Social media users were outraged Wednesday after a Georgia state senator smeared Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as an "Uncle Tom."
The Georgia Senate approved placing a statue of Thomas at the state capitol Tuesday, but State Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Ga., slammed the justice, the second Black citizen to serve on the Supreme Court, as a traitor to his racial group.
"I'm just trying to tell you what we have in the African American community when we talk about a person of color that goes back historically to the days of slavery and that person betraying his own community – we have a term in the Black community," Sen. Jones, who is Black himself, said before the Georgia Senate.
He went on, "And Uncle Tom is a either fictional or non fictional character, I don’t really know the origin of Uncle Tom, but it talks about a person who back during the days of slavery sold his soul to the slave masters."
Commentators across Twitter slammed the state senator from a variety of angles for his disparaging comparison.
The Federalist senior contributor Benjamin Weingarten tweeted that this insult is part of a long tradition from Democrats.
"Justice Thomas -- one of the greatest Americans in our history, and perhaps the most revolutionary and exceptional jurist of at least the last century -- will never, ever stop paying for the thought crime of being black and conservative," he wrote. ‘What's old is new again for the Democrats."
Radio host Derek Hunter tweeted, "’Know your place!’ - man making sure black men learn Democrats do not want them thinking for themselves."
Pro-life outlet LifeNews tweeted, "A Democrat legislator calls Justice Clarence Thomas an ‘Uncle Tom’ because he's conservative. There's nothing the left hates more than black Americans who don't conform to their agenda."
Opinion writer Nicole Russell tweeted, "If you don't align with the mob you'll be excoriated by it."
Other commentators spoke about Thomas’ own history, suggesting that Democrats are using double-standards when they criticize him in such terms.
X Strategies LLC Senior Digital Strategist Greg Price tweeted, "Clarence Thomas may have been born in Georgia in poverty during segregation and grew up to become the second black justice on the Supreme Court but he can read the Constitution and see there's no right in it to kill unborn babies therefore he is an Uncle Tom."
Sunny McSunnyface, a prominent conservative Twitter account, tweeted, "Clarence Thomas was born to farmer descendants of slaves, grew up poor in the Jim Crow south, and speaks English as a second language. If he voted differently on abortion, Democrats would consider him one of the leading inspirational stories of the modern era."
GOP Political Director Elliott Echols wrote, "Clarence Thomas was raised by a single mom and became a Supreme Court Justice. His life has been remarkable, and for Democrats to try to smear him is disgusting. If Clarence Thomas was a liberal, every city across the country would have a statue of him."
The host of the Barrington Report and Black former Democrat candidate for Georgia state representative, Barrington Martin II, wrote, "George Floyd can have statues and you won't utter a word about that, but Clarence Thomas is an achiever that has superseded race, and you idiotically called him an Uncle Tom in front of your colleagues. Thank you for confirming what I already thought about you. #GAPol."
Some Twitter users took issue from a completely different perspective, claiming Jones was not aware of the actual Uncle Tom character the term came from.
Bulls Insider managing editor Russ Wood wrote, "Most people who use 'Uncle Tom' as a slur never bothered to read Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel. If they did they might be surprised at what they learn."
Commentator Chris Loesch tweeted, "It’s not even the actual story of Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom was a HERO because he used nonresistance as a cover and tactic to PROTECT other slaves who had escaped slavery! The character was beaten to death by a slave owner because he wouldn’t give the location of two escaped slaves."
Boston Globe opinion columnist Jeff Jacoby wrote, "This Georgia legislator is so dumb, he doesn't even know the source of the slur ‘Uncle Tom.’ But he knows that he abominates Clarence Thomas, who rose from desperate poverty to extraordinary eminence. Because Thomas is a conservative, this fool thinks he deserves to be smeared."
Meanwhile, some liberal Twitter users appeared to say they wished that the Justice had trended on Twitter due to death or illness.
"Damnit! I saw Clarence Thomas trending and had some very evil hope in my heart," director Jen McGowan wrote. "No such luck."
Essayist Joel Nihlean wrote, "Clarence Thomas is trending, but it's not for the reason you hoped."
