THE SKIRTS AND THE SKINS

Outrage as black judge attacks affirmative action (David Rennie, 26/06/2003, Daily Telegraph)

Clarence Thomas, the only black judge on the United States Supreme Court, has triggered liberal anger by denouncing positive discrimination as a "cruel farce".

In his most personal remarks, Mr Thomas wrote that when some blacks are given a helping hand, "all are tarred as undeserving" whether or not they were actually qualified in their own right.

"When blacks take positions in the highest places of government, industry or academia, it is an open question today whether their skin colour played a part in their advancement," he wrote. Maureen Dowd, a liberal pundit in the New York Times, called the judge "barking mad" in a commentary on his remarks.

"It's poignant really: it makes him crazy that people think he is where he is because of his race, but he is where he is because of his race," she wrote. "It's impossible not to be disgusted at someone who could benefit so much from affirmative action and then pull up the ladder against himself."

One does admire Ms Dowd her consistency: as a quota hire herself she wants to keep the ladder down to help other undeserving women take men's jobs. That is what she means, right? Posted by Orrin Judd at June 25, 2003 9:50 PM