It took more than five months for Loretta Lynch to be confirmed as the new U.S. Attorney General. That protracted process, stalled by a human trafficking bill and congressional efforts to block President Obama’s immigration reform actions, was impacted by something else, says her father Lorenzo Lynch: her blackness.

Lorenzo Lynch spoke to Politico:

"In the era of slavery and segregation, they used to say of a black person who spoke up, ‘I don’t want you to associate with Sally. She’s uppity,’” Lynch says. “Uppity? For speaking up? That’s the evil of that system — your strengths become your weaknesses. That’s part of what our daughter has faced in this nominee battle. Her strengths, to some senators, became her weaknesses. She talked back to the senators.”

As for Lynch’s politics and how she will interpret her role as attorney general, much is yet unknown. But one thing is certain, Lynch has sought to distance herself from her predecessor, outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, whose frank remarks on race and efforts to address the criminal justice and police reform have earned him vicious critics in Congress. Lynch’s father, though, told Politico he believes his daughter will continue to build on Holder’s work.