Dem Lawmaker Labels Clarence Thomas an ‘Uncle Tom’ While Opposing a Statue in His Honor
A Democratic state lawmaker had some harsh words for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during a debate over a statue in his honor. The Georgia Senate debated a bill on Wednesday that would place a statue of the…
A Democratic state lawmaker had some harsh words for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during a debate over a statue in his honor.
The Georgia Senate debated a bill on Wednesday that would place a statue of the justice in the state’s capitol. However, State Sen. Emanuel Jones (D) opposed the bill and criticized Thomas.
“In the Black community, we have an expression — and I don’t want to use this label too deeply here because I’m just trying to tell you what we have in the African American community,” Jones began. “When we talk about a person of color that goes back historically to the days of slavery and that person betraying his own community, we have a term in the Black community. That term that we use is called ‘Uncle Tom.'”
He went on:
“And ‘Uncle Tom’ is either a fictional or nonfictional character. I don’t really know the origins of ‘Uncle Tom.’ But it talks about a person who back during the days of slavery sold his soul to the slave masters. That’s the fictional story of an ‘Uncle Tom.”
Watch the video below:
Jones said, “When we think about a person in the Black community who’s accomplished, but yet policies seek to subvert — some may even say suppress — the achievements and accomplishments of people of color, I couldn’t help but to think about that term.”