That doesn't seem fair on him. I don't think it's as simple as that, there are other factors than race that determine someone's politics.
The impression I had (and I'm not 100% sure I'm remembering what I read correctly) is that Clarence Thomas comes from a kind of right-wing pro-capitalist quasi-separatist position, in that he sees capitalism as the answer to racism, and conversely sees the state as a vehicle for that racism - thus from his viewpoint, reducing the power of the state and enrouraging capitalist exploitation is consistent with opposing racism.
He's perfectly OK with black capitalists exploiting a black working class, though.
First of all I like the fact that you have viewpoints and defend them. Secondly, I think you have great insights into political and social matters. Thirdly, I gave nothing on why I opinionated as I did. I wanted to avoid the hard work I am not going to undertake, hard of course for me, because I am going to have to think:
Not long ago I made a disparaging comment about Clarence Thomas and then watched a long interview he did with some very light skinned intellectual who identifies as black. I do not remember who he is. But the interview was quite long and went into Thomas as a child and the influence his Grandfather had on his life. I felt rather ashamed of myself for my criticism of him as a result of watching.
Now for the hard part, summarizing what I felt I heard and felt based of some tidbits of data from which they sprang.
Grandfather possessed profound self control and self discipline regarding race, never showing anger or resistance to white insult and overt racism and he placed that obligation on Thomas, that he was lucky and privileged and had always to take the high road and seize every opportunity for advancement. Thomas worships his Grandfather for what he made Thomas become in this life. He was an inspiration and produced a winner.
You win as a black man by ignoring race, by going straight ahead, by fulfilling an obligation to self to become the best you can be, to set an example for others to see.
We see the rewards, what is the price of success. The price is that all that humiliation that Blacks are exposed to had to be beaten back and repressed, playing the long game, the game of who gets the last laugh, the reward of indefatigable dignity at the price of never expressing rage, of holding weakness in contempt.
But where does that leave you with sympathy for the broken, to have never known defeat, to have never satisfied the will for revenge, for real justice.
Thomas was given the gift never to allow failure or face failure in the eyes of his Grandfather. He fears that shame greater than any other. The game is to pretend that racism does not exist, to ignore all insults that one is Black. That is objectively true, there is nothing wrong with being black but in the real world racism is everywhere. To deny one's blackness in the real world to me is a form of self hate. It depends on a real world denial despite its objective truth.
One can only develop a profound refusal to deny self inferiority in the face of the counter claim. Thus those who deny race with deeply empowered dignity tacitly acknowledge that racism has affected their lives.
Ten thousand years ago in the heart of Africa you would not have found anybody who needed any sense of black racial dignity because everybody was black and the notion that might imply some imaginary imperfection did not exist there.
So my take on Thomas is that his self discipline will lead to an insensitivity to weakness and a worship of the successful and the strong. This is that we speak of when we refer to 'pride goeth before a fall', endless fear.
I would seek the justice of those who have died to themselves, those from whom love flows freely in the absence of pride, those self content in the absence of self and the presence of the joy of being.
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