Exclusive commentary by Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson

The Washington Dispatch
September 2, 2003

Recently, Bill Clinton delivered the commencement address at Tougaloo College, a small black private school in Mississippi.  Our “first black President” joked with the faculty and complained about President Bush supposedly focusing too closely on foreign issues while losing sight of domestic ones.  According to reports, every time Clinton took a verbal shot at President Bush he was cheered.  The audience whole-heartedly supported Clinton, and there were no reports of protest of his coming to Tougaloo.  Bill Clinton: adulterer, liar, pervert; a godless, pathetic, despicable human being.

Around the same time, Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the commencement address at the University of Georgia Law School.  According to reports, Justice Thomas gave a deeply personal account of the struggles he faced as a black Yale graduate 29 years before and the barriers he’d faced since, and advice on how all can face down such challenges.  His message was one of strength, overcoming, and hope.  The audience reportedly gave Thomas a standing ovation, overwhelmingly loving his speech.  However, there were protests to Thomas even coming to the University of Georgia.  A couple of groups, including some faculty members, protested Thomas, largely because of his opposition to affirmative action, as well as his other strongly conservative opinions.  Clarence Thomas: disciplined, devoted, admirable; a godly, strong, courageous human being.

More than two thousand years ago, there were two other men.  One was named Jesus, the other Barabbas.  Jesus was a representation of all that is good and righteous, Barabbas a notorious and despicable criminal.  A crowd was given a choice by their governor, Pilate, on which one would be spared from execution.  The crowd unanimously chose Barabbas, self-righteously proclaiming that they wanted Jesus’ blood on them.  Barabbas was released to the crowd and they watched Jesus be flogged and crucified.

We see this story of long ago paralleled today with Bill Clinton and Clarence Thomas.  Bill Clinton is a Barabbas-like man: notorious, the lowest of the low, he stands for all that’s wrong.  Clarence Thomas is a Christ-like man: strong, immovable, he stands for good.  And yet there are actually people with the gall to protest Clarence Thomas, while no one (in Tougaloo) says a word about Bill Clinton.

Though there were whites protesting Clarence Thomas in Georgia, I am going to focus on blacks in this article, because most blacks today are immoral, and therefore need the most help.  Whenever I state this fact on the radio—or anywhere else, I get outraged responses.  “How can you say such a thing!” “Whites are immoral too!” And so on.  But the evidence is clear. I always back this statement up with the following statistic (among others): 90% of blacks supported Bill Clinton, knowing he was an adulterer, a liar, a perjurer, and an immoral man.

By and large, blacks loved Bill Clinton—and continue to love him.  And it’s not because of anything he decisively did while in office (for example, he appointed fewer blacks to high-level positions than President Bush, which to liberals is usually a sure-fire sign of one’s concern for blacks).  Rather, it’s because blacks identify with Bill Clinton.  The fact that Clinton is flawed makes them feel good about being wrong.  With Clinton in office standards lowered, morality was unimportant, and that vindicated the immoral and out-of-control black community.

This came out in my recent interview with Beverly Hogan, President of Tougaloo College, on my nationally syndicated radio talk show.  Ms. Hogan is a friend of Bill Clinton and invited him to give the commencement address.  Though Bill Clinton spent much of his time nonsensically whining about President Bush, Ms. Hogan called his speech a “very good…very fair talk.” I listed Bill Clinton’s history to her (liar, perjurer, adulterer, and so on), and asked her if it bothered her that he is literally a man of no character.  Ms. Hogan said, “That’s not my concern.” She said of Bill Clinton: “he’s very genuine when he’s talking to people.”

This interview with Ms. Hogan was very revealing.  It showed that character is not her concern—just as it is not a concern for most blacks today.  Later in the interview she tried to say she thought it to be important, but that she was against judging.  But it is impossible to embrace Bill Clinton and believe character is important.  This is saddening to me, because there is nothing more important than one’s character and most blacks don’t have any of it.  Also, it showed what blacks really like about Bill Clinton.  Ms. Hogan used the word “genuine,” but that is obviously not it since Bill Clinton is as phony as they come.  What she meant is that Bill Clinton’s flaws make immoral blacks feel comfortable.

There is no such comfort when Clarence Thomas is around.  Clarence Thomas is a light that shines on others, exposing their faults and weaknesses by his shining example.  His virtue and the fact that he became successful on his own through hard work and perseverance, makes blacks uncomfortable and uneasy.  The discomforting reality that government is not the solution to their problems, that morality is important, that blacks can and have overcome much worse circumstances than those of today, are painful pills to swallow for those who love victimhood and hate self-responsibility.

Many blacks actually protest Thomas’ opposition to affirmative action, as if affirmative action is good and something to which blacks have a right.  Isn’t that a little like saying to a welfare-reformer, “How dare you try to take my welfare check away! I earn my check!” They try to paint Thomas as a man against integration, black equality, and black success.  If they can turn him into an Uncle Tom, a sexual harasser, the “white man’s boy,” then they won’t have to look at the fault in themselves.

Do you want to know what Justice Thomas really thinks about racial preferences? Taking a look at his written opinions on the subject would be a good indication.

In a concurring opinion in Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, a case involving a preference program for racial minority highway construction companies, Thomas opined: “Government cannot make us equal; it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law.….There can be no doubt that the paternalism that appears to lie at the heart of this program is at war with the principle of inherent equality that underlies and infuses our Constitution.… In my mind, government-sponsored racial discrimination based on benign prejudice is just as noxious as discrimination inspired by malicious prejudice.  In each instance, it is racial discrimination, plain and simple.”

These are the words of a great man.  Clarence Thomas understands what equality is.  He knows that affirmative action is at odds with what is right and at odds with the United States Constitution and therefore he fights against it.  He knows that preference programs create animus, foster underachievement and inferiority, and are unprincipled.  Many blacks hate him for it.  They would rather see him symbolically flogged and crucified, so they can feel comfortable.

Interestingly, the majority of the black community consider themselves Christians—including the majority of black Clinton supporters.  For them I have some unsettling news: You can’t love Bill Clinton and love God at the same time.  Bill Clinton is of his father, the Devil, and God is a jealous God, and you either must love Him alone or love Darkness.  This choice between good and evil is embodied in the choice between Clarence Thomas and Bill Clinton.

Again, you can only support one.  Choose carefully, for you risk the mistake that crowd made all those years ago.  You can choose Bill Clinton and continue to feel good about being immoral.  Or you can choose Clarence Thomas, and stand for what’s right.  So who’s it going to be: Jesus or Barabbas?