abovethelaw.com
Law School Student Famous For Saying ‘I HATE BLACK PEOPLE’ Now Has Prestigious Federal Clerkship
Kathryn Rubino
4 minutes
I’d say Crystal Clanton just keeps failing upwards, but given that outrage is currency in right-wing circles, it is more accurate to say that her career is progressing on schedule. Do you remember why Clanton first became a news story? It’s been a minute, so I’ll cover the deets.
In December of 2017, the New Yorker reported that Clanton, who at the time worked at the conservative student group Turning Point USA, texted co-workers with this hateful message:
I HATE BLACK PEOPLE. Like fukk them all . . . I hate blacks. End of story.
Awful, right? And this was far from a one-off incident, as reported by Mediaite:
Numerous sources who worked with Clanton detailed how she would exchange racist remarks regularly with other TPUSA staffers — including Alana Mastrangelo, who currently works for the group, and Timox Prax, who was allegedly forced out of TPUSA this year over “bigoted” remarks — using Snapchat.
One such message reviewed by Mediaite features a photo of a man who appears to be Arab and a caption written by Clanton that reads, “Just thinking about ways to do another 9/11.” (The source who provided Mediaite with the image requested it not be published to protect their anonymity.)
Well, even though Clanton was forced out of the right-wing nonprofit, her career prospects were far from damaged. Shortly after she left Turning Point USA, Ginni Thomas — yes, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife — hired Clanton to assist with her media ventures. And Clanton lapped up her connection to the powerful jurist.
But that wasn’t the end of Clanton’s ambitions. She was admitted to ASSLaw — that’s George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, for the uninitiated — and is scheduled to graduate this spring. And now we know that her post-graduation plans include an incredibly prestigious clerkship with Eleventh Circuit Judge William Pryor for 2023-24.
So we are left to believe either Judge Pryor is incapable of either the most rudimentary Google search, or he just doesn’t care that he’s putting someone with a history of racist behavior further along on the path to power. Remember federal appellate clerkships are very competitive and serve in the legal industry as bona fides of excellence. It should be shocking that someone with as controversial (and hateful) a history as Clanton finds herself with this elite opportunity, but somehow it is not. The right wing, led by the Federalist Society, has a storied history of pushing true believers that will aggressively push their agenda into clerkship positions, which, in turn, set them for bigger and better jobs down the line. And the kind of controversy Clanton seems so good at attracting is far from a detriment; it proves how committed she is to the cause.
By the time Mitch McConnell’s ghost gets around to confirming Clanton to the Supreme Court, the hateful text messages — that remember, were shocking enough to get her fired from the ultra conservative Turning Point USA — will be a mere footnote. Because that kind of overt racism is a feature — not a bug — of the modern conservative movement.
Law School Student Famous For Saying ‘I HATE BLACK PEOPLE’ Now Has Prestigious Federal Clerkship
Kathryn Rubino
4 minutes
I’d say Crystal Clanton just keeps failing upwards, but given that outrage is currency in right-wing circles, it is more accurate to say that her career is progressing on schedule. Do you remember why Clanton first became a news story? It’s been a minute, so I’ll cover the deets.
In December of 2017, the New Yorker reported that Clanton, who at the time worked at the conservative student group Turning Point USA, texted co-workers with this hateful message:
I HATE BLACK PEOPLE. Like fukk them all . . . I hate blacks. End of story.
Awful, right? And this was far from a one-off incident, as reported by Mediaite:
Numerous sources who worked with Clanton detailed how she would exchange racist remarks regularly with other TPUSA staffers — including Alana Mastrangelo, who currently works for the group, and Timox Prax, who was allegedly forced out of TPUSA this year over “bigoted” remarks — using Snapchat.
One such message reviewed by Mediaite features a photo of a man who appears to be Arab and a caption written by Clanton that reads, “Just thinking about ways to do another 9/11.” (The source who provided Mediaite with the image requested it not be published to protect their anonymity.)
Well, even though Clanton was forced out of the right-wing nonprofit, her career prospects were far from damaged. Shortly after she left Turning Point USA, Ginni Thomas — yes, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife — hired Clanton to assist with her media ventures. And Clanton lapped up her connection to the powerful jurist.
But that wasn’t the end of Clanton’s ambitions. She was admitted to ASSLaw — that’s George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, for the uninitiated — and is scheduled to graduate this spring. And now we know that her post-graduation plans include an incredibly prestigious clerkship with Eleventh Circuit Judge William Pryor for 2023-24.
So we are left to believe either Judge Pryor is incapable of either the most rudimentary Google search, or he just doesn’t care that he’s putting someone with a history of racist behavior further along on the path to power. Remember federal appellate clerkships are very competitive and serve in the legal industry as bona fides of excellence. It should be shocking that someone with as controversial (and hateful) a history as Clanton finds herself with this elite opportunity, but somehow it is not. The right wing, led by the Federalist Society, has a storied history of pushing true believers that will aggressively push their agenda into clerkship positions, which, in turn, set them for bigger and better jobs down the line. And the kind of controversy Clanton seems so good at attracting is far from a detriment; it proves how committed she is to the cause.
By the time Mitch McConnell’s ghost gets around to confirming Clanton to the Supreme Court, the hateful text messages — that remember, were shocking enough to get her fired from the ultra conservative Turning Point USA — will be a mere footnote. Because that kind of overt racism is a feature — not a bug — of the modern conservative movement.
