I've screwed up.
A couple of posts ago, I linked a video of Shirley Sherrod, an African-American employee of the Department Of Agriculture, speaking to an NAACP gathering.
I usually don't worry about taking quotes out of context. That's why they're called quotes. By their very definition, they're out of context. But in this case, Shirley Sherrod was explaining how she overcame anti-white bias. The latter half of her story, the redemptive part, is not included in the video clip that I posted.
The video, by not including the complete story, gives the wrong impression of Shirley Sherrod and the point that she was trying to make at the NAACP gathering.
Talk radio has been pretty lively this morning, pointing out how Sherrod's audience was apparently delighted in her power over the white farmer, the Department of Agriculture shouldn't have forced her to resign, the White House shouldn't have pressured the Department of Kickpacks to force her to resign, Andrew Breitbart should have checked out the context before releasing the video, and on and on and on.
But enough about them. I screwed up by posting the video. (And my post and commentary has already been linked by a couple of Big Deal blogs in Europe, BTW.)
It's atonement time.
I don't think Shirley Sherrod is going to put her mailing address online any time soon.
I ain't about to write a "I'm sorry" check to the Department Of Agriculture.
I might write a check to the NAACP, along with some kind of apology letter.
I'm open to suggestions.
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa
15 comments:
(...applause...)
(....more applause....)
(....THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE....)
Thank you, Allen.
I'm open to suggestions.
Learn from this whole affair.
Genuinely take this to heart and ask yourself how you (like millions of others-including govt. officials) were manipulated.
I don't say that with any snark or sarcasm. Not at all.
Please accept my suggestion in the spirit in which it is intended.
If you got conned, then that means there is a con-artist.
Expose the people responsible.
Expose the creators of the con.
Hold their feet to the fire.
See to it that justice is done.
Expose their methods to make it more difficult for them to pull a disgusting stunt like this again.
These things don't just happen.
Sherrod lost her job and her reputation was maliciously smeared because of "creative" editing.
This woman lost her job because people who should know better did not do their fact checking.
This same "creative" editing has caused other people to lose their job too.
Juan Carlos Vera.
Thieves would find it much more difficult to make a comfortable living if honest people practiced due diligence and took even the most basic security measures.
Propogandists and media manipulators would find it much more difficult to make a comfortable living if honest people practiced due diligence and took even the most basic source-checking and fact-checking measures.
Look under the hood. Kick the tyres. Get a licenced mechanic to inspect the vehicle before you buy.
Don't just innocently go along with your "tribe".
Thank you again for stepping up to the plate on this issue.
That takes guts.
I hope more people follow your lead.
I'm glad she's gotten over some of her racism, but it doesn't change the fact that she did discriminate, nor the fact that the NAACP was perfectly fine with her earlier racism.
And don't feel too bad for her. She's still busy calling conservatives racist just for disagreeing with Obama's policies.
I'm glad you've kept an open mind, but I think you should rea culpa.
Ms. Sherrod was a government employee who did not merely abdicate her responsibility, she willfully and deliberately committed racial discrimination.
There is no statute of limitations on faithless public service. I've been a government employee for many years, and I don't expect minor mistakes, office mischief, and momentary lapses of reason to haunt me forever. But if I had EVER committed blatant racial discrimination, depriving a person of the benefits of public service, I'd expect to be fired.
And yes, that NAACP crowd was hootin' and hollerin' in raucous approval. They didn't know she was going to lead them to a redemptive moment. And I don't think ANY of them felt the slightest bit of shame or remorse for having, moments earlier, cheered for discrimination. Their Orwellian Crimestop kicked in.
Watch the video again. Ms. Sherrod was thoroughly enjoying talking about how this white guy felt superior to her. She was smiling about how she referred this guy to his "own kind." Does she deserve an Academy Award for fooling the audience? World Series of Poker Face?
No, she is not contrite. She is only patting herself on the back now for being more restrained in her racism than she was many years ago.
I've known too many government bureaucrats who became drunk on their own power to approve and deny government services. And it's worse when the application of that power is tinged with discrimination of any kind.
Let me add that she referred the white farmer to his "own kind" in 1987.
1987.
Not Jim Crow days. Not during segregation. Not shortly after her father was murdered or after a cross was burned on her lawn.
1987. "Own kind"
She stereotypes black lawyers as "nickel and diming" people, especially black folk. She jokes about them closing down the Chicken House.
She applauded the Obama Administration and lamented their suffering under George Bush as if money wasn't flowing through the USDA under Bush.
Breitbart's clip took nothing out of context. The entirety of her crime and the shame of the audience was contained in that clip.
Is there a link to the 'latter half of her story'?
I read your original post and viewed to video clip. I find it hard to imaging a latter half to her story that would excuse the racism of the first half.
Can somebody point me in the right direction please.
Like Cedric, I applaud your willingness to mea culpa, and would echo his suggestion you spend a little time looking at the cynical dirtbags like Andrew Breitbart that perpetrated this bit of slander.
Oh, and for the sake of the stubbornly disbelieving Nick and Co., post an un-edited version of the video (hint: here's one version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9NcCa_KjXk&feature=player_embedded ). They seem to be unwilling to get past the original clip.
Nick, do you also advocate locking up "criminals" on trumped up evidence? If so, it says a lot about the kind of person you are.
And what about these law suits she is involved in? Conflict of interest?!?!?
Ralph, I watched the entire video on Another Black Conservative blog. The additional footage changes absolutely nothing. As a public employee, she put forth the minimum effort she thought her job required. She referred a person of another race to "his own kind"... In 1987, not 1967.
As for the audience, are you seriously suggesting that they were not approving of her retribution?
Wherefore did she get the idea this white farmer was trying to show how "superior" he was to her? Does she possess great powers of empathy and observation to understand peoples' thoughts and intentions? OK, I believe that. I also claim such abilities and declare Sherrod a racist and a petty bureaucrat.
Yes, Ralph, when a public employee discriminates against a customer on the basis of race, they have committed a CRIME. If I were a government lawyer and admitted to providing minimal legal assistance to a black man 13 years ago and referred him to his "own kind", would you approve of me continuing as a senior Justice Department official? Would my crime magically disappear with the sudden realization that his problem wasn't about race, but about being poor?
Watching that whole meeting made me sick to my stomach. I saw nothing but a petty bureaucrat and race-conscious activist pushing government programs to justify her own paycheck. She spent 5 minutes saying "it's not about race" and spent 40 minutes talking about race and victimhood.
His "own kind?" Really, Ralph, sometimes you can be so blind. You usually do more justice to your philosophy than yourself. Now you're not even doing justice to your philosophy.
I expect such behavior and apologists among "that kind" but I expected better from you.
I haven't seen the the whole video and have only seen a micro clip. Didn't even look at it here. Been busy, myself! This just seemed like Rush/Hannity/Medved/Beck fodder, which I try to avoid.
I'm also pleased that you've reversed your position, if called for - and knowing you, I'm sure you didn't 'cave' to some external pressure! However, if part of your penance is to write a contribution, please reconsider your idea to give to the National Association for the Advancement of Institutional Racism. Using government force to enforce policies of favoritism to any race is institutional racism. And that seems to be a big part of their agenda.
Just my two cents. Or, the Tarrant County Libertarian Party!!!! ;-)
Consider the Institute for Justice. This organization has reached out to small business owners, family farmers and parents of every race to fend off government agencies from shutting them down through unnecessary regulations, eminent domain and educational restrictions.
I hate the iPhone at times. I tried to do a litlle editing and tried to add 'Just my two cents. Or consider the Tarrant County Libertarian Party!" at the end. It ended up before the last paragraph, not at the end! Kind of makes it look like you may consider the TCLP advocates institutional racism. Uh.. NO!! WE DON'T!!!
I meant to say, consider TCLP or IJ for a place to send your self-imposed guilt money!!!!
Nick, don't feel singled out - I'm a bitter disappointment to most of my friends and family.
Let's just have a beer and forget the whole thing.
I'm not even sure why I get all worked up over this. None of the opinions in that room in which the video was taken affect me in the slightest. Oh, but my uncle is a poor white farmer in Elkhart, Indiana. I'm glad Ms. Sherrod is in Georgia.
None of those opinions are unexpected. Business as usual from the NAACP. Oh, but there's a government employee involved. I'm a government employee and I'm expected to show good judgment. If I lapse in judgment, I hope I'm forgiven in a similar manner. There but for the grace of God and good sense go I.
The racial tit for tat continues. The post-racial world is a few years away. I can't wait.
My friends and family aren't disappointed in me, just deeply confused about me. Perfect strangers come to a similar conclusion.
Ozymandias: "I don't mind being the smartest person on the planet. I just wish it weren't this one."
Oh, but my uncle is a poor white farmer in Elkhart, Indiana. I'm glad Ms. Sherrod is in Georgia.
Did he look and talk like this guy? That particular farmer sounds like he's VERY glad that Ms Sherrod is in Georgia. Yet, maybe he's a Commie?
Business as usual from the NAACP.
Hmm.
Who tells you what the 'usual business' of the NAACP is? Maybe that 'colours' your perception somewhat?
As for the audience, are you seriously suggesting that they were not approving of her retribution?
Wow.
Dig that hole deeper.
Follow the meme you've been spoon-fed to the bitter-end.
Say what you like about Breitbart, when he gets people to take the bait, they stay firmly hooked.
What I want to know is why is the second audio clip so much cleaner and easier to hear than the first one? Something smells fishy about that to me...
I don't need a "meme" Cedric. I just need eyes and ears. If you didn't see the smile on her face and hear the laughter of the crowd then I have to wonder who types your propaganda for you. Crimestop... Look it up. It applies to you.
The usual business of the NAACP is the ACP: a racist, government-dependent, antagonistic, anti-capitalist, anti-American, leftist political agenda achieved through coercion, shakedowns, lawsuits, intimidation and violence. It should be declared an organized crime syndicate under RICO.
If Ms. Sherrod wants to know why there weren't more white faces in that audience, they ought to remove the C from their name. She might then begin to convince us that it's really about the poor instead of just blacks.
Listen to Ms. Sherrod talking about the murders, and lynchings and discrimination and oppression of the past. Tell me, who murders, rapes, oppresses, victimizes, denigrates, and sells blacks short of their potential today? Hmmm?
Blacks commit murder at ten times the rate of non-hispanic whites, and 95% of the time their victims are black.
Black president. Black USDA officials. Black professors.
Advancing is much harder than it seemed.
"For us, by us." Ever hear of that brand? How bout it we white folks said that? What would you think about that?
"Don't snitch." Ever hear that line? What's it mean Cedric?
NAAWP? Hmmm?
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