George Takei Raises Eyebrows With "Blackface" Comment About Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

Via The Hill:

Actor and gay rights advocate George Takei is slamming Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas after his dissent to last week's decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide claimed that the government can neither give nor take away human dignity. "He is a clown in blackface sitting on the Supreme Court. He gets me that angry," the former "Star Trek" star said in an interview with Fox 10 this week in Phoenix, standing alongside his longtime partner and husband. "For him to say slaves had dignity ... I mean, doesn't he know slaves were chained? That they were whipped on the back?" Takei asked.

Dissenting in the 5-4 Supreme Court same-sex marriage case, Thomas, an African-American, reflected on the origins of human dignity within society, invoking the belief that humans have God-given "inherent worth." "That vision is the foundation upon which this Nation was built. The corollary of that principle is that human dignity cannot be taken away by the government. Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they lost their humanity) because the government allowed them to be enslaved," Thomas wrote. "Those held in internment camps did not lose their dignity because the government confined them," Thomas wrote. "And those denied governmental benefits certainly do not lose their dignity because the government denies them those benefits. The government cannot bestow dignity, and it cannot take it away."