An interesting article ran in yesterday’s Washington Times under the headline, “Blacks see Roberts racially ‘secluded.'”
Some Congressional Black Caucus members and civil rights advocates are concerned about Judge John G. Roberts Jr.’s “secluded” northern Indiana upbringing and want senators to ask the Supreme Court nominee about his history of interactions with minorities.
Well, I can understand their concern. Sandra Day O’Connor has become one of their favorite justices, and we all know that the Arizona ranch where she grew up provided her many opportunities to “interact” with blacks. No doubt the village of Weare, New Hampshire, did the same for Justice Souter. It must have been much more cosmopolitan when he was growing up than it is now, since the 2000 census reveals that its racial makeup these days is 98.25% white and 0.17% black.
Childhood experiences, of course, aren’t everything, and thus it is fortunate that those interested in probing whether or not Roberts has led a “racially secluded” life have among their number someone with the penetrating insight — nothing less than an uncanny ability to read the past — of Ron Walters, chairman of the African American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland, who said that “questions about Judge Roberts’ background can serve a purpose.”
“The context would have to be explanatory, and that would be, how did his growing up shape his conservatism and his outlook on social issues and society,” he said.
He said it is likely that Judge Roberts had few “multicultural experiences” at Harvard University, and so he would have kept the same views and attitudes he had growing up in a mostly white, conservative state.
Presumably Prof. Walters has satisfied himself that Justice Souter had multiple “multicultural experiences” when he attended Harvard some 15 years earlier, as did Justice O’Connor even earlier at Stanford.
I thought that the “some of my best friends” argument was not sufficient to allay fears of prejudice and bigotry. Has that changed?
Leftists are setting themselves up for a tremendous fall here. They are behaving instinctively, reflexively, as apposed to intelligently. Grasping for straws, their desperation shows in every threadbare argument they conjure.
Just as the incompetent leftist governments of New Orleans and Louisiana are unable to cope with a near-miss hurricane, leftists in all areas are situations. They absolutely need libertarians, moderates and conservatives, but rather than admitting their shortcomings they cling to the crap for brains notion that utopia will come when government is completely controlled by leftists.
“The context would have to be explanatory, and that would be, how did his growing up shape his conservatism and his outlook on social issues and society,” he said.
He said it is likely that Judge Roberts had few “multicultural experiences” at Harvard University, and so he would have kept the same views and attitudes he had growing up in a mostly white, conservative state.
I guess that explains why Clarence Thomas is a conservative.