The Enigma of Clarence Thomas

By: Corey Robin

Narrated by: Larry Herron

Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

The Enigma of Clarence Thomas is a groundbreaking revisionist take on the Supreme Court justice everyone knows about but no one knows.

Most people can tell you two things about Clarence Thomas: Anita Hill accused him of sexual harassment, and he almost never speaks from the bench. Here are some things they don’t know: Thomas is a Black nationalist. In college he memorized the speeches of Malcolm X. He believes white people are incurably racist.

In the first examination of its kind, Corey Robin - one of the foremost analysts of the right - delves deeply into both Thomas’s biography and his jurisprudence, masterfully reading his Supreme Court opinions against the backdrop of his autobiographical and political writings and speeches. The hidden source of Thomas’s conservative views, Robin shows, is a profound skepticism that racism can be overcome. Thomas is convinced that any government action on behalf of African-Americans will be tainted by racism; the most African-Americans can hope for is that white people will get out of their way.

There’s a reason, Robin concludes, why liberals often complain that Thomas doesn’t speak but seldom pay attention when he does. Were they to listen, they’d hear a racial pessimism that often sounds similar to their own. Cutting across the ideological spectrum, this unacknowledged consensus about the impossibility of progress is key to understanding today’s political stalemate.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Corey Robin (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Legalese

I am not disappointed with the substance or the book's theses. I do think it may be inaccessible to those who don't have political science or law degrees or are law students. Had Robin gone to the trouble to offer some interpretations here and again, it would have been so much more.

Further, the narrator regularly mispronounces words. It's like reading a print book with multiple misspellings.

A Conservative Black Nationalist

Clarence Thomas has a different view of a black persons struggle to succeed in this country. He is critical of the civil rights laws for black Americans but used those laws to achieve success in this country. He was definitely influenced by his grandfather who raised him, but has no respect for the poor black females who end up on welfare with children born out of wedlock. I was left with the impression that he believes separate but equal is fine. He seems to be a hypocrite. He was only able to achieve success by using the civil rights laws that he rejects.

interesting and vital

really fascinating biography and analysis of a person and politics I (and I assume many others) had little understanding of before. Corey's suggestion that we interrogate the premises and assumptions he lays out in Thomas's politics which the left often shares is especially urgent and compelling

A fascinating examination of a troubled ideology

This book traces Justice Thomas' influences and ideas, from his family dynamics (especially the idolized grandfather who raised him) to Malcolm X's black nationalism to the conservative constitutionalism of his legal mentor and education. Ultimately, the ideology is not one I can agree much with, but the analysis that gets there opened up ways of thinking and intellectual contrasts that I had never before considered.

Good for the intellectually curious. Bad as a dogmatic idol to worship.

The Enigma Black Militant or Conservative?

1st look ever at ABM (Angry Black Man) as conflicted as I am. The difference is Justice Thomas is in a position to make meaningful changes... Where I am not but we both lost in the terrain in front of us! 1st time i had an Auditable book filled with so many dead air space.

Defining the judge through his action

I think the enigma is better understood although some of the central conflicts in his character are not addressed it's more of a declarative piece about how he thinks by indirectly arguing through facts of his life. I don't know if he really proves his thesis but it does lend a lot of new information and insight about this guy who appears to be in the main stream of the direction of the supreme Court

Enlightening, Disheartening

The author's assessment of Thomas is grim and fearsome. Through Thomas's opinions and public pronouncements, the author describes Thomas's dystopian vision of an America that will never overcome its racism, through political institutions.

Thomas's view is that if we let the Constitution do what it was meant to do that Black men will eventually understand that political answers to the effects of racism are futile, and that Black men (yes, men. Women should follow) must be forced to accept their patriarchal role as leaders and struggle for economic independence to fight for their families.

If this is his vision--dark, hopeless, cynical, then the worst thing about it is his unique position of power to impose it on everyone else as he sits on the Court until he dies or retires.

The reader was good, but there were some odd emphases "privileges, or immunites" instead of "privileges or immunities" or a misquote of Oliver Wendell Holmes. I wonder if the author had a chance to listen

Wow! Unbelievably thorough and "squarely" written

The narration was excellent. "Race, Capitolsm, and Constitution" each showcases man and the United States tension and battle to contain nature and man/societies existence within that nature.

Learned some things

It revealed some things I didn't know about Thomas and confirmed things I did. I had no clue that he started as a young radical Black Nationalist and a Black Panther. The book never really explained what really changed his world view.

interesting biography pp

Enjoyed the presentation, just thought there should be a little more context given to Thomas's ideas.