WASHINGTON — In a bold statement, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas described himself as a “walking contradiction” in response to critics who challenge his deviation from expected liberal views associated with black Americans.
The distinguished Justice, known as the second-longest-serving member of the US Supreme Court, detailed his journey of resisting societal pressures throughout his career. He has established himself as a leading figure among black conservatives.
During a conversation on the “Verdict with Ted Cruz” podcast, the 78-year-old Justice reflected on the significant challenges he faced upon arriving in Washington, D.C. “Many believed I should align with a particular mindset,” Thomas shared.
“Some claimed I was ‘confused.’ I knew I wasn’t. It’s they who mistook me for someone easily swayed or subservient,” Thomas continued in the podcast released on Monday.
Thomas further criticized a prevailing belief that one’s skin color dictates their political stance. “There’s this insistence that you should think a certain way based solely on race,” he remarked, challenging the notion of predestined ideological conformity.
Thomas, the second black justice to serve on the Supreme Court, spoke with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) at the senator’s book release for “Going Further: The Incomparable Clarence Thomas” on Tuesday.
Cruz, a former Solicitor General of Texas who argued before the Supreme Court and Thomas in the early 2000s, authored his tome on the justice after conducting roughly nine hours of one-on-one interviews with him.
During the interview, Thomas praised Cruz for defending him during the attacks he faced several years ago over his wife’s ties to conservative groups and gifts he received from wealthy elites. He called Cruz and Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee “friends” who stood for him and Ginni Thomas.
During the podcast interview, Thomas reflected on how family and religion shaped his conservative beliefs.
Thomas, who was heavily influenced by his grandfather, recounted clashing with him over the state of America. His grandfather asked him, “What country is better than this country with all its problems?” and he recalled being unable to answer that.
The justice previously described how his grandfather had no education, was raised by a freed slave, and yet never complained. Recently, he recounted that after his grandparents “died suddenly in 1983, the decision I made was to live the rest of my life as a memorial to theirs.”
During his time in law school, Thomas once bristled at receiving a copy of conservative intellectual Thomas Sowell’s book, “Black Education: Myths and Tragedies,” though he later rediscovered and warmed up to it.
The justice had been a “left-wing radical” during his youth, per Cruz’s description, attending an anti-war demonstration at Harvard Square in April 1970 that devolved into an angry riot.
At the time, Thomas had been attending the College of the Holy Cross and was disillusioned with the Catholic Church, frustrated with its lack of moral clarity on racism.
But the country’s senior-most justice explained that the riot was a turning point for him.
“I think that was the Road to Damascus moment. That’s the moment where you look into the abyss, and it looks back,” Thomas said, adding that he “couldn’t answer why” he was behaving that way at the time.
“[I] walked in front of the chapel because I was exhausted but couldn’t sleep,” Thomas explained about what happened after the riot. “I faced it, the Blessed Sacrament, and I asked God to take hate out of my heart. And I said, ‘If you take a hate out of my heart, I will never hate again.’”
“And that was the moment for me, when I began to move in a more positive direction.”