Nicolas

Sawicky Critique of My Grandfathers Son Professor Annunziata My Grandfathers Son is a memoir written by Supreme Court Justice Clarence

Thomas. It is a captivating and provocative tale of his humble beginnings in Pinpoint, Georgia all the way to the Supreme Court. Thomas leaves no rock unturned in this all-inclusive book, putting his life once again in the national spotlight. As you start to read the memoir, it becomes plainly obvious that this book is

not only well written, but also extremely easy to understand. It is written for the masses. There are very rarely any large words and any words that are not universally known are immediately explained to the reader. Its this kind of accessibility that makes My Grandfathers Son such a desirable book to read. As you start to learn about the situation Clarence Thomas was born into, it

becomes all too clear that he was very lucky to become as accomplished as he ended up being. Like many black children, Thomas was born into a broken home. He ended up seeing his dad twice in his life. Things start off very emotional when Thomas describes what it was like to not have a father figure in those first few years. His dad promised to buy little Clarence an Elgin watch. He never received any gift from his father; the one promise his dad ever made to him was broken (1). Along with his description of how he felt during his childhood, Thomas does

a great job describing his childhood activities in Pinpoint, Georgia. I was able to able to clearly picture him skipping oysters in the water and hunting for fiddler crabs (5). 1

When Clarence is then forced to move into the slums of Savannah, that playful life in rural Pinpoint is contrasted with the grim life of being poor in the city. I had to contain myself from puking after reading the part where Thomas fell down the stairs carrying the chamber pot (7). Even though I had never experienced such an event, it was described well enough that I could visualize it in my mind. This whole stage in his life is perfectly summarized when he states: Sometimes shrill-sounding sirens pierced the night. Their wail might mean an arrest, an accident, or a fire, all of them welcome breaks in the bleak monotony of my new life. (7). Thomas life takes another dramatic turn when he is given to his

grandparents. His grandparents become the stable family he never had, going as far as calling his grandfather Daddy. The reader is given an excellent description of not only Daddys physical appearance, but also his attitude and educational background. Even though Daddy was not book smart, he had a lot of wisdom that he made sure was passed down to Clarence. One shrewd comment that he passed down to young Thomas was: Black people had enough trouble getting through life without adding alcohol to their list of woes. Why make matters worse? (12). Those are very true words and were definitely something that Clarence needed to abide by if he wanted to escape poverty later in his life. The book also introduces a nice parallel between Thomas environments at

home and in private school. He was constantly being pushed and never given time to get in trouble. When Clarence achieved a high score on the high school entrance exam, he was scolded for underachieving (15). Eventually Thomas was molded into

a young man who was eager to learn. Thomas himself best describes this transformation into maturity when he says: I was never prouder than when I got my first library card (17). Its at this point that I was able to see a change in attitude. Clarence Thomas was no longer just doing what he was told, but being proactive and willing to better himself through education. Thomas then goes on to describe one of the most ingenious forms of

proactive parenting that I have ever heard of. I am of course describing Daddys idea to move to a farm every summer so that Clarence and his brother would not be tempted to get into trouble (23). Among the vivid example that Thomas provides to this experience, one stands above the rest. Our small, soft hands blistered quickly at the start of each summer, but Daddy never let us wear gloves, which he considered a sign of weakness (25). This comical account of Daddys stubbornness showed the harshness of Thomas early life. I was also able to distinguish that it was all for the end goal of building strong character. The first chapter ends on a nice note, when Clarence states that, I had been raised by the greatest man I have ever known (28). This is the first mention of Daddy being his idol. The force that made him what he is today. As you go through the memoir, My Grandfathers Son, you begin to realize

that you are speaking and thinking as if you are Clarence Thomas himself. You find yourself using the term Daddy instead of grandfather. I even found myself referring to Thomas mother as Pigeon. It is a testament to the world that Clarence

Thomas created in his memoir. Every reader gets the chance to live his life and see the world, the way he sees it. The picture section in the book was a great addition to the memoir. After

seeing pictures of Clarence Thomas as he progressed through life, I had an even better image of him as I read through the book. The most eye-catching of these pictures was definitely the one where his eighth-grade teacher, Sister Mary Virgilius, is hugging Clarence. She was the one who had instilled that fire for higher education when she realized he was underachieving in the classroom. As the reader, I was happy that she was able to see the day where one of her students was sworn-in as a Supreme Court Justice. As Thomas gets older, race becomes a bigger issue in his life. He brings up the

burden of being a black man in America, let alone attending the prestigious Yale University. He describes how he equates the affirmative action he received to the priority that rich legacies receive. He goes on to say, As much as it stung to be told that Id done well in the seminary despite my race, it was far worse to feel that as I was now at Yale because of it (75). This at first confused me, because I saw affirmative action as a blessing for minorities and as a way to correct the injustice that they received for so many years. Thomas makes an excellent argument that this favoritism was earned solely by race, which is still a terrible thing and made him and outcast because of it. Going deeper into the race relations that Clarence Thomas witnessed up

north, I learned a lot more unsettling information. Thomas actually favored the

white bigots of the south when compared to the white people in Boston. With the southern whites, you knew where they were coming from and they would warn you before attacking, just like a rattlesnake. The whites in Boston were like water moccasins. They would act like they were your friends until you disagreed with them (76). Then they would attack you out of nowhere, with no warning at all. That was probably the most eye-opening section in the whole book. I came in with the assumption that the north were much more black friendly than the southerners. The citizens of the northern United States had not had slaves for over a century and abolished it under their own free will. Thomas did a great job explaining that the secret and internal racism that white northerners possessed was much more harmful to people like himself. The comparison to different types of snakes was also extremely clever. Thomas does a great job of providing credible examples of his integrity

throughout his memoir. This is something I looked closely at because I believe that due to their job, judges need to be one of the most honest people out there. The example that pertains to the NAACPs accusation of the bar exam being discriminatory is one of the best ones provided. He goes against his own race and points out that it is impossible for the bar exam to me discriminatory, since each answer is graded by a different individuals. He does elude to that fact that it is most likely the lack of better education that is causing African Americans to fail the bar exam (80).

When Thomas arrives at the Missouri Supreme Court, he quickly discovers

two interesting preconceived notions people have about him. Both of them were completely false. The first is that he has a chip on his shoulder because he was black and had been one of the few of his kind to make it to this level. The second preconceived notion was that he was a self-absorbed Ivy League elitist (94). I laughed out loud after reading this, believing nothing could be further from the truth. If only his colleagues knew what kind of life he escaped as a young man. Luckily, they quickly realized there assumption were unfounded. Clarence Thomas provides some great insight into the early workings of

affirmative action in the workplace when he worked at Monsantos Intermediate Chemicals Company. It was there that Thomas saw gifted black managers who were looked at as just percentage points. The company had no intention moving these individuals up the corporate ladder; they just wanted to meet the baseline requirements (114). After finally making it to Washington, Thomas encountered a new problem

pertaining to race relations, this time within his own race. Thomas worked for a republican senator, which was considered going outside his own race to many African Americans. Thomas and a few other blacks that worked for Republican Senators were ostracized, even though many of them were at the worst moderates (125). In 1980, Thomas changed to the Republican Party in order to vote for Ronald

Reagan. He had changed his views on some subjects pertaining to African

Americans. He believed that smaller government was the answer because it was big government that was making guinea pigs out of many African Americans, with things like affirmative action (130). Thomas thought blacks were best if just left alone. This is against the popular belief of most Americans, both white and black. Most African Americans support the Democratic Party. The end of chapter 7 is a heartfelt moment in the book, in my opinion. It

describes the first time Clarence Thomas has a chance to be a dad, like Daddy was to him. He changed his attitude towards many things, like playing sports. But the amount of love is still there. He would garden, cook, and even find time to go to all his sons football games. I shed a tear. He was no longer worried about debt, but living the American dream (190). Towards the end of the book, the reader is given a mesmerizing account of

Thomas path to the Supreme Court. Before he is initiated into the highest court, he is faced with accusations that destroyed his name forever. I am course talking about the sexual harassment accusations presented by his former co-worker, Anita Hill. The media storm that followed was as he described it, a high-tech lynching (268). He even compared the accusations to the book/movie, To Kill a Mockingbird, whereas both involved a black man being accused of a sexual crime that they did not commit, but were suspected of it because of their race. He eloquently describes the situation as, The mob I now face carried no ropes or guns. Its weapons were smooth tongued lies spoken into microphones and printed on the front page of Americas newspaper (269). I dont think anyone in that situation could have said it

better. At this point I could not put the book down. I had to finish. After learning about all the hardships this man endured, he deserved better. I was filled with rage and confusion on why someone would make such wild allegations to a man that had overcome so much. What did Thomas ever do to this lady? I asked myself. But I eventually answered my own question. It was jealousy. It just consumes some people and Anita was just one of those people. After the hearing was over, Thomas was eventually confirmed into the

Supreme Court. But in a somber Whoop-dee-damn-doo, you know how Thomas felt (280). The damage was already done. His good name was tarnished because of one jealous lawyer. According to Thomas, thats all it takes to ruin a black mans name in America. As you can probably guess, I really do not have anything negative to say

about this book. It was a joy to read. It may have started off a little slow, but I think that is more me getting used to the characters and once I dug myself in, I was riding this book until the end. I highly recommend this book to every American who is interested in the history of their country. You really get a unique perspective with this book and I am really glad that I chose it.