Why are there more black basketball players in the NBA? And should we use law to force the government to makes the league racially balanced? That is what Justice Clarence Thomas wants to know when discussing the court’s latest decision on its so-called “fair housing” ruling.
Last week the Supreme Court ruled in a 5 to 4 decision that “policies and practices that create racial disparities can be challenged under the law, even if there was no motive to discriminate.”
But Thomas said that racial disparities don’t necessarily mean racism is going on.
The idea that “in the absence of discrimination, an institution’s racial makeup would mirror that of society” has not happened in history because certain ethnic groups tend to veer towards certain professions and education levels, and this happens without discrimination, Thomas argued. He cited the NBA as proof of his claim.
“Racial imbalances do not always disfavor minorities. At various times in history, ‘racial or ethnic minorities…have owned or directed more than half of whole industries in particular nations,'” wrote Thomas.
“These minorities ‘have included the Chinese in Malaysia, the Lebanese in West Africa, Greeks in the Ottoman Empire, Britons in Argentina, Belgians in Russia, Jews in Poland, and Spaniards in Chile — among many others,'” he wrote. “…And in our own country, for roughly a quarter-century now, over 70 percent of National Basketball Association (NBA) players have been black.”
“To presume that these and all other measurable disparities are products of racial discrimination is to ignore the complexities of human existence,” wrote Thomas.
Of course, leftists see racism under their beds and in their closets at night.