George Takei is an expert on what makes a person a real black versus a fake one
Here’s the latest example of the tedious, ignorant, offensive and yet often-effective mindset of the left. Actor George Takei, a gay man who recently married his longtime partner, and who played Sulu on the original Star Trek, has said some very ugly things about Justice Clarence Thomas.
First, here are the words of Thomas in his Obergefell dissent, of which Takei was so very critical:
Human dignity has long been understood in this country to be innate. When the Framers proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” they referred to a vision of mankind in which all humans are created in the image of God and therefore of inherent worth. That vision is the foundation upon whicthis Nation was built.
The corollary of that principle is that human dignity cannot be taken away by the government. Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they lost their humanity) because the government allowed them to be enslaved. Those held in internment camps did not lose their dignity because the government confined them. And those denied governmental benefits certainly do not lose their dignity because the government denies them those benefits. The government cannot bestow dignity, and it cannot take it away.
Pretty standard stuff, one would think, and especially appropriate for the Fourth of July, Independence Day. But the concept of God-given rights and therefore basic human dignity, so integral to this country, has fallen by the wayside. I wonder whether Takei even knows the reference, because he doesn’t appear to. I also wonder whether he knows much about Thomas’ own history as a young black man growing up in the Jim Crow South.
Nevertheless, Takei felt the need to say this about Thomas:
TAKEI: He is a clown in black face sitting on the Supreme Court. He gets me that angry. He doesn’t belong there. And for him to say, slaves have dignity. I mean, doesn’t he know that slaves were in chains? That they were whipped on the back. If he saw the movie 12 Years a Slave, you know, they were raped. And he says they had dignity as slaves or ”“ My parents lost everything that they worked for, in the middle of their lives, in their 30s [he is referring here to the WWII Japanese American internment camps]. His business, my father’s business, our home, our freedom and we’re supposed to call that dignified? Marched out of our homes at gun point. I mean, this man does not belong on the Supreme Court. He is an embarrassment. He is a disgrace to America.
There is so much food for thought in there I hardly know where to start. Most people have focused on the phrase “clown in black face,” but that’s really just a small part of it.
I’m discussing this issue not because of George Takei himself (the whole thing is a tempest in a teapot, really), but because what he says is emblematic of the approach of the left to argument and to the presence of black conservatives, who are considered a special affront worthy of particular contempt. This is certainly not the first time Clarence Thomas has endured insults of a specifically racist nature.
Here are some of the elements that Takei’s attack illustrate:
(1) A misunderstanding of our country’s history and most fundamental principles, including those of the Declaration of Independence…
(2) that is either through ignorance or through purposeful misrepresentation…
(3) expressed in a manner that pits one oppression against another, saying in effect that “my oppression is greater than yours”…
(4) and concluding that the other person is not a “real” exemplar of his very own race or ethnic origin, because he/she does not march in lockstep with the politics deemed suitable for that race.
Less important, but still of interest, is the fact that Takei thinks Clarence Thomas should learn about slavery (as Sulu seems to have done) through the movies, and then he’d really know about it in a more authentic way. I don’t think Takei is alone in his study of history via movies, either, or his recommendation that Thomas could learn from them.
Thomas, that is, whose actual (i.e. real life) history is as follows:
Clarence Thomas was born in 1948 in Pin Point, Georgia, a small, predominantly black community near Savannah founded by freedmen after the American Civil War. He was the second of three children born to M.C. Thomas, a farm worker, and Leola Williams, a domestic worker. They were descendants of American slaves, and the family spoke Gullah as a first language. Thomas’ earliest-known ancestors were slaves named Sandy and Peggy who were born around the end of the 18th century and owned by wealthy Liberty County, Georgia planter Josiah Wilson. M.C. left his family when Thomas was two years old. Thomas’ mother worked hard but was sometimes paid only pennies per day. She had difficulty putting food on the table and was forced to rely on charity. After a house fire left them homeless, Thomas and his younger brother Myers were taken to live with his mother’s parents in Savannah, Georgia. Thomas was seven when the family moved in with his maternal grandfather, Myers Anderson, and Anderson’s wife, Christine (née Hargrove), in Savannah.
Living with his grandparents, Thomas enjoyed amenities such as indoor plumbing and regular meals for the first time in his life. His grandfather Myers Anderson had little formal education, but had built a thriving fuel oil business that also sold ice. Thomas calls his grandfather “the greatest man I have ever known.” When Thomas was 10, Anderson started taking the family to help at a farm every day from sunrise to sunset. His grandfather believed in hard work and self-reliance; he would counsel Thomas to “never let the sun catch you in bed.” Thomas’ grandfather also impressed upon his grandsons the importance of getting a good education.
Thomas was the only black person at his high school in Savannah, where he was an honor student. He was raised Roman Catholic. He considered entering the priesthood at the age of 16, and became the first black student to attend St. John Vianney’s Minor Seminary (Savannah) on the Isle of Hope. He also briefly attended Conception Seminary College, a Roman Catholic seminary in Missouri. No one in Thomas’s family had attended college. Thomas has said that during his first year in seminary, he was one of only “three or four” blacks attending the school. In a number of interviews, Thomas stated that he left the seminary in the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. He had overheard another student say after the shooting, “Good, I hope the son of a bitch died.” He did not think the church did enough to combat racism.
At a nun’s suggestion, Thomas attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. While there, Thomas helped found the Black Student Union. Once he walked out after an incident in which black students were punished while white students went undisciplined for committing the same violation, and some of the priests negotiated with the protesting black students to re-enter the school.
Having spoken the Gullah language as a child, Thomas realized in college that he still sounded unpolished despite having been drilled in grammar at school, and he chose to major in English literature “to conquer the language”.
That’s the man Takei is lecturing about oppression, slavery, and indignity. But hey, because Thomas is a conservative—and because he didn’t think a right to gay marriage is enshrined in the Constitution—it’s open season on him and he’s not a real black man, just a clown in black face. Just as Sarah Palin wasn’t a real woman. And George Takei is just the one to inform him about his blackness.
Takei counts among his other achievements the selective exclusion of “equal”. The rainbow is lackluster and they are scrambling to deflect attention from its decrepit foundation. Lower the flag.
Thank you for this post. I cringe to hear Justice Thomas referred to as “Uncle Thomas”. He is a brave and patient man. And thanks too for including the information about his being brought up in a household which actually spoke an African language. When mentioning this to people I just get blank stares.
I used to read the political cartoons of a Mr. Oliphant. I found them sometimes incisive and witty. Then one day, maybe around 2000-1 he published a cartoon featuring Justice Thomas. It was about the first decision which Thomas had authored. It showed a small black boy running and waving a piece of paper, saying something like “look what I’ve done!”.
It looked just like racist cartoons from a century or more ago. The only thing this prize winning liberal cartoonist had forgotten to add was some watermelon. I haven’t followed that man’s cartoons since that day.
Justice Thomas deserves infinitely better, but he knows his own dignity, and he knows that it cannot be taken away. Mr. Takei doesn’t have a clue about that.
Jimmy J. quoted David Horowitz in a recent thread, “The issue is never the issue”. That is the common thread in all these “controversies” from Confederate flag to gay marriage to Obamacare. *Every* word uttered by those on the left is an ad hominem attack designed to belittle, marginalize and demonize their opponents. We need to start responding in kind, and not just to nonentities like Takei.
Is anyone else a little tired of hearing about the Japanese being picked on? Granted that FDR went overboard, what about the massive genocides and mass rapes and war crimes of the Japanese? And there’s this (read it before it gets stuffed down the Memory Hole):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoW2WYdOsvg
This wasn’t the only city where the Imperial Japanese Army carried out this kind of atrocity. See also Doolittle Raid reprisal massacre, the fall of Manila, etc.
And yeah, George is an arrogant pinhead, former third banana in a cheesy 1960s sci-fi TV show. (Which I liked. ;0)
Oh, how the lesser characters have fallen, and can’t get up. Wallowing in the mud, and liking it too much. Accessing my inner Mr. T, I pity da fool.
Beverly,
Japanese Americans, not Japanese.
FOAF,
Maybe we could start referring to gays as vaginaphobes?
I know some very decent and nice gays, but they have to get out of their victim boxes and turn on those who seek out Christian bakers to intimidate. It almost seems like the issue is more about the cake and flowers than the relationship.
And no wonder Shatner never wanted ‘Sulu’ to be his successor role model.
Not too far off topic; but, George Takei needs to learn about HIS history as well.
While I do not condone what was done to Japanese-Americans during WWII it is worth remembering that Japanese-Americans were NOT forced into camps – they were excluded from the West Coast and other areas.
But, many chose not to leave, instead demanding that the U.S. government give them someplace to go. So, they got to go to some godforsaken, in the middle of a desert, wasteland. Boo hoo. What did they want instead? The Waldorf or Palm Springs?
Most importantly, and it was key in the decision to exclude Japanese-Americans from certain areas, it is worth noting that most Japanese-Americans belonged to Japanese-American Benevolent Societies, as did many other ethic groups in the U.S. at that time. However, other groups did NOT include as their first order of business “allegiance to the Japanese Emperor.”
Given how the Japanese Emperor was of a god-like status and Shinto was the main religion of many it is understandable that many wouldn’t want to give up this first order of business.
But, guess what? You’re claiming allegiance to a head of state of a country that has attacked the US! And you expect us to be nice to you?!
As I said, Hey George Takei learn your own history before trash talking others.
(Of note, one, and only one, Japanese-American group did disown this allegiance to the Emperor idea. It was a group of Japanese-American college professors who fully understood how it was inappropriate to claim allegiance to a foreign head of state of a country you’re at war with)
I wonder if Takei would agree that Clarence Thomas could learn all about about Japan from Godzilla movies?
Takei is living proof that being gay doesn’t preclude you from being a buffoon – a clown in his own right.
The Justice’s wife Ginny was in my undergrad and law school classes at Creighton. I knew her slightly.
I read his book and it is impressive. I had him sign it when he was in Omaha for his book tour. He was so nice and patient with the people in line. He was sweating quite a bit and the hotel staff brought him a towel and some more water. He thanked them kindly.
He is also a friend of Creighton and a basketball fan. He has also become a Cornhusker football fan.
Ginny and Clarence drive around in their motorhome in the summer and stay at campgrounds. Most people don’t know who he is.
A slight correction to the quote from Wikipedia. In his book he explained he was just walking down the street one day when one of his former teachers (a nun) saw him. He had just quit the seminary and was going to apply to Georgia State. The nun knew about a brand new program at Holy Cross and pretty much made him apply. He got a scholarship.
At Holy Cross he earned a spot in Alpha Sigma Nu. The Jesuits don’t hand that honor out lightly. He is a scholar.
Takei is quite representative of the Left for all the reasons Neo listed.
Eric Says:
July 3rd, 2015 at 4:06 pm
Yeah, but at the time, there was no way to tell whether they were loyal to America or Japan.
I do not trust modern day Muslim-Americans as far as I can throw them. They are the enemy as far as I am concerned.
charles,
Property.
This is a wonderful post, Neo. Ahead of the 4th tomorrow, I am truly as down as I’ve ever been about the direction our once-great republic and citizenry are going at warp speed.
Forget the Constitution, federalism,our exceptional history and the concept of critical thinking as righteous indignation and he-who-screams-loudest and longest wins. We are in a complete societal regression and how long it will take to hit bottom, heaven only knows.
Webutante,
I’m with you on that.
“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”
Thomas Paine
Keep in in mind that George Takei is an actor.
So it’s hard to say whether the quote is sincerely uttered bluster where the words and notions even matter, to be taken on at face value as Neo does.
Or whether it’s cold-calculated activist tactic by Takei, precisely delivered by a professional actor, that rhetorically marshals a block where Neo’s dialectic response misses the competitive value of Takei’s action altogether.
George Takei has calmed a bit:
“While I continue to vehemently disagree with Justice Thomas, the words I chose, said in the heat of anger, were not carefully considered. . . .
“Each of us, as humans, have hot-button topics that can set-us off, and Justice Thomas had hit mine, that is clear. But my choice of words was regrettable, not because I do not believe Justice Thomas is deeply wrong, but because they were ad hominem and uncivil, and for that I am sorry.”
https://www.facebook.com/georgehtakei/posts/1299475283415255
Apparently, George, you are the only human being in the world with hot button issues. Grow up, dude.
Frankly, I haven’t liked him since he was in that creepy, alternate universe episode. This just confirms it wasn’t much of an acting stretch.
Very similar to the way the left informs us that Bobby Jindal isn’t authentically ethnic because he doesn’t use an ethnic first name. Also, because he’s conservative. So, New Rule Du Jour, all ethnicities must use ethnic names, first and last, or they’re not “authentic.” (But all is forgiven if you toe the progressive line.). Democrat racism, same as it ever was, except now it’s hiding out behind token progressive ethnic house pets and their new rules.
Implied in Takei’s rant is this little bit- he considers his parents to have been lacking dignity because of what was done to them. Astounding to me how some people think.
I got all the knowledge and insights I need about deep space by watching Star Trek. Thanks, Takei.
Dignity. Interesting. Well, you have to consider the source. Liberals can’t recognize dignity when they encounter it.
The most dignified, the most resolute, the most courageous, the most constant character in English (the language, not the island) literature is Uncle Tom.
When liberals want to insult a black man by accusing him of having no honor, no courage, no self-respect, no dignity what do they call him, thinking that in so doing they have pronounced the ultimate anathema?
And, oh! Liberal loons? Before you prove yourselves bereft of anything but resentment and rage — sans knowledge, sans wit, sans reason — why not read the book you have been been using as your anti-Bible for over a hundred years?
Leftists are Leftist first and foremost, not Japanese, not black, not homo, not anything else. Their first and only loyalty is to the Left.
When the Left tells them to say A, they will Obey, like the puppets that they are. When FDR harnessed power and overstepped himself, he can tell the descendants of his victims to praise FDR while blaming patriots of America, and they will obey. There is little else to it.
M J R, damage control isn’t him being calm, it’s his Leftist masters telling him he has overstepped himself and that he now needs to obey certain Leftist etiquette in damage control. For him he is not entitled to make the HRC claim of “what difference does it make now”.
I’m not sure he understands the meaning of the word “dignity.” People in any degree of oppression or agony can exhibit dignity. It is an internal human quality that can be chosen and does not mean being free, or comfortable, or respected by those around you, as he seems to think.
Ymarsakar, 9:28 am — Ain’t gonna argue with your point there, no, not at all — although we don’t know for absolute certain, exactly who may have instructed him to do what. It’s even possible (sez me) he did it out of concern for his own legacy, such as it is.
Happy Fourth to you!
MJR, thanks, future fortune with you on Independence Day as well.
Much of this reminds me of the 4th of July, in the sense that the American South was controlled by Democrats using similar methods.
Anyone who dared to disagree about the Civil War’s origin point or the inequality of the races, the Democrats treated worse than Democrats do with Republican blacks.