Alabama Judge Removed from Bench, Called Another Black Judge ‘Uncle Tom’

One Alabama Judge is being removed from her bench after committing ethics violations and using horrifically racist rhetoric towards a Black judge. Jefferson County Judge Nakita Blocton called one judge an “Uncle Tom” which is a derogatory term used to accuse a Black person of being a traitor to the Black community and being “overly allegiant to White people” explains Fox News.

Blocton herself is Black. On December 10, all nine judges on Alabama’s Court of the Judiciary acted to remove Blocton from the bench. They also ordered her to pay the costs of their proceedings.

Findings from a commission that filed a complaint against the judge for ethics violations found she “engaged in a pattern of practice of making inappropriate comments – for example, calling one judge ‘Uncle Tom’ and another judge a ‘fat b****’ and calling an employee a heifer.”

Blocton also repeatedly abused staff, attorneys and litigants, and verbally abused and belittled another employee. Fox News reports:

Blocton also used several Facebook aliases to communicate with litigants in pending domestic-relations cases in an effort to affect the outcome of those cases, according to the commission.

She also engaged in “a pattern of dishonesty and deception” by using the aliases to provide information to litigants in cases and asking potential witnesses to delete evidence related to the commission’s investigation and attempting to influence testimony.

According to an initial complaint made against the judge in May, one person involved in divorce litigation said the judge used online aliases to send several threatening messages which included, “THE DEVIL IS WATCHING U,” “LEAVE THOSE BLACK WOMEN DEMOCRATS ALONE.”

The commission failed to gather enough evidence to support other allegations against Brocton, including that the judge was using drugs, was mentally unstable and made an inappropriate campaign contribution to a Birmingham mayoral candidate.