Star Trek actor George Takei, who is an openly gay activist, apologized for comments he made during a television interview about US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas being a "clown in black face."
"I owe an apology," Takei said in a post on his Facebook page.
"He is a clown in blackface sitting on the Supreme Court," Takei said in the original interview, which no longer appears at Fox10 Phoenix‘s site but can be viewed at MRCNewsBusters. "He gets me that angry. He doesn’t belong there."
"I recently was asked by a reporter about Justice Clarence Thomas’s dissent in the marriage equality cases, in which he wrote words that really got under my skin, by suggesting that the government cannot take away human dignity through slavery, or though internment," Takei said. "In my mind that suggested that this meant he felt the government therefore shouldn’t be held accountable, or should do nothing in the face of gross violations of dignity. When asked by a reporter about the opinion, I was still seething, and I referred to him as a ‘clown in blackface’ to suggest that he had abdicated and abandoned his heritage. This was not intended to be racist, but rather to evoke a history of racism in the theatrical arts. While I continue to vehemently disagree with Justice Thomas, the words I chose, said in the heat of anger, were not carefully considered.
In a related interview with his "husband," Brad, Takei spoke about the reason for his activism.
"We’re doing it, really, for the straight young couples of today, because they’re going to be making the gay babies of tomorrow, and they won’t have to have those discussions," he said.
And today we celebrate...