CNN anchor Chris Wallace asked actor and former The Wire star Wendell Pierce about portraying Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in an HBO film and got an earful about the justice’s views on race.
Wallace interviewed the accomplished character actor for this week’s edition of his Max series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace on a variety of topics, including the roles he has portrayed in his long career.
When Wallace asked about Thomas, Pierce slammed the justice for failing to recognize racism, and placing the blame for a certain difficulty on the wrong thing:
WALLACE: In 2016, you played another lawyer, named Clarence Thomas in the, as he faced charges of harassment in the HBO movie, Confirmation. This is one of the classic “he said she said” cases. Who do you think was telling the truth, Clarence Thomas, or Anita Hill?
PIERCE: Something happened between them. The impropriety, level of impropriety, I don’t think we will ever truly know. Clarence Thomas was very similar to me, is very similar to me. Grew up in the South, understanding and feeling events of racism. Black Catholic.
But I, this is my opinion about the man, the perception – he was actually a Black radical when he was in college.
And I think there’s the moment I saw where the politics separated, and it’s not because of politics. It is because of humanity. Something that happened to you.
He could not get a job at, with a Yale degree in law, in Savannah. And instead of him being able to perceive that as the racist act that it was, this is an old boys network and you’re not going to be a part of it. He in turn, blamed it on affirmative action. Right.
WALLACE: Somehow his Yale degree was –
PIERCE: Yeah, this is my Yale degree and they don’t see me as worthy and it’s because of the affirmative action. If I had a chance, I would say to the justice – they just didn’t like your Black ass.
Watch above via Max’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace.
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