Uncle Tom-Foolery

I'm not one to casually toss around the term "Uncle Tom." For one, it's actually an insult to the main protagonist of Harriet Beecher Stowe's work. Though a product of Stowe's own white religious "maternalism," Uncle Tom was certainly not what his name has come to signify in modern times. Second, I understand there are complexities in black thought--even when I strongly and vehemently disagree. Third, it's one of those terms that is such a "word-bomb" it tends to shut down any larger conversation. Same goes for "Sell-out" or "Oreo." I'd rather get into more complex discussions about people who act as surrogates for white patriarchy, etc.

Then I read the following. According to news reports:

Two prominent black conservatives are fighting to keep the Oval Office reserved for whites only by attempting to block the seating of Barack Obama as the nation's first African-American president. Justice Clarence Thomas placed the lawsuit challenging Obama's U.S. citizenship on the court calendar for a hearing.

The New Jersey case, Donofrio v. Wells...petitions that the Electoral College delay its ruling on seating Obama until his U.S. citizenship has been verified. An earlier Pennsylvania case, Berg v. Obama, sought to prevent the Democratic Party from nominating the Illinois senator on similar "citizenship" grounds.

Are. You. Frackin. Kidding. Me.

I'm officially going to break my own rules and declare:

"Somebody get me a glass of milk because here comes a big OREO!"--Cosmic Slop, adaptation of Space Traders by Derrick Bell.

(Updated 12/09/08)




Keeping the Oval Office for Whites Only
Les Payne

December 8, 2008

Two prominent black conservatives are fighting to keep the Oval Office reserved for whites only by attempting to block the seating of Barack Obama as the nation's first African-American president.

Justice Clarence Thomas placed the lawsuit challenging Obama's U.S. citizenship on the court calendar for a hearing. Sen. Obama and his campaign say that the president-elect has an authentic birth certificate showing that he was born in Hawaii, on Aug. 4, 1961, and is thus a "natural-born" U.S. citizen. Hawaiian officials agree.

The New Jersey case, Donofrio v. Wells, however, petitions that the Electoral College delay its ruling on seating Obama until his U.S. citizenship has been verified. An earlier Pennsylvania case, Berg v. Obama, sought to prevent the Democratic Party from nominating the Illinois senator on similar "citizenship" grounds.

Whereas Justice David Souter, acting for the court, dismissed the Berg case, Thomas distributed the Donofrio case to the other justices. The court was not expected to take the case.

Scholars of the court claimed Donofrio never stood much of a chance of getting a hearing. Of the 782 such cases justices distributed over the past eight years, the full court heard only 60. It is impossible to discern the workings of what passes for Justice Thomas' legal mind. He seldom asks questions from the bench and shows little judicial curiosity.

Thomas' eyes do light up, however, when a case involving race is argued. At such times, whether it's affirmative action or urban policing issues, the justice can be counted on unfailingly to stake a position in stark opposition to what most African-Americans would consider their best interests. This pattern renders the most powerful, black U.S. official a comedic figure of ridicule in the African-American community.

When idling for a lighthearted moment during Sunday sermons, for example, black ministers across America need only mention "Clarence Thomas" to trigger guffaws of shame among their congregations.

This burlesque image of Thomas emerged during his '91 Senate confirmation hearings where, in an ofttimes circus atmosphere, he survived attempts to block his nomination with Anita Hill's charges of bizarre, sexual harassment. The self-declared victim of a "high-tech" lynching withdrew within a tight knot of black conservatives and powerful right-wing, white zealots such as Rush Limbaugh.

The bitter Justice Thomas is seemingly bent these days on exacting revenge on the larger black community. It is perhaps in this light that we catch a glimpse of him stoking the Donofrio case as much for Limbaugh laughs as for the backhand it applies to the aspirations of African-Americans.

The case of Alan Keyes on the "stop Obama" campaign is a bit more personal but no less a matter of race and politics.

Keyes, who ran for president as a candidate of the American Independent Party, has filed a California lawsuit petitioning state electors to withhold certification pending verification of Obama's citizenship. Keyes argues that Obama must prove that he "does not hold citizenship of Indonesia, Kenya or Great Britain." His 18-page brief lays out scenarios where either could be possible.

In '04, conservatives rushed in the fiercely competitive Keyes from Maryland to challenge Obama's run for the Illinois Senate seat. After suffering a crushing defeat, Keyes avoided Obama, proclaiming that he would not "extend false congratulations to the triumph of what we have declared to be across the line."

Although claiming the slight was "not anything personal, his political animosity surfaced in the petition of "Ambassador Dr. Alan Keyes." Beyond the strictly personal, Keyes, not unlike Justice Thomas, has long shown a bitter disregard for what African-Americans take to be their best interests. Keyes served as an adviser to South Africa's propaganda machine during the apartheid era, and later as a token black in the Reagan State Department, where he vigorously opposed sanctions against that racist, white minority regime.

The "stop Obama" two-step by Keyes and Thomas is being played against a more sinister backdrop of powerful, right-wing interests seeking to override the will of the 66.8 million Americans who voted for the president-elect.

The tinkering that short-circuited the democratic process in 2000 appears to be at it again. Stay tuned.


*Update I* (12/08/08) Some people I sent this to went into freak-out mode. Calm down and take deep breaths people. This case isn't going anywhere. If it had any legs, McCain-Palin would have jumped on it and exposed this a long time ago. Even wackjobs like Michelle Malkin find the allegations ridiculous. The only thing this will hurt is Justice Clarence Thomas's chance to ever live peacefully in a black neighborhood...anywhere.

*Update II* (12/08/08) In Justice Thomas' defense, some have claimed he placed the matter on the Supreme Court docket simply to have it dismissed. However it had *already* been dismissed by Justice Souter, so what exactly would a second dismissal serve?

*Update III* 12/09/08

In the best dosage of good sense since Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court has declined to hear Justice Clarence Thomas.

There is however one case remaining, thus far, by a Pennsylvania lawyer named Phi Berg who challenges Barack Obama's citizenship on a claim that his Hawaii-birth certificate is a fraud. State officials have repeatedly dismissed such claims, but they persist. For a look at some of these die-hards who insist Barack Obama is some kind of "5th Columnist," see The Born Conspiracy by Mike Madden at Salon.com.