U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas laments a 'race-obsessed world' in lecture at Notre Dame

The second Black justice on the Supreme Court made a rare public appearance at the university, following a year of social unrest, racial tension and politicization of classroom teachings. During the talk, he compared experiences in his youth to current events.

"Every time I walked into a room, I had to look for something in common, and that's the way we grew up," Thomas said to a full auditorium at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center. "Now look at us. We just seem like we keep dividing, subdividing into subcategories, sub-sub-categories of differences and emphasizing those differences."

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Thomas, the longest-sitting member of the Supreme Court, spoke at the invitation of Notre Dame's new Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government.

He also spent time this week with students on campus, co-teaching a one-credit undergraduate course with the center's founding director, Vincent Phillip Muñoz.