As shameful as the firing of Shirley Sherrod based on false allegations was, it is also shameful how quick folks are to blame the Obama administration. Black folks who play in the white arena have always had to bend over backwards to combat accusations of reverse racism. The NAACP and the Obama administration acted quickly to refute any support of what appeared to be blatantly discriminatory statements by a federal employee; if it had turned out to be an accurate assessment and the NAACP and the administration had not swiftly condemned what much of white America is quick to call "reverse racism," then the condemnation of Obama and the NAACP would have been loudly proclaimed. Like it or not, it boils down to race. Being black in this society is a constant balancing act.
The Obama administration and the NAACP have publicly apologized to Ms. Sherrod. The Agricultural Department has offered Sherrod a new job. However, Andrew Breitbart, the imitation Glenn Beck, and the poster of the heavily edited video that made it appear that Sherrod was a supporter of racial discrimination, hasn't apolgized. In his appearance on Nightline Wednesday night, Breitbart relished the tempest that he stirred up with the selective clip of Sherrod's speech, a speech that rather than promoting racism was about racial reconciliation. Sherrod used her initial reaction to a white farmer's request for assistance 24 years ago when she worked for a nonprofit that assisted farmers to make her point that race should not be the issue and that the significant divide was haves and have nots, regardless of race. The white farmer and his wife, Roger and Eloise Spooner, were among the first to speak in defense of Sherrod, crediting her efforts 24 years ago with saving their farm.
However, Andrew Breitbart is not interested in truth but sensationalism and controversey. Appearing on Good Morning America after the entire video speech had been widely released, Breitbart appeared delighted with the hornet's nest that he intentionally stirred up, particularly the discomfort that it caused the Obama administration and the NAACP. Of course, he may have cause for delight. Instead of widely condemning Breitbart and later Fox News for choosing to release the highly edited clip, the attention has been on chastising the Obama administration for reacting too quickly to the video clip.
I wish that the administration had waited and gathered more facts. I wish that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack had given Sherrod the opportunity to explain. It appears that CNN the Atlanta-Journal Constitution used good old fashioned journalism and interviewed Sherrod and the Spooners. Evidently, Breitbart knows about as much about real journalism as I do about building a space shuttle.
I don't believe that the Obama administration is above reproach in all of this. I want this administration to stop letting Beck, Breitbart, and the Tea Party play the tune and call the steps and I think that it is important that we send a clear message that we actively support soundly kicking purveyors of lies and half-truths in their yellow journalism keyboards. However, at the same time, we must stop allowing these rabid, lying, rabble rousing wingnut lunatics to perpetrate their faux news, then sit back and laugh while progressives eat their young.
The Obama administration acted rashly based on intentionally misleading information and the apology offered to Ms. Sherrod was absolutely necessary. However, progressives need to turn our attention to the real culprits, Andrew Breitbart and Fox News. Divide and conquer is an old adage but it still applies unless we refuse to be distracted by lies and distortions from the real issues.
I would like to see Sherrod sue the pants off Breitbart for this obvious smear. It strikes me as libelous to the extreme.
ReplyDeleteThere's no question that the Obama administration acted rashly and irrationally.
ReplyDeleteTheir behavior makes it appear that they are afraid of the moron Beck, who isn't worth the muck Mr. Obama scrapes off of his shoes after a walk in a doggie park.
Sheria, with your permission, I would like to cross-post this as a follow-up to what I posted on the subject the other day.
I too think that it is time to hold accountable those that manipulate and abuse the second amendment to create and perpetuate libel and slander. I hope she sues the tea bags out of them all!
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, I think that Obama and his administration need to look down and see if they still have their pairs.
The majority of Americans across the ethnic spectrum voted for Obama. It wasn't a landslide but presidential elections rarely are. While a few of those Americans may have voted for him because of his African heritage, the vast majority of us voted for him because we thought he was the best MAN for the job. Not the best black man but just the best man. We gave him that vote of confidence to take us forward - hope and change. Part of that change should have been no knee jerk reactions to whatever hits the airwaves but rather reflection, deliberation and then a reasoned, rational response.
So my beef with the White House is in their willingness to bend so easily to the right wing arm twisting. It makes the Obama administration look weak and unsure of themselves.
I want to stand behind my president but I can't do that if he's hiding behind my skirts!
I still have every confidence that he is a fine human being and that he can be a great president, but he now needs to act like he has the force of America behind him, which he does. We are not a minority, he did not get voted in on a fluke - he is our legitimate president, voted in by a majority of us, THE PEOPLE.
I want my president to be bold and unafraid and take up the reins of this country and run with them. And if he looks back he will see millions of us running right behind him.
Had they waited to view the full tape and interview Sherrod, they could have put together a package for all of us to see so that amid all the right wing howling that the Obama administration are racists, there would have been irrefutable proof that no, they are not but the right wing nuts are vicious liars.
Instead we have a situation where they are having to back peddle and apologize and admit to insecurity. The real issue here is taking a back seat because the White House screwed up and they just can't afford to screw up.
I have no idea if anyone at the White House reads my emails but I'll be sending the president my thoughts.
It is time to have a movement to boycott Faux News
ReplyDeleteI do hope Sherrod sues Breitbart and Fox News. They have gone too far for too many years, and someone with courage has to stop it.
I do hope we make media literacy a mandatory course in our schools. Anyone who studies mass media and how to interpret it would be wary of Fox News regardless of their political leanings.
I do hope some well-heeled progressives start buying stock in and eventually take over mass media outlets. Such an action is needed to counterbalance right wing evil.
Finally, kudos to Keith Olberman for telling the truth in no uncertain terms last night with regards to the media and others in their racist treatment of Ms. Sherrod. Now it is time for Obama to be strong and stand up to those who abuse freedom of the press.
I want to stand behind my president but I can't do that if he's hiding behind my skirts!
ReplyDeletePerfectly said, Rocky (though now I must wipe the tea I spilled on my keyboard after LMAO).
I hope somebody in the WH does read that.
I like Ms. Sherrod more each day:
ReplyDeleteSherrod got apologies from press secretary Robert Gibbs and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, but says, "I can't say the president is fully behind me." She says Obama is not a person who "has experienced some of the things I've experienced in life."
You go, Shirley.
Oops! I believe I should have wrote first amendment in my comment, not second amendment.
ReplyDeleteI was cleaning the arsenal at the time I wrote that so I had second amendment on the brain...;)
What about the absolute spinelessness, abject submissiveness of the Obama administration? Would a Hillary Clinton administration have been rolling over like this? (Excuse me, I have to go now and puke....)
ReplyDeleteDon't know about Hillary, but I'm convinced Keith Olbermann's administration would not react this way.
ReplyDeleteHow refreshing (even if a bit pompous -- but that's Keith for ya). He nails it, as Maleeper already noted.
Sheria,
ReplyDeleteYou're on a roll here and Truth says the truth - it would be great to see her sue for libel since she can prove damages and prove the distortion was deliberate, but you know we'd hear a grand chorus of "freedom of speech" if we stood behind her.
I do have to wonder about concepts like "reverse racism" since racism isn't defined by vector but by the absolute value -- the magnitude of malice. A racist black person is after all, just a racist.
Being angry at someone who is offended by your race isn't racism either, it's self defense.
I regret having to say this, but it appears our country has entered an apartheid phase, a predominantly political apartheid where people of opposite persuasions tend to segregate themselves along partisan lines. I mentioned this in a post some back about the self-clustering of the populace, where conservatives look for Bush signs in front yards and progressive look for Kerry signs before choosing neighborhoods to live in. Politics and Kulturekampf seem to have become synonymous.
ReplyDeleteThere is also an apartheid split with respect to choice of news media. Wingers cluster around Crock News while progressives divide their news choices between other outlets. As Rachel Maddow pointed out in a report months ago, the two sides watch almost opposite news narratives … a different set of facts, different editorial spin, alternate realities.
The one constant beneath this partisan apartheid is race. As Rachel Maddow reported last night, it is a zero-sum narrative: Anything a black person gets is something a white person doesn’t get … regardless of fairness, law, or justice. Today, there was this report posted at TPM on the Pigford settlement (full story here):
“For years, and continuing through the 1990s, the USDA denied loans and grants to scores of farmers simply because they were African-American. Timothy Pigford finally sued the department in 1997; the suit became a class action with 400 additional plaintiffs and 2,000 farmers thought eligible; and the result was what's known as the Pigford settlement, decided in 1999.”
Although the courts awarded a judgment to the plaintiffs, the government has yet to pay up – Congress strips out provisions to fund the settlement every time it gets attached to a bill.
Bottom line: More discrimination against black farmers. IOW, it is perfectly acceptable for distressed white farmers to get USDA assistance, but not black farmers. Another zero-sum game. It appears Breitbart and Fox have a hidden agenda: To stoke more racial division in order to stop these claims from going forward.
Shaw, I'm not at all terrotorial about my posts. Repost at will!
ReplyDeleteI would point out that when Obama clearly offered his opinion on the role that race played in the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Gates, Jr. he was soundly criticized for doing so. I thought that Obama's intervention was perfectly reasonable as did a lot of other black people that I know but nonetheless the media jumped on the president with both feet and it wasn't just Faux News.
The nasty and not so secret truth is that the systematic subjugation of black people in this country has left lasting scars. As a black professional, if I strenously and strongly assert my opinion in the workplace I may be accused of being difficult or as one colleague asserted in a staff meeting, "Intimidating." It is a constant dance on my part to anticipate the reaction that I will receive from behaving exactly as my colleagues are readily allowed to do.
A few years ago I worked for a nonprofit legal organization as the director of its education and law project. I had a third year law student as an intern, a young white woman. I had agreed to represent a student facing long term suspension at a school hearing. I showed up early, introduced myself by name to the school receptionist and stated that I was there for the hearing on behalf of the student. She asked me to be seated in the waiting area. A few minutes later my 22 year old intern showed up, said hello to me and went to the same receptionist to sign in. She also stated that she was there on behalf of the student, whereupon the receptionist said, "Oh, you must be the attorney. You may wait in the conference room. Would you like some coffee?"
I don't know with absolute certainty that my race had anything to do with the presumptions of the receptionist, but when you've had similar experiences more than once, you get a little suspicious. Of course, there are advantages to people assuming that you are less than qualified. The last opposing counsel that I faced in court told me in our pre-trial meeting that I couldn't possibly win and that I should accept the deal that he was offering. I really enjoyed shaking his hand at the end of the hearing after the judge ruled in my client's favor.
Obama is walking a new road, one that hasn't been walked before. Being black in America isn't just about skin color, it is a complex intertwining of external assumptions and internal beliefs, of generations of oppression, externalized and internalized. I once read a description of being black in America that has stuck wih me,the speaker, an elderly, southern black man said that being black was like wearing a pair of shoes that is one size too small, you can walk in them but your feet always hurt.
Damnit! CNN did it again!
ReplyDeleteI took a lunch break earlier and flicked on CNN just to catch up on the headlines. CNN said "Breitbart is the one who uncovered the Acorn scandal." There was even type of the screen that read "Uncovered Acorn Scandal." Shit!
There was NO Acorn scandal. It was another smear job cooked up by Breitbart ,,, hired actors, a script, and a vicious video tape that edited out the proper responses of the Acorn folks who specifically said "that is illegal and we don't do that" on a portion of the tape.
Another damn hatchet job ... CNN let the scam stand with no error correction. In fact, they helped perpetuate in the public mind the myth that scandal took place.
Instead of "Scandal," CNN should have said "Scam" to represent the truth. Damn those incompetent idiots! Another battle lost due to journalistic incompetence.
I called for Mr. V's firing in one of my posts and it really has nothing to do with anyone's color. It has everything to do with being a good manager.
ReplyDeleteYou simply don't dismiss someone based on an accusation made by someone who has a history of not being truthful. But even if the accuser were a credible source, the "target" should have the opportunity to be heard and to defend herself.
I think the whole incident is shameful. I'm pissed because I've spent months defending the Obama administration against criticism from my fellow bloggers but this is so outrageous it can't be defended. I thought we were electing a principled and strong leader who would surround himself with strong assistants. Instead we have a bunch of wet noodles who wouldn't even have the strength to get behind my skirt.
Great post Sheria. Your description of the incident with the receptionist brings back some crappy memories when I've had to watch my black friends try to maintain their dignity while being insulted and threatened.
Bretbart is saying the white farm couple is a plant. I hope Sherrod does sue.
Sheria,
ReplyDeleteThanks for that. As I stated in a previous post, the southern Italians in this country were considered one rung above our African American brothers and sisters. As an "olive skinned" American of Sicilian heritage, I have memories of growing up in a white middle class city north of Boston where the Irish/Yankee majority just tolerated our family, and where one of my friends, a daughter of a very prominent Massachusetts lawyer, was my friend, and where I heard her father tell me that he liked me, "even though I was Italian."
I lost another close friend in junior high school because, years later, my friend told me that her mother didn't want her to associate with "those Italian people."
Those experiences are not in any way comparable to the horror and insults that my African American friends experienced or even what my Jewish friends and family experienced in our Chrisstian community. It is just an example of how minorities have been treated in the land of the free and the home of the brave.