# Is Jeff Sessions a racist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 5, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948 "2016-12-05T17:58:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/1 "2016-12-05T17:58:31Z")
I felt like this discussion was going to derail the Trump Cabinet thread, so I started a new topic on it. I hope that’s OK. The Left seems to believe that Trump is filling his Cabinet with racists. Most of the focus seems to be on Bannon (who was covered rather thoroughly in another thread) and Alabama Senator & Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions. Personally, I am as yet unconvinced that Senator Sessions is deserving of the label “racist”, but in the interest of fighting ignorance, lay it on me Dopers. Give me the best evidence you have that I’m wrong and he’s a racist. Convince me. As a starting point for the discussion, I googled ‘racist’ (not very sophisticated, I know) and this is what popped up: > [@](#): > > **rac·ist** > ˈrāsəst/ > noun > 1. > a person who believes that a particular race is superior to another. If you’d like to offer an alternative definition, I’m open to hearing it and why we should use it. Just to throw out an initial defense, since I suspect that’s the first thing I’ll be asked, [Donald V. Watkins says](https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins/posts/10211082546521722) > [@](#): > > Jeff was a conservative then, as he is now, but he was NOT a racist. See, he has black friends. Not a racist, right? ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/2 "2016-12-05T18:10:27Z")
Yeah, I think Jeff Session is racist. He’s a brand of 1980s/1990s era racism where he’s not nearly virulent as the hardcore racists of the Deep South during Jim Crow, but he definitely has long advocated positions and policies which suggest animus for the black population. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/3 "2016-12-05T18:12:44Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > Yeah, I think Jeff Session is racist. He’s a brand of 1980s/1990s era racism where he’s not nearly virulent as the hardcore racists of the Deep South during Jim Crow, but he definitely has long advocated positions and policies which suggest animus for the black population. Could I get some specifics on those “positions and policies”? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/4 "2016-12-05T18:23:41Z")
Here’s an article on the topic: > **[Allegations of racism against Sessions: a closer look | CNN Politics](https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/politics/jeff-sessions-racism-allegations/index.html)** > > As the US attorney in Mobile, Alabama, Jeff Sessions was talking over a case one day in the 1980s with two fellow prosecutors. Some key snippets: > [@](#): > > As Sessions learned that some members of the Klan had smoked marijuana on the evening of the slaying, he said aloud that he thought the KKK was: “OK until I found out they smoked pot.” > Sessions insists he was joking. But the damage was done. > … > Thomas Figures, an assistant US Attorney who worked under Sessions in Mobile, testified that he was present when Sessions made the remark and said he did not regard it as a joke. > Figures, who was African-American and passed away last year, also told committee members that Sessions had called him “boy” on several occasions and once cautioned him to “be careful what you say to white folks” after Figures had spoken harshly to a secretary who was white. I don’t know what’s in his heart, but I don’t particularly care. What a politician believes matters far less to me than what they say and do. At the very least he seems to act as if he is unconcerned by racism, except perhaps when it rises to the level of murder. That, in this article, some black people seem to like him says nothing about his possible racism – I grew up in the deep South, and I’ve have detailed conversations with dozens if not hundreds of people who expressed racist beliefs, and the vast majority would always talk about the specific individual black people that they liked. I remember in great detail one contractor (who my mother later fired due to his extreme racist comments) talked about a black co-worker he liked, but finished with “9 out of 10 [racial slur for black people] aren’t worth the bullet we oughta put in their head”. Probably over half of these folks I talked to made the point that there was a “difference between black people and [racial slur]” – this seems to be one of the favorite talking points of racists-in-denial. I don’t know if he’s a racist, but his actions and words show me that he wouldn’t fight against most racist policies and practices. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/5 "2016-12-05T18:32:58Z")
Do you think Trump’s immigration platform is racist? [Sessions helped craft it.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-trumps-gop-sessions-rockets-from-the-fringe-to-prime-time/2016/07/18/1fc04d14-490b-11e6-acbc-4d4870a079da_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.7de9cc52c77f) ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/6 "2016-12-05T18:37:27Z")
The counter that I’ve heard - just from FB discussions - is that he prosecuted a KKK member for murder and oversaw his execution as AG. He also was involved in implementing some desegregation actions. You can argue that those are actions that he had to take to avoid blatant disregard for the law. You can argue that two cases in a 40 year career aren’t persuasive. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/7 "2016-12-05T18:38:54Z")
Jeff sessions thinks that only bad people smoke marijuana. That’s enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/8 "2016-12-05T18:40:52Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I don’t know if he’s a racist, but his actions and words show me that he wouldn’t fight against most racist policies and practices. Which specific policies are these? Are these policies that are universally regarded as racist, or just thought of as racist by the liberal left? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/9 "2016-12-05T18:41:48Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > Jeff sessions thinks that only bad people smoke marijuana. That’s enough for me. Yes, I’m sure he has deplorable views on a wide range of subjects. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/10 "2016-12-05T18:41:55Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Do you think Trump’s immigration platform is racist? [Sessions helped craft it.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-trumps-gop-sessions-rockets-from-the-fringe-to-prime-time/2016/07/18/1fc04d14-490b-11e6-acbc-4d4870a079da_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.7de9cc52c77f) I don’t think that opposing illegal immigration automatically makes someone a racist. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/11 "2016-12-05T18:50:04Z")
Opposing illegal immigration doesn’t make someone a racist. Opposing illegal immigration from Latin America while ignoring it from European countries, however, does. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/12 "2016-12-05T18:53:01Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Which specific policies are these? Are these policies that are universally regarded as racist, or just thought of as racist by the liberal left? I’m not sure if any policy is “universally regarded as racist”. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/13 "2016-12-05T18:54:31Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > Personally, I am as yet unconvinced that Senator Sessions is deserving of the label “racist”, but in the interest of fighting ignorance, lay it on me Dopers. Give me the best evidence you have that I’m wrong and he’s a racist. Convince me. > > As a starting point for the discussion, I googled ‘racist’ (not very sophisticated, I know) and this is what popped up: > > > [@](#): > > > > racist > > ˈreɪsɪst > > noun > > 1. > > a person who believes that a particular race is superior to another. Well, that’s a pretty rudimentary starting point. It certainly counts as one of the meanings of “racist”, but it’s not the only one. Consider, for example, [this dictionary definition of “racism”](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racist), which treats “racist” as an associated noun or adjective: > [@](#): > > 1 > : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race > 2 > a : a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles > b : a political or social system founded on racism > 3 > : racial prejudice or discrimination So a racist can be somebody who believes in the objective fundamental superiority of one race with respect to another, or somebody who harbors some prejudiced or bigoted beliefs about members of a particular race, or somebody who supports discriminatory treatment against members of a particular race. These aren’t necessarily the same thing, but they all count as some variant of racism. AFAICT, Sessions’ record contains evidence of racist behavior in some ways but not in others. [He was denied an appointment as District Court judge in 1986](http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/06/you-cant-dwell-on-those-things-sen-jeff-sessions-r-alarecently-told-the-examiners-byron-york-if-i-had-be.html)—not exactly the heyday of “political correctness”—due to claims that he called an (adult) black lawyer “boy” and called a white civil rights lawyer “a disgrace to his race” for defending the Voting Rights Act. A sympathetic (though, I hope, jesting) remark about the politics of the Ku Klux Klan and his opposition to civil rights legislation were also seen as evidence of his pro-racism views. Now, as to what Sessions **personally believes or ever believed** about essential differences between races, or whether any race is intrinsically to be admired or despised or whatever, I don’t think there’s any publicly available evidence. He is said to have or to have had cordial relations to some extent with some specific black people, and has stood up for at least some rights of some black people (e.g., prosecuting KKK murderers of a black man, voting in the Senate to confirm a black Attorney General, etc.). **So personally, I wouldn’t declare “Sessions is a racist”, because some people interpret such statements narrowly to mean that Sessions holds the explicit belief that black people are inferior or contemptible, etc., due to their race. What I think is fair to say is that Sessions’ record contains evidence of some racist behavior and support for some racist positions, some of which AFAICT he has subsequently downplayed or dismissed but never actually repudiated or expressed regret for.** In particular, I think [opposition to voting rights legislation](https://theintercept.com/2016/11/18/career-racist-jeff-sessions-is-donald-trumps-pick-for-attorney-general/) in a society with a long and persistent history of racial discrimination is a racist position, and one which Sessions has consistently maintained along with opposition to other anti-discrimination measures: > [@](#): > > Among other positions, Sessions opposed the Violence Against Women Act, the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and the expansion of anti-hate legislation to include sexual orientation. > > He fought the removal of the Confederate flag from public buildings, immigration reform, and criminal justice reform. > > Sessions’s opposition to voting rights — which as attorney general he would be in charge of protecting — dates back to his days as U.S. attorney in Alabama, when he wrongly prosecuted a group of black activists for voter fraud. Decades later, in 2013, he praised the Supreme Court’s decision to gut the Voting Rights Act, denying its impact on black voters, even as the immediate impact in his own state was that officials tried to close 31 DMV offices, in majority black counties, just as the state passed more restrictive voter ID requirements. [QUOTE=HurricaneDitka] See, he has black friends. Not a racist, right? [/QUOTE] :dubious: Joke, right? Of course you’re aware that having good relations with **certain individual members** of a different race in no way prevents somebody from being bigoted or prejudiced in a racist way against that racial group **overall**. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/14 "2016-12-05T18:54:49Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I’m not sure if any policy is “universally regarded as racist”. OK, fair point. Then let me ask you this: from what you know of my views, is your best guess that I would regard these policies as racist, or not? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/15 "2016-12-05T18:55:20Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I don’t think that opposing illegal immigration automatically makes someone a racist. Agreed. I will stand with you against all the liberals (any liberals?) who call anyone a racist only for opposing illegal immigration and not for specific policies or statements that they regard as racist. If Sessions (or Trump, or anyone) is a racist, it has nothing to do with opposing illegal immigration. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/16 "2016-12-05T18:56:56Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > Yeah, I think Jeff Session is racist. He’s a brand of 1980s/1990s era racism where he’s not nearly virulent as the hardcore racists of the Deep South during Jim Crow, but he definitely has long advocated positions and policies which suggest animus for the black population. Ah, so he’s a 1980’s style “Racist.” Potentially useful column: [Fact Checker: Jeff Sessions’s comments on race: For the record](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/12/02/jeff-sessionss-comments-on-race-for-the-record/?utm_term=.3d3146f5e207) I don’t know whether Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is a racist or not. But I certainly wouldn’t use his statement about thinking the KKK were “okay until he found out they smoked pot” as evidence. It’s clear to me that’s a joke, and one that only works as a joke because it presupposes that the KKK is _not_ okay and that smoking pot is, at worst, a minor offense. It would be like saying “I thought Hitler was okay until I found out he was a vegetarian.” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/17 "2016-12-05T19:08:49Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > But I certainly wouldn’t use his statement about thinking the KKK were “okay until he found out they smoked pot” as evidence. It’s clear to me that’s a joke, and one that only works as a joke because it presupposes that the KKK is _not_ okay and that smoking pot is, at worst, a minor offense. That sounds reasonable to me too. Remarks such as calling a black attorney “boy”, however, are incontrovertibly racist behavior. At the very least, making allowances for age and upbringing, it counts as the “Embarrassing Asshole Uncle” level of racism. There is no ironclad evidence that Sessions actually made such explicitly racist remarks, but there seem to be at least a few people at the time of the 1980s hearings who stated very definitely that he did. Overall, I still think that **“has engaged in some racist behavior and supported some racist positions”** is probably an accurate description. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/18 "2016-12-05T19:11:13Z")
I don’t have the slightest idea if Jeff Sessions is racist, but he’s said and done some things that are at best questionable. I suppose it’s possible he was racist 30 years ago but he’s not anymore. I would agree the KKK statement sure sounds like a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/19 "2016-12-05T19:18:33Z")
Salon ran a perhaps-surprising contrary [view](http://www.salon.com/2016/12/01/calling-jeff-sessions-racist-conveniently-ignores-the-work-hes-done-for-alabamas-black-community/) of Sessions recently. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948/20 "2016-12-05T19:25:06Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I don’t think that opposing illegal immigration automatically makes someone a racist. He [opposes **legal** immigration](http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/05/16/sen-jeff-sessions-warns-permanent-expansion-low-skilled-guest-worker-program/). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jeff-sessions-a-racist/773948.md?page=2)