'Look at me!' Justice fires back at critics who dare question his Blackness

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said his views on race and politics have led critics to question his Blackness.

"I mean, how stupid is that? Look at me," Thomas said, grabbing his arm.

"You know, then they say things like, ‘Oh, black is a state of mind.’" Thomas made the remarks during a Hoover Institution conversation with Peter Robinson that included a discussion about the role of Black Americans in politics.

The conservative justice reflected on how economist Thomas Sowell, a Black conservative, helped transform his thinking on race and politics and gave him the confidence to challenge prevailing expectations about Black Americans' political views .

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"You have these views, you have these instincts, but you are getting inputs from the media, from the politicians, the people who have the megaphone, the people who have the loudest voices, that tells you you’re wrong, that tells you you’re bad, that there’s something awful about you," Thomas said.

While at Yale Law School, Thomas said he bucked the push for school busing, questioning why Black families would want their children sent across town to unfamiliar schools and neighborhoods.

"I remember saying those things at Yale and people — the bottom line was, well, you shouldn’t believe that because you’re black," Thomas said.

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"If you ask the leaders, they thought one thing.

If you ask the people, they thought another," Thomas said.

It was Sowell’s work, Thomas said, that helped him make sense of views he had already begun developing on his own.

A friend introduced Thomas to Sowell’s Race and Economics, which Thomas said helped free him from the isolation he had felt over his own views.

THE WELFARE STATE BROKE BLACK FAMILIES.