(ThyBlackMan.com) Who, in their right mind, would ignore the words of Coretta Scott King when she brings to light that a choice for federal bench would be dangerous because he has no regard for civil rights. Why is a question we know the answer to…because racism in this country has never been dead. At no point did we truly enter a post-racial society. If one ever wondered about the racial stance of the current administration all we have to do is turn our eyes to his selections for appointed offices. For us to understand exactly how dangerous of an appointment Jeff Sessions is for Attorney General we’d need to understand the importance of his job.
The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer is this country. Yes, he heads the Justice department. This becomes a big 
deal when the current administration is set on increasing the power of the police, but has said nothing about increasing their accountability. Given Jess Sessions past as a prosecutor, and attorney general in Alabama we have cause for deep concern. He was not put on the federal bench for a reason…his past regarding voting discrimination. Basically, some can argue while in the Senate he has acknowledge some of the issues regarding discrimination in police stops.
In a 2001 Senate Judiciary Committee meeting he speaks to such stating: “I think it is likely that within every department there are some officers who subtly, if not otherwise, are biased in the way they go about enforcing the law. I think that is just life. We know that to be true,” Sessions said. “It is not legitimate that an American citizen feels that they are more likely to be arrested or held to account or stopped and searched than someone else simply because of the color of their skin. … Most people are not going to file a lawsuit if they have been mistreated. They are just going to nurse a grudge and feel like their country hasn’t treated them fairly. So that is why we need to deal with it and keep talking about it and see if we can come up with a policy that will work.”
Though some may feel he has remade himself in the Senate it is careful to note in 2015 he spoke against Black Lives Matter for making statements he claimed were “radical and absolutely false.” Though I am not one to align myself with the BLM movement it is clear that it was born out of the blood shed of blacks by police. He did not address the catalyst behind the movement, but was sure to explain the position of law enforcement as a catch 22. The bottom line is these were just two of his positions as a senator, and his track record in Alabama is unfavorable. Yes, Black America has to view the new attorney general as a threat until proven otherwise.
We must do more to educate our communities on how the law actually works. It is important that we understand our rights, but we must also know what we can and cannot do via the law. Granted it is very easy to get discouraged seeing that the law doesn’t apply the same to other groups as it does to us, but we can’t afford to get caught up in that fact. We must make sure that we are not knowingly, or unknowingly, making ourselves a target.
There is a chance the current attorney general will not fight to make sure that all observe the law properly…including law enforcement. So we will need to police ourselves. No one is saying its fair, but it is better than burying your child or any other family member. In this day and time, we should not fear, but we must be vigilant and very aware of our actions. It is important now more than ever to come together as a community, because there is a chance that history is about to repeat itself in a way that many of us have only read about in a history book. Given the knowledge we have available to us we should be able to withstand this administration.
Staff Writer; Christian Starr
May connect with this sister over at Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/christian.pierre.9809 and also Twitter; http://twitter.com/MrzZeta.
