ATLANTA (TND) — A Democratic state senator in Georgia called Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas an "Uncle Tom" this week while arguing the longtime justice doesn't deserve a monument at the state capitol.

"I know it's very, very sensitive to talk about race in this body," Democratic Sen. Emanuel Jones said on the floor of the General Assembly Tuesday. "But anytime that we have a resolution -- legislation -- proposing to place a statue of Clarence Thomas on this grounds, we cannot avoid that conversation, so I'm not going to avoid it either."

In the Black community, we have an expression," Jones continued. "And I don't want to use this label too deeply here because I'm just trying to tell you what we have in African American communities when we talk about a person of color that goes back historically to days of slavery and that person betraying his own community. We have a term in the black community. That term that we use is called 'Uncle Tom.'"

Jones noted that he "couldn't help but to think about that term" during the consideration of S.B. 69, a bill seeking to add a statue of Thomas to the state capitol, arguing Thomas's policies, practices, decisions and votes "seek to subvert, some may even say suppress the achievements and accomplishments of people of color."

Jones went on to admit that he doesn't "really know the origin of Uncle Tom," but said it tells a story of a person, "who back during the days of slavery sold his soul to the slave masters."

Thomas, a constitutionalist, which is something commonly associated with conservatism, has been labeled with this racially derogatory trope in the past by others in the Democratic Party. It is frequently used to refer to a Black person who is excessively obedient or subservient to White people.

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The National Desk (TND) reached out to Jones to see if he wanted to elaborate on his comments made Tuesday about Justice Thomas, but did not hear back. If a response is received, this story will be updated.