Here is another story to be filed under “Imagine If a Conservative Said This.” The speaker was instead Hollywood liberal and former crew member of Starship Enterprise George Takei, who unloaded on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for his dissenting opinion in the recent gay marriage decision. First Thomas’s written opinion:
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 which this 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.
Takei took exception with the justice’s remarks, which is in itself poses no problem. The manner in which he expressed himself, however, is quite problematic. Here are Takei’s comments, which are also captured in the video that follows, courtesy of Phoenix Fox affiliate KSAZ:
He is a clown in blackface 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. 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. [Emphasis]
FOX 10 News | fox10phoenix.com
Takei’s citing of a Hollywood film as an authoritative historical source would be amusing if it weren’t for the noxious tone and overtly racist tenor of his comments, which are far from funny. He should be ashamed of himself.
(h/t Scott Whitlock, NewsBusters)
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