Jeff Sessions Quotes

The stain of prejudice is often indelible.

For instance, if you're a black guy and you got pulled over, and you didn't know that any other black men were being pulled over, you would constantly in the back of your head be thinking, "What did I do?" rather than, "I didn't do anything, these are just the conditions I live under."

It really felt like a tidal wave of bias washed over our country and we're still soaked in it.

Those of us in law enforcement must redouble our efforts to resist bias and prejudice. We must better understand the people we serve and protect - by trying to know, deep in our gut, what it feels like to be a law-abiding young black man walking on the street and encountering law enforcement. We must understand how that young man may see us.

We know that misidentification is a major issue for us.

Black people and women suffer from a presumption of incompetence. The burdens of proof are different. It just gets so tiresome.

I didn’t give the arrests any publicity last night because … that didn’t look right to me…: All the Negroes beat up—and the only people we arrest are the people who beat up the FBI agents. There ought to be some more arrests and that ought to help the situation.

The police often harass me because they are very ignorant and don’t understand what they hear.

When you're a black man in a hoodie, all of a sudden you're a criminal. That's something we shouldn't have to deal with, but we do. It's a double standard. We can't cover our head when it's cold and raining because God forbid someone sees us and puts our life in danger.

This is an industry rife with racism, sexism and homophobia. It is so closely woven into the fabric of the business that we have become snowblind to the glaring injustices happening every day.

We all, white and black, carry various biases around with us.

Some of the most destructive forms of racism - like being denied a home loan or being passed on for a job where you are the most qualified candidate - are hard to measure in real time.

The most anyone could reasonably say about institutional racism is that the 'evidence is far from conclusive.

Having a strong race lens means you understand racism is threaded through and institutionalized in all of our systems and our very perceptions, threaded through how someone looks at you, treats you, thinks about you and your potential.

For me, when I was growing up I was told the police weren't on our side. From being stereotyped because we drive nice cars to being judged for the clothing we wear, I was told I would never be given the benefit of the doubt.

When a black man is stopped by a cop for no apparent reason, that is covert racism. When a black woman shops in a fancy store and is followed by security guards, that is covert racism. It is more subtle than 1960s racism, but it is still racism.

I've not been discriminated against, but I can see it happen. And not just race but gender and sexuality, too. It's stereotyping, lazy casting, which is an issue: that people can't see outside the box.

The horror of class stratification, racism, and prejudice is that some people begin to believe that the security of their families and communities depends on the oppression of others, that for some to have good lives there must be others whose lives are truncated and brutal.

I also acknowledge that prejudice runs very deep in our society. And, in the real world, discrimination rears its ugly head in the shadows, where it's very difficult to root it out.

People shouldn't be afraid to bring up issues of bias in law enforcement.

We've all had some level of injustice, whether 20 years in prison, or 20 minutes sitting in your car waiting for a police officer to determine your future. Or even a few moments in an elevator with some woman clutching her purse thinking you're going to rob her ¾ regardless of celebrity, that has happened to me.

Discrimination is a bad bad bad thing.

I would hope that racism is something that just does not work in this day and age, but I know otherwise.

Until we have a serious discussion, this problem [racism] will continue to occur.

Sexism and racism and homophobia and classism are so naturalized. All these stereotypes make people think it's just normal that straight white men are getting all the breaks.