Conservative bloggers are expressing outrage over comments at the recent NAACP conference made by Georgia director of Rural Development Shirley Sherrod. After watching the video, I think they have good reason to be outraged. While Sherrod has claimed that the remarks were “misconstrued.” While Media Matters has raised valid concerns over the fairness of the view as edited, the comments still contain racist elements. She has now resigned.
The video has surfaced after NAACP accused Tea Party member of racism and the Tea Party severing of ties with one of its founders over a racist rant.
This video shows Sherrod recounted “the first time I was faced with having to help a white farmer save his farm” and how she viewed the farmer as trying to be “superior” to her while she controlled the money for such farmers.
“He had to come to me for help. What he didn’t know while he was taking all that time trying to show me he was superior to me was I was trying to decide just how much help I was going to give him . . . I was struggling with the fact that so many black people have lost their farmland and here I was faced with having to help a white person save their land — so I didn’t give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough.”
She notes that, to avoid any later complaints, she said she took him to see “one of his own” — a white lawyer” “I figured that if I take him to one of them, that his own kind would take care of him.”
UPDATE: the NAACP denounced the comments but has now retracted the original statement below.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, while condemning her recent comments, had earlier praised her selection. However, even after the retraction of the earlier NAACP statement, Vilsack stood by his decision on the need for the resignation. The next day, however, Vilsack said he would review the decision.
Yesterday, Andrew Breitbart released heavily-edited video of a speech that Shirley Sherrod, then-USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development gave at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Georgia this year. Breitbart writes that in the video, “this federally appointed executive bureaucrat lays out in stark detail, that her federal duties are managed through the prism of race and class distinctions.”
Media Matters has responded to the story and accused Breitbart of misleading people on the story — insisting that the video is heavily edited. They note that Sherrod was telling a story she had described took place decades ago when she worked for the Federation of Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund. The video reportedly excluded the fact that Sherrod spoke of how she went on to work with and befriend the man. She is quoted as saying at the end of the story: “And I went on to work with many more white farmers,” she said. “The story helped me realize that race is not the issue, it’s about the people who have and the people who don’t. When I speak to groups, I try to speak about getting beyond the issue of race.”
This account is supported by the farmer’s wife who credited Sherrod with saving their land.
That is indeed redeeming, but I am not sure it rectifies the problem given the shocking first part of the story. UPDATE: there could be legal consequences to the editing of this tape as discussed in a later blog. The story suggests that (assuming this was reportedly roughly 20 years ago), these were her sentiments in 1986. That is pretty shocking even if she did ultimately help the farmer and overcome such racial issues. Nevertheless, the retraction should force Breitbart and others to come forward to explain why the end of the story was clearly removed to avoid the mitigating material.
Below is the full original statement from the NAACP:
July 20, 2010
NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous issued the following statement today after a careful investigation into the presentation of former USDA Official Shirley Sherrod.
The NAACP has a zero tolerance policy against racial discrimination, whether practiced by blacks, whites, or any other group.
The NAACP also has long championed and embraced transformation by people who have moved beyond racial bias. Most notably, we have done so for late Alabama Governor George Wallace and late US Senator Robert Byrd — each a man who had associated with and supported white supremacists and their cause before embracing civil rights for all.
With regard to the initial media coverage of the resignation of USDA Official Shirley Sherrod, we have come to the conclusion we were snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias.
Having reviewed the full tape, spoken to Ms. Sherrod, and most importantly heard the testimony of the white farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans.
The fact is Ms. Sherrod did help the white farmers mentioned in her speech. They personally credit her with helping to save their family farm.
Moreover, this incident and the lesson it prompted occurred more that 20 years before she went to work for USDA.
Finally, she was sharing this account as part of a story of transformation and redemption. In the full video, Ms.Sherrod says she realized that the dislocation of farmers is about “haves and have nots.” “It’s not just about black people, it’s about poor people,” says Sherrod in the speech. “We have to get to the point where race exists but it doesn’t matter.”
This is a teachable moment, for activists and for journalists.
Most Americans agree that racism has no place in American Society. We also believe that civil and human rights have to be measured by a single yardstick.
The NAACP has demonstrated its commitment to live by that standard.
The Tea Party Federation took a step in that direction when it expelled the Tea Party Express over the weekend. Unfortunately, we have yet to hear from other leaders in the Tea Party movement like Dick Armey and Sarah Palin, who have been virtually silent on the “internal bigotry” issue.
Next time we are confronted by a racial controversy broken by Fox News or their allies in the Tea Party like Mr. Breitbart, we will consider the source and be more deliberate in responding. The tape of Ms. Sherrod’s speech at an NAACP banquet was deliberately edited to create a false impression of racial bias, and to create a controversy where none existed. This just shows the lengths to which extremist elements will go to discredit legitimate opposition.
According to the USDA, Sherrod’s statements prompted her dismissal. While we understand why Secretary Vilsack believes this false controversy will impede her ability to function in the role, we urge him to reconsider.
Finally, we hope this incident will heighten Congress’s urgency in dealing with the well documented findings of discrimination toward black, Latino, Asian American and Native American farmers, as well as female farmers of all races.
CM:
Here is the farmer and his wife at the middle of this whole thing.
This is a repost:
This must have been the ritual that the administration went through on this subject.
Brad Friedman at The Brad Blog has a good post on this subject.
Professor Turley.
If you are speaking after having seen only the 2 minute and 36 second section of the speech edited by Andrew Breitbart, you can be forgiven for seeing it as case of a black woman bragging about having power to discriminate against a white man who thought he was superior to her and exercising that power.
However the relevant section of the speech in fact was 4 minutes 40 seconds long. It is a story about how Sherrod came to realize that racism was not the problem so much as discrimination against poor people and that poor whites were often treated as badly as poor blacks. Initially she did not act as enthusiastically as she could have, simply referring the white farmer to a white lawyer who should have had the relevant knowledge having attended some of the training on saving farms from foreclosure. However the white lawyer turned out to be lazy and ineffective and the county did something that blocked the farmer’s ability to use chapter 12 bankruptcy. The case therefore came back to her and she took the farmer to the same lawyers to whom she was referring black people.
She admitted that at the time she was prejudiced against white people and did not realize that poor whites faced much the same discrimination as blacks. The whole point of the story was that this case made her realize that poor people both white and black needed to unite against the systematic discrimination that both faced.
Raw story has an article containing the full 43 minutes and 15 seconds video of Shirley Sherrod’s speech. The relevant section starts after 16 minutes and 40 seconds and extends until 21 minutes and 20 seconds. By leaving out the punchline of the story whoever selected the 2 minutes and 36 seconds made it seem that Shirley Sherrod was bragging about being able to discriminate when in fact she is saying that this was a case that made her aware of her own prejudices and aware that poor whites face the same problems as poor blacks.
One has to be disgusted by the White House’s rush to judgment on the basis of sneakily edited videos from Andrew Breitbart. After the ACORN/pimp prostitute videos that destroyed ACORN turned out to be dishonestly edited one would have hoped that the White house would have waited to view the full speech.
The full speech is 43 minutes long and that whites ad blacks have the same problems is one of the themes. You do not have to view more than the relevant 4 minutes and 40 seconds to see that Breibart’s editing is misleading, but if you do view the full video you will see that much more of it is on the same theme. The more you watch the less racist Shirley Sherrod appears.
If anyone knows how to include the You Tube video of the full speech in this blog thread I suggest that they do so.
You should reconsider on this one, Professor Turley.
erykah 1, July 20, 2010 at 10:40 pm
what she said
“… I am not sure it rectifies the problem given the shocking first part of the story. The story suggests that, these were her sentiments in the late 1980s or early 1990s. That is pretty shocking even if she did ultimately help the farmer.
“shocking?” – Do you live on the planet earth??
At some point, when you allow other’s lies and distortions to mislead you too much and too frequently, you have become part of the problem. I knew Shirley Sherrod over 40 years ago shortly after her father was killed. [I have not seen her in the past 4 decades.] She was more than polite to Caucasians such as myself who were working in SW Georgia – unlike many black people with less serious grievances (These were the days of Black Power). The only excuse on Turley’s behalf is that even the NCAACP also got taken in for a few hours. The fact that the FOX network [which pushed this story] does provide some new items that are not covered by the other network does not mitigate against the fact that much of their ‘news’ is sheer propaganda — poisoned by their systematic removal of clarifying context and their occasional outright lies. Quoting FOX and their ilk is like quoting Pravda – you use such ‘news’ at your peril.
I knew there was more to this story. We were bamboozled. But more important, this woman has been wronged. As for Turley, this woman’s father was murdered by white men who got away with it. She grew up in rural Georgia and no doubt has experienced racism of a worst kind. So forgive her if she didn’t feel so touchy, feely towards white folk 24 years ago. My grandmother, who grew up in segregated Virginia, hated white people and for a very long time didn’t give a damn who knew. She is not like that now. But that was her response to racism. I understood that. I didn’t hold it against her then and I won’t hold it against her
now. As stated earlier, get over it. And change the damn headline.
It is not what we say, but what we do that should serve as our arbiter. That the person who is proclaimed to be the victim, readily exonerates the alleged perpetrator tells me all I need to know about this unseeingly situation. Mr. President, give that woman her job back and show the courage of those who fought the beast of racism and not its mere specter.
The time is always right to do what is right.
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
Political Carnival has a video from CNN of an interview with the couple who she helped.
They say she helped save their farm and that she helped them for two years.
hours.
The AP story on the whole thing.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvdRMsb5hKNrXK9GHagILBpYrD8AD9H33GA00
It’s official. A right wing con job.
And as usual, everyone caves. Then the con is discovered and debunked but the damage is done.
The cure is to just hold your ground and stand by your people. But even the NAACP couldn’t just wait 24 houra.
raff said, “The only racist in this story is Andrew Breitbart.”
Spot on, sir.
The only racist in this story is Andrew Breitbart. The real media, other than Fox News, should know better than to believe any statement or video from mr. Breitbart. This lady was relaying a watershed moment in her life. The video is from 1986 when she was not employed by the Federal Government. The farmers involved are quoted that she is not a racist and that they would have lost the farm without her help.
Andrew Breitbart again, eh?
He’s a villain no matter how you color him. There are very few people I simply wish would get hit by lightening, but this guy has managed to make the list. He’s a political terrorist without the balls to use a gun. Plain and simple.
You have got this wrong, Professor. I hope you update your post tomorrow.
NAACP ‘snookered’ over video of former USDA employee
The NAACP has retracted its original statement condemning comments made by a former Agriculture Department official who resigned after a video clip surfaced of her discussing a white farmer.
Obama did put together a rainbow coalition. I don’t want to be part of a tea party coalition. I can’t believe this lady was done in by right wingers and people fell for it just like they did for the “acorn” smear. If anything the tea party is causing racial tension with their inflammatory remarks. Black people are justifiably starting to react to them.
ishobo,
You should not narrowly define a social problem (racism) by your ignorance of its constituent components. Discrimination is a component of racism just like it’s a component of bigotry.
Draw the Venn diagram, isignorantyourself.
@Mike
In reality, this was a small part of her standard speech and to see people like Turley accept the cropped video is sad.
—
Turley has demonstrated on multiple occasions that he willing ly accepts information at face value without doing any work to fact check it. One of the greatest blunders I saw was eariler this year when he posted the same talking points coming from the Friends of Amanda support group when Amanda Knox was found guilty in Italy. You would think a teacher at a major university could at least consult somebody that spoke Italian to translate the judical reports. At the very minimum, I would expect a law professor to refrain from commenting if he does not know the Italian legal system works.