"His advocacy for black self-defense is straight from the heart of Malcolm X."

That's from liberal Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy, who was very impressed by Justice Clarence Thomas' superb concurrence in the landmark gun rights case McDonald v. Chicago. As Milloy writes:

He hardly ever speaks during oral arguments, often appearing asleep on the bench. But in his written opinion Monday supporting the right to bear arms, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas roared to life….

In a scorcher of an opinion that reads like a mix of black history lesson and Black Panther Party manifesto, he goes on to say, "Militias such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Knights of the White Camellia, the White Brotherhood, the Pale Faces and the '76 Association spread terror among blacks. . . . The use of firearms for self-defense was often the only way black citizens could protect themselves from mob violence."

This was no muttering from an Uncle Tom, as many black people have accused him of being. His advocacy for black self-defense is straight from the heart of Malcolm X. He even cites the slave revolts led by Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner—implying that white America has long wanted to take guns away from black people out of fear that they would seek revenge for centuries of racial oppression.