By now you have probably seen the video of Shirley Sherrod, the USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development explaining at a NAACP function how she discriminated against a white farmer.
We are in possession of a video from in which Shirley Sherrod, USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development, speaks at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Georgia. In her meandering speech to what appears to be an all-black audience, this federally appointed executive bureaucrat lays out in stark detail, that her federal duties are managed through the prism of race and class distinctions.In the first video, Sherrod describes how she racially discriminates against a white farmer. She describes how she is torn over how much she will choose to help him. And, she admits that she doesn’t do everything she can for him, because he is white. Eventually, her basic humanity informs that this white man is poor and needs help. But she decides that he should get help from “one of his own kind”. She refers him to a white lawyer.Sherrod’s racist tale is received by the NAACP audience with nodding approval and murmurs of recognition and agreement. Hardly the behavior of the group now holding itself up as the supreme judge of another groups’ racial tolerance. - Big Government
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Link to video
I have a couple thoughts after watching this video:
- Her actions in the case of deciding how much to help a farmer based on her color is the very definition of racism.
- Given that it was not her money, it would have cost her nothing to help this white farmer at no cost to helping other farmers including those that are black. Her actions are simply spiteful and racist.
- Prediction: Before this is over, I bet we will discover that she also failed to do 'her best' to help black farmers as well, instead doing 'enough'. The reason in those cases will be that she is simply lazy.
- Prediction: Her defense (if she is ever held to account for her actions) will be that she acted no better in helping black farmers.
- She should be fired.
- The NAACP will defend her remarks.
- The white farmer should sue.
Update: 21 July 2010
Well, seems that the video above is only part of the story.
We wanted it and now we’ve got it. Forty-three minutes and 15 seconds. I haven’t had time to watch all of it — the full clip will be crowdsourced in the comments, I’m sure — but skip ahead to 16:30 for the segment about the white farmer and stick with it until at least 24:00 or so. She actually introduces the story by saying how she started working in order to help black people but then, through divine providence, came to realize that she was meant to work for poor people generally. The key moment comes just after the 21:00 mark when she talks about how helping the Spooners “made me see that it’s really about those who have versus those who don’t. You know, and they can be black, they can be white, they can be Hispanic.” And the crowd murmurs its assent. From there she segues into a historical narrative about racism being an artificial construct manufactured by wealthy interests to keep lower-class blacks and whites divided when in fact they should be working together. Exit question: How long before Vilsack gives her her job back? - HotAir
My post above was written given the information available at the time. Hell, even the NAACP condemned what was presented on that tape. In light of the now more complete story, my comments above are no longer valid. She does make a good point in that there is a need to fight poverty. That is the issue. The problem, as covered here in the past, is how the Government goes about tackling the issue. There is welfare, rent control and various government programs that both prevent families from moving to where the jobs are and killing their motivation to find a paying job.
I am not one for deleting posts when they are no longer correct. I will note that in this case I removed the word racist from the title. Also, clearly my predictions turned out wrong.
7 comments:
Watch the ENTIRE video. I am a white Republican and the first short video clip I saw does indeed make it seem like she is a racist. BUT - when you watch the whole speech, you realize that she is far from a racist, and the speech is about reconciliation. I'm ashamed of the conservative AND liberal press for doing this to Shirley Sherrod, and the White House has made a HUGE mistake making her resign. Here's the link to the whole speech.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9NcCa_KjXk
You are the racist.
The Center for News Literacy is seeking participation of all parties in construction of a useful lesson from the Sherrod case.
I could post a similar request to bloggers and citizen journalists, asking those who got hoodwinked to share reflections on what they learned about the verification part of journalism.
Would you participate?
Here's our post:
"News Literacy's Facebook fans include folks with direct access to Breitbart, Robert Gibbs, and Shirley Sherrod.
Please encourage the key players to contact the Center for News Literacy to talk about how to capture the lesson from the context fiasco: Warning signs during a feeding frenzy. In the spirit of not losing the lesson, help us ...build a powerful case study for our nationwide network of teachers."
This is how the USA treats minorities and for sure women. Las Vegas NV is the leading racist woman abusive State in the union.
Clark County Courts protect convicted sex offender because they are white and powerfully connected to Senator Harry/Rory Reid, Congress Shelley Berkley and Mayor Oscar Goodman.
Judges in Las Vegas block all Federal Discovery Laws even the sex conviction so the victim who came close to death would be punished for reporting the sex crime to police. They victim was racially investigated and then ordered to pay Harry Reid law firm close to two hundred thousand dollars and interest after Judges blocked all victims rights in the case. Then Safeco American Insurance pays sex offenders lawyers for sex crimes protections and race investigations.
This is American the racist Country of the world and a Country that allowed for victims to be forced to pay for sex crimes committed upon their body just like Saddam treated his citizens.
God Save Racist America some way-
I watched the entire video and still feel that Mrs. Sherrod views societal problems through a lens of racial bias. At the culmination of her speech, she went on to bash Republicans, the Bush administration, and ended the speech by stating that Republicans opposed the Health Care Bill because Barack Obama is black. At this point in time, I predict that there is much much more to Mrs. Sherrod than meets the eye. It would not surprize me at all if she has had several previous incidents of questionable behaviors. In closing I would also like to add that i find it odd that the USDA in Georgia would appoint Mrs. Sherrod to this political position, after she had sued said employer, and walked away with a tune of 300k. It has also been stated that Mrs. Sherrod is again thinking of suing. Summarily, although Mrs. Sherrod seems to be attmpting to speak to a kind of revelation in matters concerning racial bias, I was still left with an overwhelming discomfort over the language used, and her obvious far left perspective and agenda.
This latest fiasco is the straw that finally broke the camel's back. There is an obvious racial double standard at work in this administration and the country at large. White America is held to one standard, and non-white America is held to another. Racism is racism no matter which racial entity espouses it. We were promised a time of collective racial healing in 2008, instead we have been met with racism on steroids in 2008 to the present. I shudder to think of what may happen next. When can we begin to move beyond the incidentals relating to skin color and address the colorless necessity of integrity, morality and good character? God help us remove ourselves from these perilous waters, before we all expire in this ocean of racial animus and collective separation.
Obama has apologised to her and her reputation is “restored” because this was an excerpt from a speech she was giving to a black audience to demonstrate how race no longer comes into her decision-making, however, I think she and her audience were enjoying this story of hers far too much! I feel uncomfortable when I watch it.
This horrible woman is an example of the charm of Communitarianism, the new political system that is creeping in and taking over the western world. This woman was not elected for the post she held, she would have been appointed (who knows by what criteria – a Common Purpose-type training scheme perhaps?) Where is the accountability in non-governmental agencies?
Before being appointed to the USDA job in 2009, she worked for the nonprofit Federation of Southern Cooperatives Land Assistance Fund.
So this woman has worked most of her life in quangos, drawing her salary from government grants (our money) not from being successful in business and earning her way. In other words she, like all these quango –ites, has been susidised with public money. SUBSIDISED, don’t hear that word much these days do we, because it sounds needy!? However,being "awarded" a "grant" sounds like they have won a prize and deserve it! And what big heads they get!
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