Credit: New York Times

Interesting theory on recent remarks by Justice Clarence Thomas -- he said present day America is more race and gender-focused than when he was in college in the 1960s -- brought to us by New York Times columnist Charles Blow:

 [T]hat’s the thing about racism: It’s no respecter of station. There is a tinted-glass ceiling that only a few can break through, and none without scarring.

This upper-echelon bias can be particularly frustrating and galling for people who have the right gifts, make the right choices, go to the right schools and perform well at the right jobs ...

This kind of Talented-Tenth sniffing at the plight of the rest is privilege-blind. It views the condition of success as universal rather than unique, and ignores the inequities and obstacles that might prove more bedeviling or even insurmountable for those with similar gifts and good fortune, and certainly for those with less.

For the uninitiated, Thomas and Blow are both black men.