Yet, there is Senator Reid on TV dismissing Thomas with these infuriatingly reductive comments. Sadly, many Americans agree with him. Not because Reid is right. But because such remarks give the latent racists in our society an excuse to say about black conservatives what they think about all black people.

Of course, Senator Reid would never say such reductive and latently racist things about Jesse Jackson or Al Shaprton. Why? These men certainly are not our best and brightest. But they?re the ones that are elevated. Meanwhile those black people who are smart enough to form their own unique views on complex social circumstances are savaged. Everyone laughs when newspapers run comics comparing Condoleezza Rice to Aunt Jemima. People bob their heads in agreement when Harry Belafonte calls Colin Powell an Uncle Tom. No one talks about how this is the first time in this country?s history that a black man is in charge of worldwide diplomacy or a black woman in charge of keeping us secure. That is profound, but all we get from people like Reid are derisive snorts. And everyone gives him a free pass because his remarks are directed at black conservatives. This never happens with white people. They only reserve this treatment for black people. Hispanic appointees aren?t marginalized like this. No one dared call Miguel Estrada a sell-out. But when the Black Commentator called Judge Janice Rogers Brown a ?Jim Crow era judge in natural blackface," no one batted an eye.

Senator Reid?s remarks about Justice Thomas are no different than using the "N-word" to sum up an individual. This needs to end now.