— News and Commentary —
Amazon Snubs Clarence Thomas During Black History Month
Amazon Prime is not streaming a popular documentary about the only current black U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, during Black History Month.
The omission is especially glaring as the move to drop “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words” comes during Black History Month despite Amazon carving out an entire section celebrating “Black Voices” during February.
“Recently, Amazon Prime dropped Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words, an acclaimed and popular PBS documentary on Justice Clarence Thomas, making it unavailable to stream during Black History Month,” Breitbart reported. “Thomas is our nation’s only black justice currently serving on the U.S. Supreme Court, and one would think that between Amazon’s claim to ‘building an inclusive culture’ and the fact that it’s Black History Month, Amazon would want to stream this inspiring documentary on its platform.”
Mark Paoletta, who served as a lawyer in the Bush 41 White House Counsel’s Office and helped to confirm Justice Thomas to the bench, wrote an opinion piece at Breitbart highlighting Amazon’s alleged anti-conservative bias.
The company “showed it has its limits when it comes to its dedication to diversity and inclusion” by booting the documentary, he argued.
“In fact, Amazon Prime created an entire Amplify Black Voices page on its site that ‘feature[s] a curated collection of titles to honor Black History Month across four weekly themes (Black Love, Black Joy, Black History Makers, and Black Girl Magic),'” highlighted Paoletta.
“Amazon has made a significant effort to celebrate black voices on its site during Black History Month, including films of Thurgood Marshall and even Anita Hill, but can’t find any space for a documentary on our only sitting black Supreme Court justice?” he pointedly questioned. “This makes no sense at all, other than Amazon made a decision to not show this film because Justice Thomas is a black justice who has conservative views.”
Paolette notes that Amazon “has been taking down long-running documentaries from its site with little or no warning, and apparently it is almost impossible to receive a response as to why a documentary was taken down.”
“[T]here may be some so-called liberal documentaries that have been taken down during this period,” he notes, however, “it is very strange that Amazon could not find space on its website to stream a documentary on our longest-serving black Supreme Court justice in American history that ran on PBS in a national broadcast (no small feat) and is a top-selling DVD in its documentary section, while less popular documentaries on Justice Marshall are still streaming.”
As noted by The Federalist, Amazon has “escalated its censorship of political dissidents.” Earlier this month, the outlet highlighted, Amazon deplatformed conservative Ryan Anderson’s book critical of gender theory, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Movement.”
The Daily Wire reported earlier this week that a Virginia high school student was publicly attacked for choosing conservative commentator, BLEXIT founder, and author Candace Owens has her “Black Trailblazer” for her Black History Month presentation.
“The Black Student Union assigned its members to present on ‘black trailblazers’ that have contributed to the black community in honor of Black History Month. The presentations were sent out to the school in honor of black accomplishments. For her part, Julia Saville chose Candace Owens,” The Daily Wire reported. “On Wednesday, Feb. 17, Saville was scheduled to present on her chosen black trailblazer. When she awoke that morning, she received an email from a classmate condemning Saville for choosing Owens as a ‘black trailblazer.’ The email was sent out to all staff and students at the school.”
Related: ‘Citizens Deserve Better’: Justice Clarence Thomas Dissents In PA Election Case
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