NEW YORK — It’s impressive how Wendell Pierce confronts the challenge of his latest role, that of Clarence Thomas: with a hearty dose of empathy.Granted, Pierce has never been nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court, and has little firsthand experience at the center of a firestorm like the 1991 nomination hearings where law professor Anita Hill accused her former boss at both the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of numerous cases of sexual harassment.That is the …