'Racism' Video That Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Was Materially Altered
BEN EVANS and MARY CLARE JALONIC AP
07/20/10 09:42 PM
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is standing by its quick decision to oust a black Agriculture Department employee over racially tinged remarks at an NAACP banquet in Georgia, despite evidence that her remarks were misconstrued and growing calls for USDA to reconsider.
Shirley Sherrod, who until Tuesday was the Agriculture Department's director of rural development in Georgia, says the administration caved to political pressure by pushing her to resign for saying that she didn't give a white farmer as much help as she could have 24 years ago when she worked for a nonprofit group.
Sherrod says her remarks, delivered in March at a local NAACP banquet in Georgia, were part of a story about racial reconciliation, not racism. The white farming family that was the subject of the story stood by Sherrod and said she should keep her job.
"We probably wouldn't have (our farm) today if it hadn't been for her leading us in the right direction," said Eloise Spooner, the wife of farmer Roger Spooner of Iron City, Ga. "I wish she could get her job back because she was good to us, I tell you."
The NAACP, which initially condemned Sherrod's remarks and supported Sherrod's ouster, joined the calls for her to keep her job. The civil rights group said it and millions of others were duped by the conservative website that posted partial video of her speech on Monday.
"We have come to the conclusion we were snookered ... into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias," said the statement from NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous.
(More here.)
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2 Comments:
Shirley Sherrod is not a racist. She has given her life in service to help small and poor farmers. She was sharing her personal tranformation and learning moment about her feelings about being black and what it felt like to her to help a white farmer, a poor farmer.
I find this situation to be a teachable moment about where we are with race relations in America. Personally, I do not think that Ms Sherrod said anything racist - she was pointing out that being poor crosses race affecting both blacks and whites which is what her epiphany was that she referred to in her remarks.
We have too many people keeping score and finding racism in every corner where it really doesn't exist to the point where we can hardly say anything without someone somewhere taking what we say out of context and calling it racism and then we have bean counters on the other side who look for reverse racism and play the 'gotcha' game to 'get even'.
The administration made a knee jerk reaction to this situation, as probably any administration would do in this case because of the conservative 'outcry' over Sherrod's remarks. It's just so sad and this case highlights the fact that as long as people are in places of influence and use race to ensconce their authority, we will never have a real improvement in race relations in the political realm. For the most part, Americans are not racist - black, white or hispanic. Only those who are in places of authority and need the divisiveness of 'racism' to retain their power see racism everywhere.
Sherrod did nothing wrong and she was inappropriately fired.
It's just so sad...
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