that is not complementary to a person of color, that does not mean they are "racist."

Right? I'm sure there are quotes easily found from many of you more conservative ATS members about that.

You can play semantic games with the various meanings and your opinions on the word "dignity" but the fact of the matter is, that Justice Clarence Thomas stated that the government (remember, that thing that most of you conservatives hate so much) was not responsible for what happened to slaves or to internment victims.

Was. Not. Responsible.

That really doesn't bother any of you?

a reply to: Gryphon66




Liberals beware, may cause extreme discomfort
outrage and fainting!
No violence or extreme pictures
just a pretty girl giving her opinion.

a reply to: grandmakdw

Well, THAT was a worthless bunch of hyperbolic ignorant rambling! That young women completely missed the whole point that Clarence Thomas was making, switched the topic from stolen dignity to reprodictive rights and abortion, gay marriage and the supposed stereotype that liberals think that "blacks" can't think for themselves.

Too bad that young woman can't think for herself!

originally posted by: windword
I wonder how dignified Uncle Clarence Thomas would feel if the Supreme Court hadn't ruled the way it did in 1968 in Loving Vs Virginia, that allowed for mixed race marriages? I wonder how Clarence and his wife, Virginia (VIRGINIA), a white woman, would have held onto their dignity if they were denied a marriage license?

Not the first time he's been called an "Uncle Tom" by the oh, so tolerant left--won't be the last. The hypocrisy of the racist left knows no boundrues. I recall the first African American Secretary of State a "House Nigger." Disgusting.

a reply to: NavyDoc

Do you have anything to say about Thomas' comment that the government isn't responsible for the dignity of those who were interned and/or enslaved by the government?

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: grandmakdw

Well, THAT was a worthless bunch of hyperbolic ignorant rambling! That young women completely missed the whole point that Clarence Thomas was making, switched the topic from stolen dignity to reprodictive rights and abortion, gay marriage and the supposed stereotype that liberals think that "blacks" can't think for themselves.

Too bad that young woman can't think for herself!

You mean too bad she is an escapee from liberal ideology!

You mean too bad she refuses to "tow the line" the way
liberals think all Blacks should, and actually had the guts
and the intellect to think for herself?

Because she said Takai's statement was racist, which it was.

And because she refuses to say the words or hold the opinions
that your words imply all blacks must have?
I think she is courageous and has an independent mind and
should be congratulated for her intelligence and independence!