Lovely Suque, I must live in rarified country, because I knew of NO black people who supported Clarence Thomas at the time. We were offended that H.W. thought he could buy black support by replacing the great, brave Thurgood Marshall with a black, Republican patsy who put on performative indignation. He proved it over and over during his testimony.

We black women were particularly aggrieved, because we have ALL been acquainted with black men who take black women for granted, disrespect them, and expect them to keep quiet while being the perfect gentleman for white women. We knew who he was.

I know that black people often conflate "skinfolk" for "kinfolk," but I believe that Thomas succeeded because at the time, it was probably more acceptable to be sexist than it was to seem racist. Throw the woman (and in that case, women) overboard in order to say "We Republicans nominated a black one for you." I believe that many Democratic Senators made that awful choice, including Joe Biden. They would have faced a lot of pushback for voting against a black man. The folks I know weren't happy then, and we're definitely not happy now. My mother is still alive, so I can't repeat what we say about Thomas.

I'm agreeing with you; a lot of folks couldn't tell the difference and saw only black skin, but I promise you that knowing Thomas's background, there were those of us out cheering for Anita. (Lots of claps.)