Legendary award-winning actor Samuel L. Jackson criticized Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for jeopardizing interracial marriage via the recent Roe v. Wade ruling, calling him “Uncle Clarence.”
Jackson took to Twitter to call out the Supreme Court judge on June 25.
“How’s Uncle Clarence feeling about Overturning Loving v Virginia??!!” the 73-year-old tweeted. He referenced the submissive Black male character in the 1852 novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The character’s name has historically been used as an insult to describe Black individuals who subscribe to white ideologies.
Jackson’s gripe with Clarence came after reports that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, which would end the constitutional right to abortion since it was established in 1973. Lawmakers reportedly fear that the same reasoning used to reverse the decision could also be employed to eradicate interracial marriage, which became protected under the landmark Loving v. Virginia decision in 1967. At the time, the court ruled that laws banning such marriages violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.
Ironically, Clarence is in an interracial marriage with white attorney and conservative activist Virginia “Ginnie” Thomas. However, it is unknown whether or not he considered that fact.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus recently voiced their concern about SCOTUS’ decision calling it a “public health crisis” and urging President Joe Biden to declare a national emergency.
“Every day we wait to respond is a day wasted in mitigating the public health crisis that Roe’s dismantling will catalyze,” they wrote in a letter. “These unprecedented and calculated attacks on our bodily autonomy are a direct affront to the lives and freedom of Black women.”
Congressional Black Caucus members even released individual statements condemning the 6-3 decision.