The Complex Legacy of Clarence Thomas

In this episode, which was originally published in August 2022, Sean Illing talks with Corey Robin, author of a 2019 book about the life and thought of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Robin discusses how Thomas — whose concurring opinion in the case that overturned Roe v. Wade garnered recent attention — developed the ideological basis of his extremist judicial philosophy, how his views went from the hard-right fringe to more mainstream over the course of his 30 years on the Supreme Court, and how the failures of the 1960s movements shaped his fundamental pessimism about racial progress in America.

Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area

Guest: Corey Robin (@CoreyRobin), author; professor of political science, Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center

References: 

• The Enigma of Clarence Thomas by Corey Robin (Metropolitan; 2019)
• "The Self-Fulfilling Prophecies of Clarence Thomas" by Corey Robin (New Yorker; July 9)
• Clarence Thomas's opening statement, Anita Hill hearing (C-SPAN; Oct. 11, 1991)
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952)
• Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022); Thomas's concurrence
• American Negro Slave Revolts by Herbert Aptheker (1943)
• Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution - 1863–1877 by Eric Foner (1988; updated 2014)
• The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations by Christopher Lasch (Norton; 1979)
• The Rhetoric of Reaction by Albert O. Hirschman (Harvard; 1991)

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This episode was made by: 

• Producer: Erikk Geannikis
• Editor: Amy Drozdowska
• Engineer: Patrick Boyd
• Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall

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