...the political football known as The Highest Court in the Land, home of penumbrae and emanations...Justice Clarence Thomas by publicly wishing for his death.
"I hope his wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter, and he dies early, like many black men do, of heart disease," she said at the time.
It took Malveaux nearly 20 years to walk back her death-by-breakfast comments aimed at the now 73-year-old conservative black justice, and take into account the damaging results from such flippant and irresponsible comments.
In the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting, in 2011, Malveaux, who was president of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina, penned a blog post about the power of hate speech and used the forum to address her own actions, and express regret for the reckless comments aimed at Thomas.
"It has taken me nearly two decades and an attempted liquidation to understand the damage that my wisecrack might have caused, not to Justice Thomas, but to the public discourse. I hope it won’t take our nation two more decades to understand and embrace the notion of speech civility, even for, no, especially for, political opponents," Malveaux said in 2011. "Every day, and in every way, I tell my students, faculty, and staff that I value civility. Yet, my comment about Clarence Thomas was not only uncivil, it was ugly and unnecessary. And it really wasn’t that funny. I regret it. I apologize for it. I wish I could take it back."
She could have just ignored it. The entire country regards her as a soulless hate puddle wrapped in a skin. They just hadn't associated the words with a face after all that time.