Star Trek's George Takei on Clarence Thomas: 'He's a clown in blackface'

Jul 2, 2015

George Takei, probably best known for his role in Star Trek, has come out strongly against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whose remarks in his dissenting opinion on the recent same-sex marriage case were at the least bizarre and at most horrifically offensive.

In an opinion that claimed the government’s denial of marriages could not detract from the dignity of same-sex couples, he went on to generalize dignity and its role in government involvement: “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 was quick to refute that opinion, calling on his own family’s experience during World War II when they were taken to internment camps. “My parents lost everything that they worked for in the middle of their lives, in their thirties. Their business, their home? We’re supposed to call that dignified? Marched out of our homes at gunpoint? He is an embarrassment. He is a disgrace to America!”

“He is a clown in blackface sitting on the Supreme Court,” he said. “He doesn’t belong there. For him to say that slaves had dignity? Doesn’t he know that slaves were enchained? That they were whipped on the back…they were raped! And he says he had dignity as slaves?”