Academic

JAN CRAWFORD ON HARRY REID: Racism Doesn?t Always have a Southern Drawl. Harry Reid was practici?

By Glenn Reynolds

JAN CRAWFORD ON HARRY REID: Racism Doesn’t Always have a Southern Drawl.

Harry Reid was practicing modern-day racial politics — gaming out what he thought white people would and wouldn’t accept and what kind of prejudices and stereotypes many of them hold.

Maybe that shouldn’t be surprising to hear, since Reid has waded into the minefield of prejudice and stereotyping before. I can?t help but think of his outrageous statements about Clarence Thomas back in 2005, when some were urging President Bush to make Thomas the first African American chief justice. We all know Thomas?s compelling life story: growing in the harrowing days of Jim Crow in the segregated South, struggling to break free from poverty and racism, becoming the first black child to integrate all-white schools, graduating with honors from the seminary and Holy Cross before Yale Law School. Thomas succeeded on his unquestioned intellect and his determination and hard work.

Thomas is one of the Court?s most original and compelling thinkers, and his opinions are praised by scholars on the Left and the Right as important contributions. You may not agree with a single word Clarence Thomas says, and it may drive you crazy that he took Thurgood Marshall?s seat on the Supreme Court, but you can?t call him stupid or deny he?s an important intellectual force.

Unless you?re Harry Reid.

Read the whole thing.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on January 12, 2010 (boomark / email).