Every white bigot on social media: “Because he’s black. Of course, Democrats are the true racists.”
Clarence Thomas does not represent the views of 99% of black people (since they, generally, don’t appreciate efforts to stop them from voting or dismantling their civil rights). To say, most black Americans don’t see eye-to-eye with him on their own Civil Rights would be the understatement of the millennium, since they generally believe they should have some. He’s married to a woman that is so nuts, she was practically a cheerleader for the insurrection. And, of course, Thomas barely said a word before Scalia died (he literally did not speak in oral arguments for 10 years).
Naturally, white conservative males have finally found a powerful black person they actually like: one that is categorically uninterested in protecting the rights of black people, hates most of the same groups they do, and who barely opens his mouth.
Notably, the same group spends the majority of their online time hating the first black President (and mindlessly rabble-rousing for the birther-in-chief who ran as a reactionary result of Obama’s election), the first black female VP, the black congressional caucus, Take a Knee, Black Lives Matter, Critical Race Theory, anti-racism training, diversity and inclusion initiatives, the Voting Rights Act of 1964, black reporters, black activists, black athletes, black voters, the 97% of black people that did NOT vote for Trump (including conservatives like Colin Powell or Michael Steele), and—of course—Ketanji Brown Jackson, the other black person on the Supreme Court who is the perfect antidote to Thomas.
To more directly answer the question of why the left dislikes Thomas more than Alito or Barrett (themselves only a pebble’s throw from theocracy):
—1. Thomas was Brett Kavanaugh before Brett Kavanaugh, a guy of unsound temperament and questionable character who should’ve never been seated on the Supreme Court.
—2. Thomas has said he wants to serve on the court for 43 years just to make liberals “miserable,” and it would only be natural for liberals to make the feeling mutual.
—3. Thomas is so radically “conservative,” he’s even taken a swipe at fellow conservative Justice Roberts in an interview last year. Between this and his wife’s extremely pro-coup stance on January 6th, Thomas’s views are no longer “conservative” so much as possibly pro-fascist.
—4. His bonkers opinion in overturning Roe makes it clear Thomas has NO respect for the Constitution (a document conservatives often mention but have little actual respect for—as January 6th should’ve made clear) and the separation of church and state.
—5. He’s a walking billboard for SCOTUS term limits as he’s been on the court nearly 32 years (the average life expectancy for a male in 1776 was only 38 years old). Thomas is a guy that barely got confirmed due to sexual harassment allegations (52–48 was virtually unheard of in the relatively bipartisan year of 1991, and the lowest margin in 110 years, at that time), and now he’s the 14th longest serving justice of all time.
—6. Thomas has repeatedly refused to recuse himself from cases he clearly should have. He is hiding behind the fact no SCOTUS judge has actually been removed from the bench, and seems to have an attitude of “I dare you to hold me to account” on questions of ethical violations.
–7. And yes, he’s done more harm to black Americans than any other I can possibly name. On this current court, it’s no surprise the interchangeable, oblivious white dudes like Roberts, Kavanaugh, Alito, and Gorsuch don’t understand the need for affirmative action, but Thomas has benefitted more from it than any other person living. [The entire reason he was put on the court is because he’s one of the few black conservative justices H.W. Bush could find to replace Thurgood Marshall, and Democrats had already vetoed Bork–not picking Thomas would’ve made it look like they were completely uninterested in candidates of color.]
He has no reason to vote against things like affirmative action, portions of the voting rights act that protect black voters, or even the recent case of Alabama gerrymandering where even Kavanaugh and Roberts thought the congressional map of Alabama was wrong (the map looks like a Picasso painting and has black areas of Montgomery and Birmingham in the same district even though they’re a 100 miles from each other). With only Alito as a possible rival, Thomas is actually the least Civil Rights-sympathetic judge on this ultra-right current court, which is truly saying something. “Does he even now he’s black?” and/or “What’s his problem with black people?” have been questions that have followed Thomas for a while, but even fellow judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson now feels an urgent need to point out his negative “obsession” with race–specifically, dismantling any and all protections for people that he seems to feel the least in common with.