During a recent law school lecture, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia helped to dispel the damaging stereotype of black incompetence. Specifically, Scalia refuted the widely held belief that Justice Clarence Thomas is his puppet when he indicated that it was Thomas who had led him further to the right over the past two decades, rather than the other way around. As I wrote in an article nearly 10 years ago, Thomas is anything but Scalia’s flunky, and claims to the contrary, even when made by other blacks, are often rooted in the myth that blacks cannot think for themselves.
Scalia’s comment about Thomas’ impact on his jurisprudence made me think more deeply about the powerful influence that Thomas, the only black person on the court, may have on his colleagues during their deliberations on the Fisher v. University of Texas-Austin affirmative action case. Indeed, Thomas’ arguments about the stigma of race-based affirmative action have been appealing to many well-intentioned individuals who question affirmative action, not because they believe that racial disadvantage and bias no longer exist, but instead because of the harms that they believe affirmative action may present to its beneficiaries. Even I, a black Democrat who supports affirmative action, was moved by parts of Thomas’ dissent in Grutter v. Bollinger, such as his questions about law schools’ use of the LSAT in their admissions processes. This time, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s narrative of how "affirmative action" created a space for her on the court will not be present as a counterweight to Thomas’ arguments. However, Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s compelling account of how affirmative action can transform the lives of real people will be highly visible.
