CNN’s Sellers: People in the Courthouse Confuse Me with a Defendant Because I Am Black

EXCERPT:

SELLERS: “Let me give you the perfect example. Just this week I was in a courthouse in Anderson, South Carolina, I was sitting in the front row and I was actually tweeting on my phone. And it wasn’t many people in the courtroom at all, I was waiting to go up and make an argument in front of the judge, and the bailiff taps me on my shoulder and says, 'Phones aren’t allowed in the courthouse.' I said, 'What?!' He said, 'Sir, we'll have to get you out of here and get your phone out of here.' I said, 'Sir, I’m a lawyer.' He said, 'Oh, I didn’t know, I’m sorry.' That’s not the first time that a bailiff or some member of the court has figured me to be a defendant or somebody that did not belong. And so, it is hard to decouple when we’re having these conversations, decouple that emotion, decouple that race when you are seeing it play out right before your eyes in both Kenosha and Georgia.”