What Sherrod Taught Me
In case you haven’t heard, some right wing blogger posted a video of some official at a NAACP shindig saying that she discriminated against white people. And the NAACP folks seemed to support the idea. The blogger left out the part about her later saying she came around and helped the white guy anyway. A few things:
Next time, post the whole video or you lose credibility.
She still admitted to being discriminatory in her job duties.
Accusations of racism are usually weak and stupid. And this was no exception. The accusation is the real story here.
If this was a white guy who admitted that and then later came around, he would not have been offered his job back.
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:40 am
The incident in question occurred 24 years ago, in a different job—she was not working for the federal government, did not end up discriminating, and saved their farm. The entire point of her speech was ANTI-discrimination.
Breitbart is a vile, disgusting person for editing the video in that way, and the administration is spineless for immediately firing her instead of looking into it first.
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:48 am
It’s said Breitbart initially received the edited version and that’s what he posted. Still, anyone who bothered to watch all the way to the end of even that version could see that Ms. Sherrod was trying to tell a story about her own change of heart regarding racism.
What was most telling about the video was not Ms. Sherrod – it was the reaction of those in her audience.
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:56 am
First – Breitbart did not edit the video, he posted it as is.
Second – the story was never about Sherrod at all, the story has to do with the NAACP members cheering when Sherrod says she discriminated against a white farmer.
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:02 am
The story is about the audience reaction, not about the speaker. It says so right in the post where the video is released. Almost everyone focused on the video and did not read the text of the post.
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:07 am
Breitbart, the NAACP and the Obama administration all had a responsibility to investigate a little more before publicly shaming this woman and throwing her under the bus.
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:18 am
Did anyone damning Brietbart bother reading the article with the video? You know, there was context to go with the video. Seems a lot of people are jumping the gun on Brietbart without actually, you know, seeing what he had to say on the matter.
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:20 am
Jumping the gun on an issue of race? That never happens.
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:36 am
Guav:
“Breitbart is a vile, disgusting person for editing the video in that way, and the administration is spineless for immediately firing her instead of looking into it first.”
No, he’s not, and they might be – but that’s an indication of how powerful what Breitbart revealed.
They didn’t fire her, BTW, she resigned. Immediately. Without any sort of “Woah, wait a minute” or “you’ll have to fire me” digging in.
…. That’s telling, as is the fact that you’re spinning the reverse – that it’s BREITBART who is “vile and disgusting” – and ignoring the elephant in the room to complain about the mouse.
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:47 am
Do a little background on her “job” when she made that speech, the results of the lawsuit filed by her and her organization and notice the time frame of when she was hired by the fed ag dept.
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:50 am
Yeah, Breda said what I was going to. Sherrod was in the middle of a “testimonial”, and was working toward a moral to the story, it was shown WAY out of context.
The audience reaction, however, was clearly racist.
July 22nd, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Re: The Audience Reaction
You’re exaggerating both the audience reaction, and the part they were reacting to. And watching the unedited clip, one absolutely does not get the sense that the audience is full of racists who hate white people.
You people have either not watched the entire tape, or you are absolutely insane.
July 22nd, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Guav: So the NAACP crowd and speaker are not racist, but the TEA party is?
July 22nd, 2010 at 2:05 pm
divemedic, one has nothing to do with the other—one can think that they are both racist, neither are, or that one is and one isn’t. You’re conflating two separate issues and one does not automatically lead to the other.
Furthermore, I didn’t say “The Tea Party is racist” and neither did the NAACP, so I’m not sure why you’re even mentioning it. The NAACP resolution condemned “the bigoted elements within the Tea Party and asks for them to be repudiated by the Tea Party leadership (emphasis added).
(Ironically, in response to the resolution, several tea partiers made explicitly racist comments while attempting to prove that they weren’t racist, but that’s another topic completely.)
July 22nd, 2010 at 2:16 pm
The video had nothing to do with trying to get some obscure USDA bureaucrat fired, it was put up to show the reaction from the audience of NAACP leaders. The NAACP had made some incendiary statements, lately, about the Tea Party folks being racists, and Breitbart put the video up to show that the real racists are in the NAACP.
They wanted to show that when a government official admitted to discriminating against a white man on the basis of race, they only laughed and murmured approval. No one stood up to say, “Stop, that’s not right,” or, “Hey, that’s racist.” No one walked out. No, they all laughed along and had a jolly good time. Discrimination was a-ok with them…as long as it was against the right sort of people.
Now, the Media is jumping in to try to change the subject to the government drone, herself, and get the spotlight off the NAACP. Don’t help them.
July 22nd, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Seems to me that the “elephant” is nothing more than the dissolution of the willful ignorance – perpetrated largely by the media – that black racists have hidden under for a long, long time.
July 22nd, 2010 at 3:08 pm
I don’t think anyone has claimed that his intent was to get her fired, but that the out of context, edited video with false claims within it led to her being fired, as it implied that she was racist (and Breitbart’s commetary explicitly accused her of being a racist) and that in her federal position, she currently and actively discriminated against white people.
About elements within the tea party being racist, which is just flatly undeniable.
Which is on it’s face absurd, because even if this video showed what it claimed to show, and even if the NAACP were all members of the New Black Panther Party and wanted to kill white babies, that still has nothing to do with whether or not the Tea Party is racist or has racist elements.
That’s because she was in the middle of telling a story—which she had already told them in so much words was not about race, but being against discrimination. Why the hell would they have walked out? They were listening to the story, which had barely just begun.
They laughed because of the way she delivered a particular line, where she was talking about how the farmer was talking down to her. Your characterization of the reaction is completely exaggerated, as can be seen by watching it.
July 22nd, 2010 at 6:15 pm
“I have a dream today…when we can ALL be judged not by the color of our skin (or our political views), but by the content of our character.”
If you express certain political views, then you’re judged to be judging according to skin color?????
Sorry, martin, we ain’t there yet!!
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:20 pm
The speech happened THIS year. It was an incident that happened in the 80’s.
And the point is not that this black woman has racist actions in the past. It’s the approving reaction of the NAACP attendees when she is relating that she didn’t help the white family as much as she could, but just enough to get him a lawyer of his own kind.
The MORAL of the story was that she later grew to like the white family and that it was class, not race on which she should make decisions.
So she progresses from racist to Marxist.
There is another video showing her upset that white lawyers treated her better than black ones and that it’s tragic when black farmers sell out to whites.
This is racism. In a white man, there would be no doubt.
Apparently her father was killed by a white man and she has issues that she’s trying to deal with.
July 23rd, 2010 at 9:58 am
What I learned from the whole incident is that the administration, from top to bottom, has no internal loyalty. At all.
Ms. Sherrod was apparently called up and asked to resign while on the road. (Note – this is based on her statements as I saw them on CNN, but I was able to dig up a couple other sources as well). IIRC she claimed once her resignation was “accepted” she was told to stop driving and get someone to pick her up, but I can’t find confirmation of that right now.
That’s just gobsmackingly outrageous. No chance to defend herself against an accusation, just “we accept your resignation – now go ahead and submit it”, while she’s ON THE ROAD?!?!
And then Vilsack is left swinging in the wind to catch the flak – of course it was his decision. I believe that too.
Even if the original video had been a complete and accurate portrayal, the administration should have given her a chance to defend herself and put her affairs in order. Instead, someone panicked.
IMHO this is a Good Thing for those of us against the One – as long as we stay on the sidelines. Ms Sherrod will be the human-interest face of everyone under the Obama Campaign Bus, and one that’s going to be difficult to impeach or tear down. Woman, black, and forgiven… What’s that Sun Tzu line about not stopping your enemy when he’s making an error?
July 24th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Watch the last few minutes of the ENTIRE video. She accuses the Republicans of doing things during a black precedent administration that democraps never did under the Bush admin.
Then think back to the BusHitler posters.
Case closed, she is a bigot and the crowd is even worse.