- Tonz Sou·e!l is helping reopen debate on racis;n, ajji"rmative action and gol'ernnzent nzeddling in the social process. He does so at the cost of personal and professional isolation. But intellec tual opinion n1ay bt: turning his luay. man alone By Peter Brimelow HE. MAN FROM THE White House was stunned. He had telephoned to offer Thomas Sowell nothing less than a C::.binet post in the new Reagan Admimstra· tion. And Sowell, an economist :md senior fellow of the Cal...