Thomas: I was sympathetic to virtually all groups that wanted to get away from the old system. And I thought that the NAACP and the Urban League and CORE and the rest of those groups were aggressive enough. The Panthers offered for some of us who were young hot-blooded and ill-tempered, another way.
Reason: In retrospect was there something good about the Panthers?
Thomas: I really don't know. At the time, l9, 20 years old, we thought there was a lot. The positive was that it keep us thinking about change. The unfortunate thing was that it wrapped a lot of Marxist-Leninism and a lot violence. But I was also partial to the Black Muslims, primarily because of their belief in self-help.
Reason: It's odd that Malcolm X isn't a conservative hero, isn't it? He was very good on self-help.
Thomas: Yes, but he had some very strong things to say about whites. I' been very partial to Malcolm X, particularly his self-help teachings. I have virtuallv all of the recorded speeches of Malcolm X.
Reason: Then you still see him as hero.
Thomas: Let's say I'm a little bit more discriminating in what I accept and what I reject. There is too much sometimes of the antiwhite rhetoric. There is a lot of good in what he says, and I go throughit for the good.
Reason: Any writers who were real influential to you when you were young and still are?
Thomas: Richard Wright. I would have put him number one, numero un, Both Native Son and Black Boy reall woke me up. He captured a lot of th feelings that I had inside that you learn how to suppress. His novel Outside, which is his autobiographical flirtation with communism, was reallv good for me, because when I got to college you had a lot of radical groups that were trying to attract black students who were upset--and I was really upset and that novel sort of prepared me to not be swept away by this kind of recruitment.
Reason: There was a very interesting article--I'm not sure if you thought it was interesting-- by Juan Williams in The Atlantic where he called you a black nationalist. Do you agree with that?
Thomas: Nah. I think Juan stopped short--he got halfway to the destination and got off the train. He is certainly an excellent writer and a good person, but I'm not a nationalist. I have been angry enough in my life, and there are some points where I'm sure my attitudes approached black nationalism. I'm certain you could say the same thing about Malcolm X. But again, a lot of that grows out of that anger and that frustration and the feeling that you've got to do something, and you hear certain groups beckoning you on. You heard the Panthers beckoning you on, you heard the socialists or communists beckoning you on, you heard the radical students and the anarchists beckoning you on. The conservaties really didn't make an effort--they were hoarding the status quo.
Reason: Are there any areas where you think today that the civil rights establishment is doing really good work? By that I mean NAACP and...
Thomas: No.
Reason: None?
Thomas: I can't think of any. I'm the wrong person to ask, because of the malice with which they have treated me. There were grand opportunities for them to focus on the proper education of minority kids, the kids who are getting the worst education, and instead they're talking about integration. God--I went to segregated schools. You can really learn how to read off those books, even if white folks aren't there. I think segregation is bad, I think it's wrong, it's immoral. I'd fight against it with every breath in my body, but you don't need to sit next to a white person to learn how to read and write. The NAACP needs to say that.
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Clarence Thomas suggests Obama’s SOTU criticism was ‘irresponsible’ | Raw Story links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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