George Takei calls Clarence Thomas ‘clown in blackface’ over gay marriage dissent

Gay rights activist and former “Star Trek” star George Takei recently told a local Fox affiliate in Arizona that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a “clown in blackface.”

Mr. Takei told a Phoenix station that the justice was “a disgrace to America” over his Obergefell v. Hodges dissent. The 5-4 ruling prohibits states from banning same-sex marriage.

“Human dignity has long been understood in this country to be innate. When the Framers proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence that ’all men are created equal’ and ’endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,’ they referred to a vision of mankind in which all humans are created in the image of God and therefore of inherent worth. That vision is the foundation upon which this Nation was built,” Justice Thomas wrote in his dissent, the media watchdog News Busters reported Thursday.

“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. Those held in internment camps did not lose their dignity because the government confined them. 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,” the justice continued.

Mr. Takei blasted that reading of American history, saying “Doesn’t he know that slaves were in chains? That they were whipped on the back. If he saw the movie ’12 Years a Slave,’ you know, they were raped. […] My parents lost everything that they worked for, in the middle of their lives, in their 30s. His business, my father’s business, our home, our freedom, and we’re supposed to call that dignified? Marched out of our homes at gun point. I mean, this man does not belong on the Supreme Court.”