Resigned USDA official says racial story misconstrued

Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The USDA's rural development director for Georgia says she was forced out of her federally appointed job after a "snippet" of a speech she gave in March appeared to show her admission to only half-heartedly aiding a struggling white farmer because of his race.

But in a phone interview from her home in Albany early Tuesday morning, Shirley Sherrod told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution that the two-minute, 38-second video posted online Monday by biggovernment.com and reported on by FoxNews.com and the AJC completely misconstrued the message she was trying to convey.

Sherrod, 62, insisted her statements in the video were not racist.

"For Fox to take a spin on this like they have done, and know it’s not the truth … it’s very upsetting," she said.

Read more: http://www.ajc.com/news/resigned-usda-official-says-574027.html

---

Breitbart again. ACORN, anyone?

From the article, the events happened 24 years ago before she started working for the USDA. She saved the farmer's farm from foreclosure and became friends with him and his wife.


*edited for spelling

She was actually using it as a learning moment for herself and others.

No matter, the new meme today is all african-americans in government positions are abusing those positions for revenge and payback against whites. All the way from Obama and Eric Holder telling their attorney generals not to prosecute black people (this is so ridiculous it's hard to believe people give this lie credence)to meter maids only ticketing the cars of whites. Rdverse discrimination has sprouted full bloom.

These people have no shame whatsoever. Stoking the racial pot and the same time blaming Obama for doing it.

:shrug:

And honestly her boss is a coward if he forced her.

She was appointed to her position, which means that the administration can remove her from it. So, it would be bad PR to just fire her, a resignation creates less of a hostile situation. And, from all indications there was no way that the feds were going to back her in this.

The orders probably came from D.C., to ask for her resignation, with a mild threat if she refused.

Do you think that only Republican administrations do this kind of thing?

:banghead:

:banghead:

12:29 pm July 20, 2010, by Jay
From the AJC:

The wife of the white farmer allegedly discriminated against by the USDA’s rural development director for Georgia said Shirley Sherrod “kept us out of bankruptcy.”

Eloise Spooner, 82, awoke Tuesday to discover that Sherrod had lost her job after videotaped comments she made in March at a local NAACP banquet surfaced on the web…..

But Spooner, who considers Sherrod a “friend for life,” said the federal official worked tirelessly to help the Iron City couple hold onto their land as they faced bankruptcy back in 1986 ...

Spooner called Sherrod Tuesday morning ...

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2010/07/20/sherrods-victim-she-kept-us-out-of-bankrupcy-a-friend-for-life/?cxntfid=blogs_jay_bookman_blog

that separate us. If that is truly the case, I hope she can be reinstated. She did the right thing to protect her boss, but the kneejerk reaction seems completely unfair in this case.

Quote-After seeing all these black families lose there farms I was faced with the difficult decision of helping a white family, Did I do all I could NO. Why was it a difficult decision to do her job, Because they were white. Period.

Do enjoy. :party:

It's her later interpretation of her in that particular context. That there's a larger context matters, but not in gauging her conduct in that particular context. She was right and had pretty good insight into her own actions--better than a number of spinmeisters have, with an onion-skin-paper thin depth of insight.

It's like Byrd. Klansman early, did good later, so we decide that to mention what he did before is beyond the pale and must never be mentioned. Denying that he did what he did is foolish and constitutes self-imposed blindness.

The response to such claims is not to say the events never happened or aren't properly understood to be some sort of inscrutable virtue. Personally, I'd like to see the argument as to why not doing her best for a white farmer because he wasn't a black farmer is a good thing. I haven't seen one.

The response to such claims is to show that later events demonstrated maturity and wisdom even if the early decision was rash and racist (for those who argue racism involves power, she had the power in this exchange; for those who argue it's structural, then any behavior on her part that assumes race-consciousness and overt preferences and bias by race isn't racism, but we're then arguing over exactly what to dub a noxious, odious practice in order to prevent its stench from being recognized and eliminated).

That she changed her mind and actively helped to the extent possible is a good thing. That she admitted it to herself and to others speaks highly of her. It shows that she can be fair about judging herself and evaluating her motives then take steps to alter her behavior in a conscious and conscientious way. These are commendable attributes and makes the person eminently defensible.

But it doesn't mean that her first decision didn't happen.

She said she would do only an average, required job, and not go beyond the call of duty, because the guy was being an asshole to her.

That was a quote, No interpetation needed.

You're interpreting it to suit your purposes. Others, to suit theirs.

It matters not...I don't think you'll be around long anyway. :hi:

:shrug:

"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."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8780313

Are you hearing what Ms. Sherrod actually said, or only what you want to hear? :hi:

punctuation and everything? I eagerly await your reply. :hi:

...refutes your conclusion. Or 'refudiates" if that works better. :)

BY Aliyah Shahid
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, July 20th 2010, 2:46 PM

... Shirley Sherrod, the former Georgia director of Rural Development, said she received a phone call from the USDA's deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook on Monday while she was in a car. Cook told her that the White House wanted her to call it quits.

"They called me twice," Sherrod told the Associated Press. "The last time they asked me to pull over the side of the road and submit my resignation on my Blackberry, and that's what I did" ...

Sherrod said that she eventually became friends with the farmer and worked with him for two years to help him avoid foreclosure.

The woman who says she is the wife of the farmer referenced in the clip told CNN Sherrod helped her family save their farm. Eloise Spooner described Sherrod as "getting in there and doing all she could do to help us" ...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/07/20/2010-07-20_shirley_sherrod_exusda_worker_white_house_forced_me_to_resign_over_fabricated_ra.html

without her being able to present her side of the story in full.

person today, The context of her speech was her struggle to help a white family with her full power which she didnt based solely on race.

I find it amazing that people on the DU get their news from Fox and Andrew Breitbart, and then go no futher.

CNN has been interviewing her and the Spooner (farmer) family for the last hour.
Somehow some people would rather believe Fox News?

My guess is that your opinion of her is derived from watching Breitbart's 2nd grade anti-NAACP video project.

She said she just didn't go beyond the call of duty, because he was being an asshole.

You're deliberately misconstruing this, which makes me wonder if you're a racist youself.

Really shouldnt talk smack to strangers, Someday you may fling that action the wrong way.

I see your breakfast is full of irony today. :)

as a supposed "investigative" journalist.

is to start a very, very dangerous trend. And it is quite disturbing that our media is buying into it, with few questions asked.