July 21, 2010

"Without a doubt, Ms. Sherrod is owed an apology," said White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs.

The NYT reports:
The apology capped what had been a humiliating and fast-paced turn of events for the White House, the national media and the N.A.A.C.P., all of whom, Mr. Gibbs said, overreacted to a video that appeared to show Ms. Sherrod saying that she had discriminated against a white farmer. The remarks were taken out of context from a longer speech in which she said she learned to overcome her own biases.
And yet... she did discriminate against the white farmer. (Later, she helped him. To paraphrase John Kerry: I discriminated against him, before I didn't discriminate against him.)
Later, [Agriculture Secretary Tom] Vilsack held his own news briefing to say that he had called Ms. Sherrod to apologize and had offered her a new position with the agency.
How embarrassing!
The full video... shows that in her speech, Ms. Sherrod goes on to say that she had learned from working with the farmer that all people must overcome their prejudices. 
Make a note for later use: When someone discriminates based on race, if they subsequently assert that it's important not to do that, it's wrong to hold her or him accountable.
Mr. Vilsack cited his department’s “zero-tolerance” policy on discrimination in explaining her ouster.

Ms. Sherrod took to the airwaves on Tuesday, especially CNN, where she said that the N.A.A.C.P. was “the reason why this happened.”

“They got into a fight with the Tea Party, and all of this came out as a result of that,” she said.
Ha. Everybody got whipsawed by race. Wanna all just fold our cards in the long-running race game? Ah, no... I didn't think so. You still think you can win, don't you? And the play is so exciting....

85 comments:

LouisAntoine said...

Wow, Ms. Sherrod seems like a pretty cool person. And Breitbart remains the douche he has been every second of his life since puberty. Life goes on.

somefeller said...

Lots of people shitting the bed, crapping in their own hat and tripping over their own dick in this story.

The first two lines were good ones from another thread on this. The last one was my addition to the conversation.

Anonymous said...

Yeah? Well Andrew wins this one. And he couldn't care less how he looks to you, MM.

I doubt this will represent a learning experience for your kind, but the "Racism!" sword can cut both ways, and it cuts whether the sobriquet is deserved or not.

You guys made the rules, now live by them.

David said...

Race cards everywhere, grimy pornographic cards with ugly pictures, fluttering down, people tripping on them, pretending they have not fallen down.

MayBee said...

Well, now Mrs. Sherrod is talking to Media Matters.

Leaving aside the irony of complaining about Brietbart to Media Matters, here's what she had to say:


She said Fox showed no professionalism in continuing to bother her for an interview, but failing to correct their coverage.

"I think they should but they won't. They intended exactly what they did. They were looking for the result they got yesterday," she said of Fox. "I am just a pawn. I was just here. They are after a bigger thing, they would love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person."


Lovely.

As my whimsy leads me.. said...

Do you think Obama and Biden will invite Mrs. Sherrod and Secretary Vilsack over for some iced tea on the porch to talk it over?

Toy

As my whimsy leads me.. said...

Isn't her dispute with her boss, not Fox or Breitbart? Who fires someone that quickly for something that happened months or years ago? She was treated worse than if her accounts had come up missing a lot of money. More scapegoating of Fox.

GMay said...

Damn Monty, you've known Breitbart since he hit puberty?

Why the animosity? He turn you down back then or what?

Fen said...

Wow, Ms. Sherrod seems like a pretty cool person

Yet another libtard who thinks racism is "cool" when his side does it.

Skyler said...

What really happened is that the liberal media and the Obama administration succeeded in removing the racist attitudes and comments from the NAACP gathering as the issue and replacing it with poor, picked on Sherrod who really was a nice racist and reformed racist.

Joe said...

Ah, the consequences of zero tolerance policies.

Bender said...

Isn't her dispute with her boss, not Fox or Breitbart?

She doesn't have any legitimate dispute with Fox News since she was fired BEFORE Fox aired it's first story on the matter.

Synova said...

Okay so... why offer her a new position?

She hasn't missed more than a day of work, did her old position get filled?

Bob From Ohio said...

"Well Andrew wins this one."

You're not kidding.

I watched the John King CNN show at a fast food place this evening for over 20 minutes.

Didn't hear everything but about 95% of what I did hear was slams of the White House and Ag Secretary for overreacting.

Breibart may have screwed up but the Administration was the one taken to the emergency room.

Fen said...

"so I didn't give him the full force of what I could do" because he was white

Anonymous said...

"They are after a bigger thing, they would love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person."

Note how interested Ms. Sherrod seems to be that "the other" be seen clearly, understood thoroughly, and spoken of fairly and accurately.

Not at all. Stereotype all the way.

Ms. Sherrod hasn't learned a thing from the civil rights movement.

Not a thing.

somefeller said...

Okay so... why offer her a new position? She hasn't missed more than a day of work, did her old position get filled?

Because by offering a better job (assuming that is the case, that's how it's being characterized), Vilsack trying to buy peace and save some small amount of face in this matter.

jayne_cobb said...

so bribery?

somefeller said...

so bribery?

No more so than the average political contribution.

The Scythian said...

Fen wrote:

"'so I didn't give him the full force of what I could do' because he was white"

That's the first part of her story, yeah. Now read the rest:

That's when it was revealed to me that, ya'll, it's about poor versus those who have, and not so much about white -- it is about white and black, but it's not -- you know, it opened my eyes, 'cause I took him to one of his own and I put him in his hand, and felt okay, I've done my job. But, during that time we would have these injunctions against the Department of Agriculture and -- so, they couldn't foreclose on him. And I want you to know that the county supervisor had done something to him that I have not seen yet that they've done to any other farmer, black or white. And what they did to him caused him to not be able to file Chapter 12 bankruptcy.

So, everything was going along fine -- I'm thinking he's being taken care of by the white lawyer and then they lifted the injunction against USDA in May of '87 for two weeks and he was one of 13 farmers in Georgia who received a foreclosure notice. He called me. I said, "Well, go on and make an appointment at the lawyer. Let me know when it is and I'll meet you there."

So we met at the lawyer's office on -- on the day they had given him. And this lawyer sat there -- he had been paying this lawyer, y'all. That's what got me. He had been paying the lawyer since November, and this was May. And the lawyer sat there and looked at him and said, "Well, y'all are getting old. Why don't you just let the farm go?" I could not believe he said that, so I said to the lawyer -- I told him, "I can't believe you said that." I said, "It's obvious to me if he cannot file a Chapter 12 bankruptcy to -- to stop this foreclose, you have to file an 11. And the lawyer said to me, "I'll do whatever you say" -- "whatever you think" -- that's the way he put it. But he's paying him. He wasn't paying me any money, you know. So he said -- the lawyer said he would work on it.

And then, about seven days before that man would have been sold at the courthouse steps, the farmer called me and said the lawyer wasn't doing anything. And that's when I spent time there in my office calling everybody I could think of to try to see -- help me find the lawyer who would handle this. And finally, I remembered that I had gone to see one just 40 miles away in Americus with the black farmers. So, I --

(There's an interruption in the audio and video here, but it's clear from the context that she hooked up the white farmer with a lawyer who'd do right by him.)

Well, working with him made me see that it's really about those who have versus those who don't, you know. And they could be black; they could be white; they could be Hispanic. And it made me realize then that I needed to work to help poor people -- those who don't have access the way others have.

Trooper York said...

This should be worth at least another $150,000 for her pain and suffering.

Another government grifter lands on her feet.

Funny how that happens.

traditionalguy said...

R E S P E C T., find out what it means to Shirley Sherrod. The points of view on race relations are differing today. Shirley thinks it means she is due respect for her successful career in Government work. I agree with her. Such mutual respect among black citizens and white citizens in spite of their differences in cultural background is a humane ordering of society. In Atlanta it works that way. If an enemy wants to start a racial war to weaken the country (Charlie Manson's spirit's orders), then demanding perfect racial blindedness, and then accusing everyone of failing to succeed at that inhuman standard maybe one more Alinskyite trick from our innocent Dear President.

DaLawGiver said...

Everybody got whipsawed by race. Wanna all just fold our cards in the long-running race game? Ah, no... I didn't think so. You still think you can win, don't you? And the play is so exciting....

One of the best Althouse quotes in quite a while. Ha Ha at first I accidentally typed "quotas" instead of "quotes." Must be the racist in me.

ricpic said...

Surely Shirley shucked and jived the white man and the brother,
The NAACP and USDA agreed Shirley wasn't worth the bother.

Trooper York said...

How come we haven't heard from Laverne?

Jason (the commenter) said...

Mr. Vilsack cited his department’s “zero-tolerance” policy on discrimination in explaining her ouster.

Now that they've given up their zero-tolerance policy on discrimination, I wonder how much discrimination is allowed.

(Their zero-tolerance policy on racism is just like their zero-tolerance policy on hiring lobbyists!)

Robert Burnham said...

It's amateur month -- hell, amateur year-and-a-half -- at the White House.

Hate to revive a trope, but I can't wait until....

Hagar said...

I still think the story is in the handling of the story by the NAACP and the Administration; not in Ms. Sherrod's speech.

Anybody watch the White House press briefing this PM? The press corps - liberals and otherwise - was all over Robert Gibbs, and that is indeed new.

Then, I am beginning to wonder at the sudden turn-around and fervent lionization of Ms. Sherrod. What is prompting that? Could it have to do with her other career activities that are now fitfully coming to light?

The Duke University lacrosse players' case has been mentioned as a parallel, but there are two things about that case that has always bothered me.
1. Someone did mistreat that young woman, but as far as I know, no effort was ever made to find out who, nor to get help for the woman though she obviously needs it.
2. The lacrosse players did hold a party with booze - lots of it - and hired two strippers. That surely was a gross violation of the University's rules and probably State law as well, yet they were given a free pass, and I have not seen any comments whatsoever in the media about this.

I would hope that if Ms. Sherrod's past financial dealings with the Government have been as outrageous as suggested, they will not be similarly swept under the rug.

As my whimsy leads me.. said...

Would someone please explain to me how the Democrats managed to redeem themselves from over a century and a half of abuse of other races--African, Indian, Japanese, at least--managed to redeem themselves from this legacy? Meanwhile, Republicans, who fought a war against the mostly Democrats to free the slaves, and who supported civil rights legislation even back in the late 1800s, against Democrat opposition-- who were even part of the group that started the NAACP-- keep getting slandered as racists?

Anonymous said...

1. Someone did mistreat that young woman, but as far as I know, no effort was ever made to find out who, nor to get help for the woman though she obviously needs it.

2. The lacrosse players did hold a party with booze - lots of it - and hired two strippers. That surely was a gross violation of the University's rules and probably State law as well, yet they were given a free pass, and I have not seen any comments whatsoever in the media about this.

Nobody mistreated "that woman" at the Duke lacrosse team's house. You are repeating a libel.

The Duke lacrosse team broke no laws. Heavy drinking may be lamentable, but it's pretty common on college campuses. Many organizations at Duke hired strippers routinely.

Once again, you are repeating a libel.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

This is the problem with this juvenille and unprepared administration.

Any competent CEO of a company or even the manager of a mid sized business would have taken these actions after becoming aware of the kerfluffle.

1. Take Ms Sherrod aside and ask her WTF is going on.

2. Put her on paid (or unpaid) administrative leave pending investigation.

3. Make a public announcement of the paid administrative leave.

4. Actually investigate instead of knee jerk reactions.

5. Take appropriate action on the results of the investigation. Fired. Not fired. Allegations dismissed. Demoted. Return to work under supervision. Whatever.

6. Announce the results and explain why the decision was made.

7. Move on for God's sake, you have a freaking business to run.

rhhardin said...

the racism sword can cut both ways

Not to mention crab of debauch, the octopus of weakness of character, the shark of individual abasement, the boa of absent morals, and the monstrous snail of idiocy.

(Lautreamont)

Trooper York said...

"7. Move on for God's sake, you have a freaking business to run."

Nobody in this administration has ever run a business.

Now lets be fair.

Fen said...

"so I didn't give him the full force of what I could do' because he was white"

That's the first part of her story, yeah. Now read the rest:

Okay, I read the rest. Now please explain how this is not racist:
"so I didn't give him the full force of what I could do" because he was white.


Also, you are aware that you still dont have the full video. The NAACP does and they've decided to keep parts of it away from you. Just saying, you complain that people rushed to conclusions without all the facts, and here you are without all the facts..

GMay said...

"4. Actually investigate instead of knee jerk reactions."

Best I recall, they did even investigate or fact check Rolling Stone before relieving a major US theater combat commander, so why start now?

GMay said...

did=didn't

Unknown said...

As I said in an earlier post, The Zero has always been quick to throw under the bus anyone who might prove an embarrassment.

This time, he got nailed, good and proper.

MayBee said...

...

"I think they should but they won't. They intended exactly what they did. They were looking for the result they got yesterday," she said of Fox. "I am just a pawn. I was just here. They are after a bigger thing, they would love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person."


Tell me again how she loves white people now.

PS FWIW, her husband, in addition to being an old bud of William Ayers, just like you know who, is also an alumnus of SNCC, those wonderful people who went from city to city in the mid-60s, starting race riots.

AC245 said...

They are after a bigger thing, they would love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person.

As Twain might have put it, it appears the reports of the death of Sherrod's racism were greatly exaggerated.

Mary Beth said...

So, does this go under another job saved or a job created?

David said...

Mary Beth--it's a twofer, saved and created.

David said...

The notion that the phrase "one of your own" is something awful is a major stretch. It's a commonplace phrase in the south, and can mean family, race, football team, fraternity, etc. It's any natural or passionate attraction to a group. I understand that the Race Police would jump on a white person who said something similar in a a similar content, but do we need more Race Police?

There's no high ground here. They all look bad. NAACP, Obama, Vilsack, Breibart, etc. Sherrod too, once she began to bring the tea party and Fox News into it. The Administration cowered in one direction, and now it's cowering in another. Breibart was wrong on some important facts in his own narrative and has not corrected it.

There is a real issue here, and it's the Pigford case. There is, as Trooper said, a Grievance Industry. It's big business, and I think it's bread and circuses to a large degree. Pigford is paying about $37,500 net of tax to about 65,000 different people, if they can show that they actually sought a USDA loan. It's a completed case, a done deal. You may not like it but it's done.

Now Obama-Vilsack-Holder want to increase the total from $100 million to $1.25 billion (or so.) There has been no change in law or facts. Can not be compelled to do this--the time for that is long gone. They just want to, because they can.

This kind of thing is repeated over and over again, usually not involving discrimination claims or race or lawsuits. They just spend it because it brings political advantage. Republicans do it too.

If you wonder why people are mad, why the tea party has some appeal, this is why.

If you wonder why Obama has made race matters worse, it's because he encourages and permits his supporters to use race as a way to discredit his opponents. He could lead us in the other direction. He hasn't and from all evidence he won't.

David said...

The notion that the phrase "one of your own" is something awful is a major stretch. It's a commonplace phrase in the south, and can mean family, race, football team, fraternity, etc. It's any natural or passionate attraction to a group. I understand that the Race Police would jump on a white person who said something similar in a a similar content, but do we need more Race Police?

There's no high ground here. They all look bad. NAACP, Obama, Vilsack, Breibart, etc. Sherrod too, once she began to bring the tea party and Fox News into it. The Administration cowered in one direction, and now it's cowering in another. Breibart was wrong on some important facts in his own narrative and has not corrected it.

David said...

There is a real issue here, and it's the Pigford case. There is, as Trooper said, a Grievance Industry. It's big business, and I think it's bread and circuses to a large degree. Pigford is paying about $37,500 net of tax to about 65,000 different people, if they can show that they actually sought a USDA loan. It's a completed case, a done deal. You may not like it but it's done.

Now Obama-Vilsack-Holder want to increase the total from $100 million to $1.25 billion (or so.) There has been no change in law or facts. Can not be compelled to do this--the time for that is long gone. They just want to, because they can.

This kind of thing is repeated over and over again, usually not involving discrimination claims or race or lawsuits. They just spend it because it brings political advantage. Republicans do it too.

If you wonder why people are mad, why the tea party has some appeal, this is why.

If you wonder why Obama has made race matters worse, it's because he encourages and permits his supporters to use race as a way to discredit his opponents. He could lead us in the other direction. He hasn't and from all evidence he won't.

The Scythian said...

Fen wrote:

"Now please explain how this is not racist: 'so I didn't give him the full force of what I could do' because he was white."

It was absolutely racist and wrong, and that was exactly Sherrod's point.

Now, tell me again how realizing her mistake and working for free to hook this farmer up with the help that he needed was racist again?

Could you do that? Maybe?

"Also, you are aware that you still dont have the full video."

The 43 minute and 14 second version I have seen (and read the transcript of) contains Ms. Sherrod's introduction, her opening remarks, and her closing remarks.

It is unbroken except for a short segment near the end of her story about the farmer.

I guess she could have said that she double-crossed the cracker and laughed in his face or something like that. That's theoretically possible.

Or it could have been a routine tape change or something like that, and while the tape was being changed she told the audience that she hooked the farmer up with the lawyer in Americus that she'd introduced just before the gap.

"The NAACP does and they've decided to keep parts of it away from you. Just saying, you complain that people rushed to conclusions without all the facts, and here you are without all the facts.."

I'll freely admit that I don't have all of the facts.

However, the facts that are available to me indicate that the video was maliciously edited and introduced in such a way as to lie about what Ms. Sherrod said during her speech.

It's really that simple.

Metamorf said...

You still think you can win, don't you? And the play is so exciting....

You know, I doubt that they -- the race baiters -- really think the play is that exciting. And I'm not even sure they think they can win at it. It's more likely just a sign of desperation and impotent rage, as some of the Journolist stuff makes clear.

From Inwood said...

AC245 wins this thread.

FGFM said...

Move on for God's sake, you have a freaking business to run.

And an Internet to win.

The Scythian said...

"As Twain might have put it, it appears the reports of the death of Sherrod's racism were greatly exaggerated."

She was criticizing Fox News.

Is Fox News a race now?

From Inwood said...

Say, did you hear the one about the Farmer & the Travelling Ag Official?

That was no Farmer, that was a Cracker! (Drum Roll)

And FOX News said to her, "Shirley you didn't say that" (apologies to Leslie Nielsen).

MadisonMan said...

Zero-tolerance policies mean zero thinking is required.

As my whimsy leads me.. said...

I grew up in a not-so-racially sensitive area about 60 miles east of Cincinnati--a rural area on both sides of the Ohio River (Ohio and Kentucky). There were plenty of prejudiced people then (40-50 years ago). By the 1960s, the schools were integrated, and white kids and black kids were often friends with each other. The only places formally closed to blacks were private lodges and the Country Club. Churches were also black or white, and many thought that was how it should be, but my Baptist pastor preached equality to our congregation, and I think at least some of that sunk in. I suspect that things may have been more difficult for the parents of the black kids, but the ones I knew had jobs. I don't know if things were any worse for them, by then, than for the white parents who were tenant farmers or factory workers.

About 15 years after the town closed the swimming pool rather than integrate it, they built a much nicer pool where all were welcome. The white kids swam and the black kids swam. It was hot, the water was cool and wet, and we had our priorities straight.

I had black friends, as did most of my white friends. Some people called us "salt and pepper." Many black students were popular with the whole student body, and several were honor students and Science Club participants. My Chemistry and Physics teacher was black. He was the only black teacher Everyone liked him.



My Republican father employed several black men on his farm during tobacco growing season. One was his very good friend. After that man died, and my father had "phantom guest" hallucinations due to Parkinson's disease with Lewy bodies, that black friend was one of the dependable "guests" who kept him company.

Anyway, there is still racism, but nobody is lynching anyone, or wants to. Nobody wants to go back to 1950. My mother still thinks that you need to have at least 2 white players on the basketball court at all times. Once when I was in high school she asked me if I had any white friends. On the other hand, she has helped out people of all backgrounds as a literacy teacher.

The class structure of that area was probably at least as constricting as the racial structure. A lot of that is eroding, too.

So, that historically predominantly Democrat area, with its heavy history of slavery and racism has made a lot of progress.

But still--On two occasions, 15-20 years ago, I stopped on the highway (some miles east and west of my hometown) go give assistance to stranded black motorists. Both times, they had been waiting and waving for help for more than an hour, with many cars driving past them. I hardly ever stop to help, since I know nothing about cars, but I did stop those two times because I figured nobody would help them. I was in two majority Democrat counties, so I would assume that most of the cars that kept going were driven by Democrats. I am a white Republican woman, and I stopped to help the black people that scores of Democrats left to fend for themselves. Republican cars passed by, too. That is a pity. In one of the situations, I gave a whole family a ride back to their home (which happened to be where I was headed.). But I, the conservative, Gadsen flag waving Republican, am a racist, according to the Journolisters and Obama, and racist Democrats--historic and modern, are excused, forgotten, or deemed heroes.

So, I repeat--how did Democrats manage to redeem their century and a half history of the most vile racism, and how, instead of humbly accepting a welcome from Republicans to the ranks of the decent,and working together to improve racial attitudes, did they manage to hypocritically assert themselves as so superior on this issue?

As my whimsy leads me.. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fen said...

Now, tell me again how realizing her mistake and working for free to hook this farmer up with the help that he needed was racist again?

Never said it was. My point is that simply because a racist apologizes for her racism... it doesn't excuse her racism and it doesn't mean she's no longer a racist.

In fact, in light of her later comments, its pretty clear she's still a racist.

the facts that are available to me indicate that the video was maliciously edited and introduced in such a way as to lie about what Ms. Sherrod said during her speech.

1) Please list those facts.

2) And please explain how you divine malicious intent.

3) Also, Breitbart states that Sherrod was collateral damage - he was targeting the racial hypocrisy of the NACCP. So please explain why you take Sherrod's word at face value, but not Breitbart's.

It's really that simple.

We'll see. Three very simple questions...

Anonymous said...

How about a poll on Ms. Sherrod's current options? For example, will she accept a new government position?

Phil 314 said...

How 'bout a beer summit?

Phil 314 said...

one last comment about this sordid affair:

If you watch the whole video you will hear Ms. Sherrod make several references to God. You can tell she's a "church-going" women. And it resonates with the crowd. Here's the one time where Dems can play the "God" card: with a black audience.

Sad.....

And frankly as sad as the regularly "God" card played by Republicans.

(and to think that many in that audience will have associated their fellow believers who happen to be Republicans with racism.)

Matt said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ronnie Schreiber said...

Youngblood,

She's saying that Fox News is racist. She's also deliberately inferring that Fox is a proxy for white folks who are intent keeping black folks down.

She's wrong about Fox. You know it and I know it. She's shamelessly playing the racism card, just as the NAACP called the Tea Partiers racists.

Falsely calling someone a racist is, I think, morally on par with racism itself.

This is all apart from the irony of a black person who held an appointed position and power in a presidential administration headed by another black person whining about black folks having to be obsequious.

Matt said...

You're missing the larger point Ann. She changed her mind and helped the man. That is the point. Get it? No, I guess not. [Sigh]. But I guess you're into shorter points like most Conservatives. At least David Frum and Jonah Golberg and Rich Lowry get it.

Will said...

That unhelpful lawyer must have been too busy on Journolist

Hagar said...

ShoutingThomas,

I said "someone mistreated that woman" - not that the lacrosse players did or that it happened at their house - and someone did.

Gross drinking parties with strippers will get your organizational privileges withdrawn at any college I ever heard of - at least if it gets on the front pages. This affair was gross enough that it should have resulted in severe addional punitive actions by the University, and it did not. I would still like to know why.

Hagar said...

Lord Peter fan,

I have read that Herbert Hoover made a lot of promises to the black people of the lower Mississippi when he was the czar of disaster relief after the Great Flood of 1927, and then reneged on them when he ran for President in 1928 and then after he won. The black leaders of the time reasonably enough considered this a betrayal and exhorted their flocks to vote against him.
Then FDR courted them to become part of his coalition of "the Solid South," black people, blue-collar unions, and the "intelligentsia," which seems to have worked very well indeed and has pretty well held together right up to now.

Fen said...

bump, best post in thread

Ronnie Schreiber: She's saying that Fox News is racist. She's also deliberately inferring that Fox is a proxy for white folks who are intent keeping black folks down.

She's wrong about Fox. You know it and I know it. She's shamelessly playing the racism card, just as the NAACP called the Tea Partiers racists.

Falsely calling someone a racist is, I think, morally on par with racism itself.

This is all apart from the irony of a black person who held an appointed position and power in a presidential administration headed by another black person whining about black folks having to be obsequious.

As my whimsy leads me.. said...

Hagar,

I remember something about the Mississippi issue, but FDR didn't do much to improve things in the South. By the 50s there were still a lot of black Republicans. Democrats were fighting integration in the 50s. It doesn't explain how things got so mixed up, but politics doesn't have to make any sense.

Glad you recognize my handle! (although I got it a little mixed up: leads, not takes)

Toy


Toy

Bender said...

Without a doubt, Sherrod owes Fox News an apology for her malicious smear.

Not only did Fox NOT run the story until AFTER Sherrod resigned/was fired, their execs expressly and specifically told their news staff to wait and get all the facts --

for all the chatter -- some of it from Sherrod herself -- that she was done in by Fox News, the network didn't touch the story until her forced resignation was made public Monday evening, with the exception of brief comments by O'Reilly. After a news meeting Monday afternoon, an e-mail directive was sent to the news staff in which Fox Senior Vice President Michael Clemente said: "Let's take our time and get the facts straight on this story. Can we get confirmation and comments from Sherrod before going on-air. Let's make sure we do this right."
--Howard Kurtz, July 22, 2010

Sherrod needs to apologize -- and stay OUT of government employment.

Anonymous said...

As a DOJ employee, I have to undergo periodic FBI background checks. I assume that USDA has something similar. How does Sherrod pass it? She probably violated the Hatch Act with her attacks on Bush and thou-can-do-no-wrong comment on Obama. Not to mention the "his own kind" comments.

Hagar said...

There is the famous story about Strom Thurmond and Dixiecrat walk-out in 1948: A reporter asked him what was with the Dixiecrats and Harry Truman; after all, Mr. Roosevelt, from their point of view, had said much worse things, and Thurmond answered: "Yeah, but Harry means 'em!"

So, indeed, the liberal wing of the Democrat Party did champion the civil rights movement by then. So did the Republicans, they were the party of Lincoln after all, but in a half-hearted way, and they never got credit for it, though it was the Warren Court that ended school segregation, and the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960's were supported by the Republican Party.
Today, Lyndon Johnson has disappeared from the official Democrat history, and the younger people are under the impression that the "Southern Caucus" was a Republican conclave, and it is essential to keep it so, for, without the black population voting as a block, the Democrats are a minority party.

A.W. said...

I think the more serious problem is that she is now a bigot. This year, in 2010, she said that she sent him to a white lawyer saying the white farmer would be taken care of by "his kind." So white people are not her kind.

Its rank racism, pure and simple.

A.W. said...

Hagar

Lyndon Johnson hasn't disappeared from history. he has been reformed into anti-racist hero.

And actually on balance, he did do alot of good. i think johnson was very dubious in many respects, but i think he really struggled with his own bigotry and overcame it.

Anonymous said...

David (I responded on another thread where you posted this as well:

The notion that the phrase "one of your own" is something awful is a major stretch. It's a commonplace phrase in the south, and can mean family, race, football team, fraternity, etc. It's any natural or passionate attraction to a group.

I'm sorry, but this is simply not true. I'm a Southern transplant (moved from NJ to GA, then TN in my childhood), so I find myself to be pretty sensitive to "southernisms" (as they were at one time foreign to me). Own kind is used in the sense that "You have your kind, and I have mine, and your kind does not belong with my kind." In the racial context (which is the normal context for that phrase), it is the same as starting a sentence with "I'm not racist, but . . ."- it means that the person may proclaim that there is nothing *wrong* with the other group, but they do not belong in the speaker's life. It is absolutely racist.

And now I have "A Boy Like That" (The song from West Side Story where Anita advises Maria to "stick to your own kind") stuck in my head.

- Lyssa

Anonymous said...

Lyndon Johnson hasn't disappeared from history. he has been reformed into anti-racist hero. And actually on balance, he did do alot of good.

I think that LBJ meant well; I really do. But the legacy of the Great Society programs, as they actually worked in real life, cannot be ignored. He hurt blacks and race relations immensely with those programs, and I am certain that we would be in a much better place with race relations had things not gone his way with them.

Road to hell and all of that.

A.W. said...

Monty

> Wow, Ms. Sherrod seems like a pretty cool person.

She is a racist who got $300K on a very dubious settlement for her pain and suffering. My wife was in an auto accident and didn’t get that much. She is a racist and a possible crook.

Whimsy

> Do you think Obama and Biden will invite Mrs. Sherrod and Secretary Vilsack over for some iced tea on the porch to talk it over?

Beer Summit II.

Somefeller

> No more [bribery] than the average political contribution.

And what about the $300K payout to her over that lawsuit before she got her job?

Traditional

> If an enemy wants to start a racial war to weaken the country (Charlie Manson's spirit's orders), then demanding perfect racial blindedness,

Excuse me, but the NAACP started this discussion with its attacks on the tea party as racist. Expel every single racist or we will say you are racist, they said. Well sauce for the goose, my friend...

Hagar

Re the Duke non-rape case.

> 1. Someone did mistreat that young woman, but as far as I know, no effort was ever made to find out who, nor to get help for the woman though she obviously needs it.

What are you talking about? Her charges were proven fabrications.

> 2. The lacrosse players did hold a party with booze - lots of it - and hired two strippers.

Yeah, stop the presses.

> That surely was a gross violation of the University's rules

Oh yeah, our universities are party-free zones. *rolls eyes*

> and probably State law as well,

Um, what specific law? Last time I checked most states allowed for the sale and consumption of beer, and allowed for stripping, with some regulation for sure, but not so much it is presumptively illegal.

> I would hope that if Ms. Sherrod's past financial dealings with the Government have been as outrageous as suggested, they will not be similarly swept under the rug.

Well, don’t hold your breath.

DBQ

I like your business 101 points. But remember no one in this white house knows how to run a business. and obama’s first instinct is to screw people.

David

> It's a commonplace phrase in the south, and can mean family, race, football team, fraternity, etc.

I am from the South and if a white guy says “his own kind” when referring to a person’s race, they are crucified. And rightly so.

She is judging not by the content of his character but the color of his skin. That is racism.

I love it how liberals will honor Dr. King while refudiating what he actually said and believed in.

(God, refudiating is a fun word. Thanks, Sarah Palin!)

> but do we need more Race Police?

Well, consistency might be a start. If the race police is going to constantly patrol the tea parties, but not the NAACP, well, that is not exactly fair, now is it?

> Now Obama-Vilsack-Holder want to increase the total from $100 million to $1.25 billion (or so.)

Actually that is far less suspicious than the payout to Sherrod. I mean if you think they were discriminated against, $37K a person seems low, especially in comparison to Sherrod’s payout.

Hagar said...

A.W.

Bull. Lyndon Johnson indeed was a very duplicituous politician, and he totally outmaneuvered the Democrat "base" of the time (aka The Southern Caucus). LBJ never was a racial bigot, though Lady Bird may have been the only one that knew that.

Hagar said...

A.W.

Her charges against the lacrosse players were proven false, but she was beaten up by someone, somwhere, and apparently raped.
But there was no investigation and no help offered for her obvious mental problems. All the hubbub was about these over-privileged young louts and that nasty D.A. harassing them.

And any university would normally have expelled a fraternity that was guilty of the behavior the lacrosse players patently had engaged in, and would have disciplined or fired its faculty advisor.

A.W. said...

Hagar

So when Johnson said he was a bigot in speeches, when he went around calling black people that was an act?

He was. he eventually did right, but he was. and how shocking would that be anyway a white texan at that time? it would be more surprising if he wasn't.

X said...

I can't help but notice that most of the commenters who are ususally the quickest to poison the well by playing the race card seem to be absent in posts about playing the race card. I congratulate those guys on their growing self-awareness.

Hagar said...

Times and standards change, but Truman and Johnson are the only Democrat presidents who have done anything concrete and substantial for the black people of this country when they did not have to, and neither is very popular with the Democrat glibberati of the present day.

Wv: sympal - a friend when needed?

The Dude said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
test said...

It's really unbelievable to see the post below. The Crystal Mangum wasn't raped or beaten. She was a strung out prostitute.

These students were nearly imprisoned for much of their lives and were in fact stigmatized, but the left excuses it because they're spoiled? So we can put Yglesias and Klein on trial for rape with the left's full support? I'm absolutely stunned.

It's astonishing to see someone make light of false rape accusations, even more so to see them wave away prosecutorial corruption. It shows there's no end to what the left will minimize to further it political goals. And it shows the only "guilt" that matters to them is determined solely on which victim group the parties belong to.




" Hagar said...
A.W.

Her charges against the lacrosse players were proven false, but she was beaten up by someone, somwhere, and apparently raped.
But there was no investigation and no help offered for her obvious mental problems. All the hubbub was about these over-privileged young louts and that nasty D.A. harassing them.

And any university would normally have expelled a fraternity that was guilty of the behavior the lacrosse players patently had engaged in, and would have disciplined or fired its faculty advisor."

test said...

They are after a bigger thing, they would love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person. - Sherrod

Ah, the humor in lionizing a woman slimily accused of racism who in turn slimily accuses others of racism.

There really is no hope. Who could possibly believe this?

The Dude said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AC245 said...

"I think they should but they won't. They intended exactly what they did. They were looking for the result they got yesterday," [Sherrod] said of Fox. "I am just a pawn. I was just here. They are after a bigger thing, they would love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person."

'She was criticizing Fox News. Is Fox News a race now?'


Claiming that a TV network conspired to force her to resign as part of their grand scheme to make sure that white folks dominate black people is not a criticism, Youngblood.

It is a paranoid, racist delusion.

That she immediately resorts to casting the situation in terms of the color of people's skin says a lot about the content of her character.

A.W. said...

Hagar

> Times and standards change, but Truman and Johnson are the only Democrat presidents who have done anything concrete and substantial for the black people of this country when they did not have to, and neither is very popular with the Democrat glibberati of the present day.

Yes, and I acknowledged the good they did, too.

> but she was beaten up by someone, somwhere, and apparently raped.

How can you possibly know that?

And even if she was, hey, here’s a hint. She was a proven liar. There would have been no way to convict, short of a confession.

So even assuming we could prove someone raped her, and beat her, and don’t recall any evidence that supports that conclusion, no one could ever be convicted of it. tough on her, she shouldn’t have lied. I shed no tears.

> no help offered for her obvious mental problems.

How do you know it wasn’t offered to her?

> All the hubbub was about these over-privileged young louts and that nasty D.A. harassing them.

Wow, four guys almost have their lives ruined, and you still put them down. Four guys you never would have given two shits about until they were defamed. I mean they aren’t angel, but really they aren’t nothing that deserves this kind of singling out.

As for the DA, he was a vile man. That is why he was actually disbarred.

> And any university would normally have expelled a fraternity that was guilty of the behavior the lacrosse players patently had engaged in, and would have disciplined or fired its faculty advisor.

And what complete bullshit. When have universities ever cared about drinking and strippers?

Try this. Show me one frat expelled from any university (religious schools don’t count) for drinking and strippers alone. Double points if its duke.

Wait, tell the truth. You are a heels fan, aren’t you? Because the only people I know that still hate those guys are heels fans.

The Scythian said...

AC245,

So what you're saying is that we're dealing with allegations that were fake but ultimately accurate?

I mean, anyone with two brain cells to rub together to stay warm on a cold winter's night can see that the video clib Breitbart ran with is a blatant misrepresentation.

Whoever he got the video clip from edited it in a deliberately misleading way, and then added titles that are bald-faced lies.

In the blog entry in which he thrust the clip into the spotlight, Breitbart put the considerable weight of his credibility behind the claims made in the introductory text of the video.

So he lied, too.

This was not a woman giving an account of her discrimination at her publically appointed post. It was a woman describing her own struggle with racism, which she not only recognized, but corrected at the time.

Of course, the fact that the video clip was a blatant misrepresentation doesn't matter. Because, y'know, in the aftermath she accused Fox News of racism.

The whole thing is really repugnant to me, and I say that as someone who wouldn't be particularly sympathetic to Ms. Sherrod's political positions.

It's like you want people on your side of the aisle to be able to misrepresent the facts to suggest that this black woman is a virulent racist, to destroy her, and then when she dares to say something about Fox News, it's proof that she really was a virulent racist all along.

Fuck that noise.

Morally, this whole thing is repugnant.

Tactically, it's even worse.

See, let me let you in on a little secret:

Everyone ran with this story, even the mainstream media. Constantly getting scooped by people like Breitbart, Fox News, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, and Matt Drudge has been eating away at the credibility of the mainstream media.

Now, for all of the shit lobbed in Breitbart's direction, he usually makes sure to get all of his ducks in a row.

In fact, his whole brand of journalism relies on that. He'll run part of a story one day that the mainstream media will reflexively attack. On the next day, he'll release another part of the story that demonstrates those attacks were nothing more than hot air.

Breitbart's power has always come from the fact that, while he does have an agenda, he's a flatfoot old school newsman who crosses his t's and dots his i's.

So, when he dropped the Shirley Sherrod bombshell, all of the mainstream news organizations ran with it. Breitbart played a tune and the opposition finally danced feverishly to it.

He had won.

Except, y'know, this time he didn't have any tricks up his sleeve and he either didn't do his homework or he knowingly put a blatant misrepresentation out there.

The Sherrod story didn't even have enough time to get any traction before people discovered it was a bald-faced lie.

He shit the bed.

And now, to cover for him, the partisan robots are not merely spinning, but whirling like dervishes and falling back to the "fake but accurate" position -- the last refuge of reflexive thinkers who are incapable of admitting that one of their own can do any wrong.

That shit smelled like ass when the Left did it in the Bush days, and it doesn't smell any better today.

Have fun wallowing in it, though. Just know that you're coming across like a resentful white man who can't take the fact that a black woman criticizing your favorite news network.

AC245 said...

So what you're saying is that we're dealing with allegations that were fake but ultimately accurate?

No, Youngblood. This habit of yours of making up things I didn't say and then trying to attribute them to me is getting old. Knock it off.

Here's what I actually said in this thread:
-----
"As Twain might have put it, it appears the reports of the death of Sherrod's racism were greatly exaggerated." (7/21/10 9:31 PM)

"Claiming that a TV network conspired to force her to resign as part of their grand scheme to make sure that white folks dominate black people is not a criticism, Youngblood.

It is a paranoid, racist delusion.

That she immediately resorts to casting the situation in terms of the color of people's skin says a lot about the content of her character.
" (7/22/10 3:33 PM)
-----
If you want to address what I said, please do so.

If you don't want to address what I said, please have the courtesy and honesty to not address your rambling, vulgarity-drenched, strawman-bashing ravings against Breitbart, Fox, O'Reilly, and the rest of your inner demons to me, as if they were responsive to any comment I've made.

Thanks.