Thanks for reading and sharing. Perhaps this original definiton is more helpful: “The term “Uncle Tom” comes from the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, where an enslaved African American, Tom, is beaten to death for refusing to betray the whereabouts of two other enslaved people. In Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom is a heroic character, loyal to the slaves in hiding, but the original producers of the stage version of the story “grossly distorted” the character into a man who would sell out his own race to curry favor with white people. This version of Uncle Tom was designed to be more favourable to audiences of the late 1850’s and it is he, not the original, that the slur refers to. In the American racial context, “Uncle Tom” is a pejorative term for African Americans who give up or hide their ethnic outlook, traits, and practices, in order to be accepted into the mainstream.

If we go with the above definition and try to apply it to Justice Thomas, perhaps you might have made that argument a decade (or more) ago when Justice Thomas was known for voting with her elder mentor Justice Antonin Scalia and being often silent in court questioning.

However, his reputation (from both allies and adversaries) is the opposite today. Rather than being seen as someone who is catering to some overseers, he is priased/criticized for leading the majority. When the 2016 Democrat nominee (Hillary Clinton) singles out Thomas (and not Justice Alito, who wrote the opinion) and notes “I went to law school with him” (I honestly had no idea Hillary Clinton and Thomas were law school peers until she pointed it out) and when others single out Thomas (rather than Alito, Roberts or anyone else on the court) the implication is that Thomas is seen as leading and shaping the majority (rather than being a follower going along with some higher power he’s catering to). Both the compliments and the criticism tell us who is leading each side.