· the most powerful black man in america, thomas is also our most symptomatic public intellectual, setting out a terrifying vision of race, rights, and violence that’s fast becoming a. A free, self-governing nation needs independent-minded, self-reliant citizens, and thomas’s biography, vividly recounted here, produced just the kind of character that the founders assumed would always mark americans. “there is nothing you can do. Justice clarence thomas has set out a terrifying vision of race, rights, and violence that’s fast becoming a description of … · when he was nearly forty years old, just four years shy of his appointment to the court, thomas set out the foundations of his vision in a profile in the atlantic. Like most ideological commitments, thomas’s politics are selective, but much of the program he embraced in his … · justice clarence thomas is the most important legal thinker of his generation, and the most significant … The same rationale could also be used to overturn cases establishing rights to contraception, same-sex consensual. · thomas’s concurring opinion raises questions about what rights might be next. · the most powerful black man in america, thomas is also our most symptomatic public intellectual, setting …