XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.homosexual, ott.general   
   XPost: alt.california   
   From: lol@gay.dignity   
      
   It's a matter of record that George Takei supports and votes for   
   the party who placed his family in an internment camp.   
      
   (CNN)George Takei likely went where no critic of a Supreme Court   
   justice has gone before.   
      
   But days after the "Star Trek" actor called Justice Clarence   
   Thomas a "clown in blackface" following his dissent in last   
   week's landmark same-sex marriage ruling, Takei said on Friday   
   that his words "were not carefully considered."   
      
   "When asked by a reporter about the opinion, I was still   
   seething, and I referred to him as a 'clown in blackface' to   
   suggest that he had abdicated and abandoned his heritage," Takei   
   said in a Facebook post. "This was not intended to be racist,   
   but rather to evoke a history of racism in the theatrical arts.   
   While I continue to disagree with Justice Thomas, the words I   
   chose, said in the heat of anger, were not carefully considered."   
      
   The spat began after last week's historic same-sex marriage   
   ruling, when Thomas, one of four justices to dissent, wrote that   
   denying gays and lesbians the right to marry is not denying them   
   of their dignity.   
      
   "Human dignity cannot be taken away by the government," wrote   
   Thomas, who is black. "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."   
      
   But Takei, a Japanese-American who is openly gay and was held in   
   an internment camp during World War II, blasted Thomas's remarks   
   in an op-ed published Wednesday on MSNBC.com entitled, "George   
   Takei to Clarence Thomas: Denying our rights denies our dignity."   
      
   "For many, (being interned) was indeed a great loss of self-   
   worth and respect, a terrible blow to the pride of the many   
   parents who sought only to protect their children from coming to   
   harm," he said. "To say that the government does not bestow or   
   grant dignity does not mean it cannot succeed in stripping it   
   away through the imposition of unequal laws and deprivation of   
   due process."   
      
   And Takei took his criticism one step further this week in an   
   interview with Fox 10 in Phoenix.   
      
   "(Thomas) is a clown in blackface sitting on the Supreme Court,"   
   he said. "He gets me that angry. He doesn't belong there."   
      
   Blackface is makeup worn by white theatrical performers to   
   appear black. It was common in the mid-19th century and into the   
   early 20th century, but has since become regarded as   
   perpetuating racist stereotypes.   
      
   Takei, however, said on Facebook that his comments were not   
   racially-motivated and that he was merely drawing attention to   
   what he said was "part of a racist history in this country."   
      
   "Blackface is a lesser known theatrical term for a white actor   
   who blackens his face to play a black buffoon. In traditional   
   theater lingo, and in my view and intent, that is not racist,"   
   he wrote.   
      
   Takei added: "I feel Justice Thomas has abdicated and abandoned   
   his African-American heritage by claiming slavery did not strip   
   dignity from human beings. He made a similar remark about the   
   Japanese-American internment, of which I am a survivor," he said.   
      
   "A sitting justice of the Supreme Court ought to know better."   
      
   Efforts to reach Thomas for comment Friday were not immediately   
   successful.   
      
   http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/03/politics/george-takei-clarence-   
   thomas-star-trek/index.html   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)