From Huffington Post:
Shirley Sherrod Resigns From USDA Post After Racism Controversy Get Politics Alerts
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.
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said President Barack Obama was briefed on the matter after Sherrod’s resignation and stands by the Agriculture Department’s handling of it.
The website, biggovernment.com, gained fame last year after airing video of workers at the community group ACORN counseling actors posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend. It posted the Sherrod video as evidence that the NAACP, which recently passed a resolution condemning what it calls racist elements of the Tea Party, condones racism of its own.
Sherrod said she was on the road Monday when USDA deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook called her and told her the White House wanted her to resign because her comments were generating a cable news controversy.
This episode to destroy the Obama presidency shows me that there are people out there who will say or do anything to accomplish their goals. After the conservative stations spend the day yesterday beating the war drums over Ms. Sherrod, today she becomes the victim because she was fired. I am totally disgusted.
It is all very transparent. Where was the hue and cry yesterday when Ms. Sherrod was Satan Incarnate? How many lives is Andrew Breitbart going to affect? Does he just pinpoint minorities? I hope Sherrod sues his pants off.
I didn’t watch Beck tonight, but, on the radio show, he invited her to tell her side of the story. He actually did rail against her.
Actually DID NOT rail against her.
Its too late. I should be in bed.
That is sickening and disgusting. Andrew Breitbart is a damned liar and Fox News should know better than to trust him as a reliable source.
Another thing – I am sick and tired of this bashing of public servants.
Nonsense, Starryflights. Neither Breitbart nor Fox News are liars. The lady said all that in public and on tape. It’s her, in the flesh, in her own voice and in her own words. Whatever you may feel about this thing and about the reaction to what she said, you cannot call those who show the tape “liars.” That “reliable source” was the lady herself.
As for “bashing” public servants, if you are a public servant and go out into public and make political statements, you risk getting bashed. You made the choice.
*I* should know better and I sure got sucked in, much to my disgust with myself.
On Monday, if I am not mistaken, Beck did rail against her. By Tuesday he was defending her. However, he didn’t rail against whoever morphed that video.
Odd: That video showed up when it did, after 3 months, when the NAACP was engaged in battle.
Odd: the video was clearly altered when compared to the 43 minute one.
Odd: the altered video shows up on an organization associated with Andrew Breitbart, who also has been accused of morphing video involving ACORN.
Odd: The railers have not apologized and said they were wrong.
Agreed Wolverine, you can’t call those who showed the morphed video liars. None of us here deliberately misrepresented the truth. However, someone out there did do it deliberately. Videos don’t morph themselves. Someone or plural someones deliberately did that. Shame on them.
Ms Sherrod lost her father to racism. Now she has lost her job. I am ashamed I had some tiny role in it.
How long I wonder before someone makes the same defense for the New Black Panther Party polling place video saying it was all taken out of context? Not saying that Sherrod was misrepresented, but one incident seems to stick as a universal defense with some groups.
wasn’t misrepresented
SA, you need to see the real video of her speech. It is fairly long. If you listen to the first 15 minutes, you should see what she was trying to so.
Well, Wolf, I guess you and I have differing standards of integrity. Anyone who would alter videos to make a political point is, in my book, a person of very low integrity and honesty.
And I accuse Fox News not of dishonesty but of stupidity.
A fine public servant was done a grave injustice and the public has suffered as a result.
All this was done to bring down the duly elected President of the United States. That is shameful, disgraceful and un-American. Those who would defend such behavior are also shameful and disgraceful.
I will accuse Fox news of dishonesty. They are dishonest on a daily basis. They are on right now talking about their time table. I know what I heard. They put out false information 24/7. They twist and they skew. That is dishonest.
I suggest withholding judgement here for a while. Its not over yet. Nobody resigns early and under a disciplinary cloud from the USDA without having a full hearing and a review of the tapes. The Sec USDA knows better as do his lawyers. I smell a rat, but jumping from the pan and then directly into the “I hate Fox” fire doesn’t cut it either.
BTW your buddy Schultz was in rare form last night. That guy really is crazy and is dishonest every night — an embarassment to any legitimate liberal.
Were you speaking to me TP? Afraid I don’t have a buddy named Schultz.
I suppose I am surprised that no one seems to think that Breitbart did anything wrong, again. This is not the first time he has been a part of deception being used for political gain. He comes right out and says he doesn’t care about Sherrod. I guess that is what we call collateral damage?
Hell, I fell for it. I was right there along with Rick B calling for Ms Sherrod’s head.
Breitbart has a real pattern of targeting black women, doesn’t he?
Albeit badly, she was TRYING to convey a reconcilliation within her heart that ultimately allowed her to do her job fairly. For those who pretend that prejudice does not exist, even a little in most people’s hearts, is being disingenous on some level. She admitted her moment of clarity, its too bad people chose to stop listening . Fox News worked to crucify her and now want to parade her around as a victim? How stupid do they think people are.
Per CNN, you do know that it was the NAACP not Fox and not Briebrit that released that first clip.
I think, if CNN is saying that, they have confused their facts. Check with the link. Breitbart claims responsibility on Hannity last night.
@Moon-howler
Breitbart claims responsibility for posting it on his site – certainly, but that is not the question. He was certainly not there first hand, so it remains, as you noted earlier, where did he get it from and it has to have been from the NAACP or one of its members – but then why? Neither Breitbart or Fox are any more evil than the USDA, the NAACP or Obama in their lack of due diligence in upping the ante here. So the crap about Fox here is is just that – crap.
I have listened to the tape more than once now. It is either duplicitous with a heavy dose of coded inside baseball speak from an “official speaker” to an audience ready to hear the racist version — or a great and largely missed story of personal reconciliation, by the audience. Separate the story from the audience’s reaction and I think you can still question the NAACP – frankly both.
So, was it a set up to get the NAACP in retaliation for their racist attacks on the Tea Party crap – as so many have suggested — or is somebody really smart enough to blind side Fox and Breitbart in an effort to undercut conservatives and conservative reporting – and even defend the NAACP at the expense of this women – knowing that it was out of context? If the latter, it means that either the NAACP is just as much in fault given their reaction or is a co-conspirator. My head is spinning, since this woman also sued the USDA for millions on the basis of USDA discrimination. As for Obama – this is stike two. In the Gates example, the cop did not “act stupidly” in the face of a racist rant.
I still think there is more to the story.
Moon, I think that, in future, it would be good to display a specific offending segment of a video prior to asking readers to view the entire video to get context. I began by viewing the entire speech. The incident with the White farmer got my attention but more so because Sherrod claimed that she “got religion” and changed her mind about her own personal reactions, altering her stance from one of Black against White to a determination to help all the “poor.” Focus on just that, and one can see how the Breitbart excerpt causing Sherrod to get fired was a jump to political conclusions by those who fired her. And you can certainly see why Breitbart is being criticized for “altering” the video, which is an incorrect term. Using just excerpts and specific focus out of true context is done by politicos, interest groups, media types, and blogs all the time. Have we forgotten George Allen and the African monkey already?
Now, when I went back to capture the Breitbart excerpt on his own blog, the first thing I ran into was another excerpt in which Sherrod said political stuff that really did put me off. This is the excerpt in which she gives her personal view of how racism developed in this country from the time of indentured servants in the South and the transformation into slavery. Not all of her facts were straight, but she got the general gist of some of it. She then morphed into the standard BS from the Left, moving the origins of racism into a same-same in the modern day, claiming or implying more or less that those with money, those who opposed the health care reform bill, and Republicans in general were still racist and wanted to keep certain segments of the population down and apart. These people she labelled as mean-spirited, and in opposition to Obama principally because he is Black. From that comes my response to Starryflights that, when a public servant makes political statements in public, the bashing will legitimately come. It was also the reason why I felt that firing the hired hand who was repeating what others more prominent in her political camp have been saying for so long is really a cheap shot on the part of those who did the firing. Scapegoat anyone?
Look at both excerpts together and you can see that Breitbart saw an opportunity to engage in the old kettle and pot gambit with the proof right in the same speech. It was a pollitical shot of opportunity made available in the wider argument over the NAACP and its charges of racism. Sherrod just happened to provide that proof. I still say rehire her. She did go through too much in her early life to get the boot so quiickly without a proper defense by her own. I, in fact, really was riveted by her discussion of the Old South, those two racist sheriffs, and then how she operated in an attempt to save farms for those farmers. And how about her mother being the first elected Black official in that county and still serving? That is one lady I would like to meet and talk to. The stories she must have!!
Good point, Wolverine. I should have posted the short version first. I was in continuing from yesterday mode. But you make a good point about that.
I don’t think this is a left or right matter.
I also believe everyone harbors racism somewhere in their psyche. Its how we handle it that is important.
Starryflights, it is not a question of different standards of integrity. It is a realization that this kind of excerpting of videos to capture the sensational is done all the time by politicos and a slanted media, not leaving out the blogs by any means. It has become part of our modern political life, like it or not. Why are you so shocked? From your comment, I am led to ask whether you were among the first to condemn those who used the “Macaca Moment” in an effort to bring down George Allen. Did you question their standard of integrity? Yes or no?
Another thing, Starry. To oppose the policies of a particular POTUS is “shameful, disgraceful, and un-American”?!!! Poor me. I always thought that this was exactly how our system of governance was set up to function: support and opposition; and the final decision to be made in the polling places. Based on your theory, I would suggest that you might owe an apology to George W. Bush. But, I won’t push that idea. Politics the American way, you know. Certainly beats most of those other systems out there.
Hear, Hear! If is indeed how we handle any of the demons we humans possess that is important. I remember hearing, “feelings are neither right nor wrong, they just are. it is how you act on them that makes a difference.”
“This episode to destroy the Obama presidency”
Moon, this was not an attack on Obama. This was an attack on the NAACP. Obama’s administration was collateral damage because their incompetency and hyper-sensitivity to possible bad press was exposed. They clear thought that “where’s there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Hmmmmm, could it be that they know that there ARE racists over there on the NAACP’s side that support Obama?
Cargo, it wasn’t directly an attack on Obama. However, I firmly believe that is the ultimate objective.
The fact that someone feels compelled to attack the NAACP should also be questioned. It seems to me that perhaps the best way to handle their resolution would be for members to do some soul searching and ask themselves if they have tolerated things that might have been offensive…such as some of those posters, lawn jockeys in the image of the president and things like that.
If people can answer no, then they have nothing to worry about and should move on. I know for a fact there are some people who cannot answer no. Breitbart sure isn’t convincing me that he isn’t a racist. Quite to the contrary, in fact.
The real collateral damage was Shirley Sherrod. I believe all people have racism or its first cousin (ethnocen trism) within their psyche. Not everyone puts on sheets. Its all how you handle it.
Do I think the NAACP is perfect? Hell no. I also don’t feel like leading a charge against them. I am just old enough to know what it would make me if I did.
Not asking you to lead a charge against them. And, what WOULD that make you, if you did feel the need? I mean, other than a concerned citizen who might believe that the NAACP might be slandering a rival political group, using old tactics of the race card, while, they themselves have a history of welcoming bigots within their ranks and gatherings?
But, we’re not asking you to do that. We just want to set the story straight when political attacks are fired at us. No longer will the race card be an Ace, a trump. One had better have proof or, at least, firm evidence.
Those signs are no worse than anything shown or said about previous presidents. Are they in bad taste? Probably. Are some of them by plants from groups wanting to make the TP look bad? Probably. Are any Tea Party members spouting slurs or supporting racism officially? Absolutely not. And, as shown by the expulsion of Williams, of the Tea Party Express group, even just run of the mill big mouths are shown the door.