USDA official Shirley Sherrod has become one of the first targets of right wing news pundits after accusations of Tea Party racism. Republicans asked for a democrat to keep a racist label after Tea Party Express racist Mark Williams got kicked out for it. Sherrod, who’s black, is shown in a video talking about a past experience with a white farmer in the 1980s. The video was used out of context making Sherrod look like a bad guy who was not willing to help the farmer.
Shirley Sherrod targeted by Conservatives
Shirley Sherrod, the USDA’s Georgia State Director of Rural Development, has resigned after remarks she made on video about race. Conservative bloggers sent out the video responding to Tea Party Express racist Mark Williams getting kicked out. Fox news told the story. It was shown by CBS News that the video was of a speech Sherrod made at the NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet that was in Douglas, GA on March 27. The story talks about a man who was white and needed help with Chapter 12 bankruptcy. She said she didn’t want to help since blacks effortlessly lose their hand, but she had to help him keep his. In the end, she asked him to go to a white lawyer.
Sherrod puts in resignation after seeing video on news
Sean Hannity, fan of Tea Party Express, and Fox News played the video for everybody to see, and shortly after, the USDA announced Sherrod’s resignation. ”There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA, and I strongly condemn any act of discrimination against any person,” Tom Vilsack who’s the Agriculture Secretary said. “We have been working hard through the past 18 months to reverse the checkered civil rights history at the department and take the issue of fairness and equality very seriously.”
Sherrod video in context
Sherrod argues the video clip isn’t really in context of the whole situation. CNN reports that Sherrod said the event she discusses in the clip took place more than two decades ago, before she worked for the USDA. With a masters degree in community development, Sherrod worked in 1985 as the Director of the Georgia State Office for a company that helps family farmers keep their land and develop it into good property called Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund. She said she told the story to make the point that individuals should move beyond race. The white lawyer didn’t even help the farmer so she “had to frantically find a lawyer who would file a Chapter 11 to stop the foreclosure.”. Sherrod, the farmer and his wife wound up becoming friends.
More information about this topic at these websites
CBS News
cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20011026-503544.html
Sean Hannity
americanprogress.org/issues/kfiles/b91585.html
CNN
edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/20/agriculture.employee.naacp/#fbid=w2XX2duDWrt
