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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who is notoriously quiet on the bench, is opening up about his life in an upcoming documentary, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas In His Own Words.
READ MORE: Anita Hill shares her #MeToo story on stage
Thomas is the second Black Supreme Court justice. He succeeded Thurgood Marshall in 1991, who was the first African-American to hold the position. But his journey to the highest court in the land has been one wrought with controversy, including a challenging confirmation hearing in 1991 which included claims that he sexually harassed Anita Hill.
Now Thomas is telling his side in a rare expose.
“This is the wrong black guy, he has to be destroyed,” Thomas says in a clip from the film about those who he believed wanted to destroy him.
He said when Hill’s sexual harassment allegations took flight, that’s when “all heck broke loose.”
READ MORE: Clarence Thomas warns that a Supreme Court face off on abortion rights is coming soon
The documentary, produced by Manifold Productions is set to be released in 2020 and will air on PBS in May, TIME reports.
According to the official documentary description:
“Although Clarence Thomas remains a controversial figure, loved by some, reviled by others, few know much more than a few headlines and the recollections of his contentious confirmation battle with Anita Hill. Yet, the personal odyssey of Clarence Thomas is a classic American story and should be better known and understood. His life began in extreme poverty in the segregated South, and moved to the height of the legal profession, as one of the most influential justices on the Supreme Court.”
Thomas gets candid about the confirmation hearings:
“One of the things you do in hearings is you have to sit there and look attentively at people you know have no idea what they’re talking about,” Thomas said.
“Most of my opponents on the Judiciary Committee cared about only one thing: how would I rule on abortion rights?” Thomas said. “You really didn’t matter, and your life didn’t matter. What mattered was what they wanted. And what they wanted was this particular issue.”
Thomas as up against Hill, who was testifying before the Senate Judiciary committee to convince them that she was repeatedly harassed by Thomas. Ultimately he was confirmed October 15, 1991.
Thomas says about that moment that he was less than enthused.
“My reaction is still pretty much the way it is now. I mean, whoop-dee-damn-doo. I wasn’t really all that interested in it.”
“The idea was to get rid of me,” Thomas said. “And then after I was there, it was to undermine me.”
READ MORE: Anita Hill displeased with Joe Biden’s apology for her treatment at Clarence Thomas hearings
Thomas also criticized people for taking aim at Black conservative saying:
“There’s different sets of rules for different people.
“If you criticize a black person who’s more liberal, you’re a racist. Whereas you can do whatever to me, or to now [HUD Secretary] Ben Carson, and that’s fine, because you’re not really black because you’re not doing what we expect black people to do.”
Will somebody come get their Uncle Thomas please?
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