Revising The Shirley Sherrod Revisionism

Ms. Sherrod spent a few hours on Monday as a vile racist, forced to resign from the USDA and denounced by the NAACP (excerpt below).

By Tuesday, she was the heroic star of a tale of moral redemption, overcoming the murder of her father by racist whites to find in her heart a love for all mankind regardless of skin tone.

Andy McCarthy is ready for yet another version:

So, in Sherrod World, mean-spririted, racist Republicans do nasty things that "we" would never do because we have a president who, being black, is above that stuff. Still, we have-nots need to band together for "change" because a cabal of haves, desperate to keep their power, is still imposing their centuries old capitalist system of institutionalized racism — the same racism that courses through the Republican Party and surfaces on "us versus them" issues like healthcare.

 

Pardon me, but I think I'll stay off the Canonize Shirley bandwagon. To me, it seems like she's still got plenty of racial baggage. What we're seeing is not transcendence but transference. That's why the NAACP crowd reacted so enthusiastically throughout her speech.

Or to put it another way, she no longer thinks all whites are racist, just the rich ones.  Let's hear from Ms. Sherrod herself, explaining to Media Matters why she won't give an interview with Fox News:

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."

Yeah, that's the agenda all right.  To be fair, she sounds like any commenter at DKos (or reporter on the Journolist) denouncing the racist white power structure (sorry, lib ladies - of course that should be "racist white male-dominated power structure...").

I suspect Obama can do better in a quest for a poster person for racial reconciliation.

NAACP first statement, since disappeared:

July 19, 2010

(BALTIMORE, MD)  NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous issued the following statement today after learning of the resignation of Shirley Sherrod of the United States Department of Agriculture:

“Since our founding in 1909, the NAACP has been a multi-racial, multi-faith organization that-- while generally rooted in African American communities-- fights to end racial discrimination against all Americans.

We concur with US Agriculture Secretary Vilsack in accepting the resignation of Shirley Sherrod for her remarks at a local NAACP Freedom Fund banquet.

Racism is about the abuse of power.  Sherrod had it in her position at USDA. According to her remarks, she mistreated a white farmer in need of assistance because of his race.

We are appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers.

Her actions were shameful. While she went on to explain in the story that she ultimately realized her mistake, as well as the common predicament of working people of all races, she gave no indication she had attempted to right the wrong she had done to this man.

...

Comments

[Jeff]

yeah, she's let go of that hatred alright ...

[Neo]

Sherrod has had her 15 minutes

She would have done better if she had just shut up, but NO !

She had to go the "I never said nothin' bad about whitey" route.

[NK]

sherrod is a card carrying member of the racial grievance army. To paraphrase Dan Rather, the video Breitbart showed was "incomplete but accurate". Breitbart owes no apologies. There has been no redemption for this woman from the "rest of the video." she is a hateful, resentment filled, self-pitying buffoon. Hey, make put her on the ticket as V-P in 2012, she is a perfect exemplar for Barry O's team.

[Clarice]

Cool, I just polished off Sunday's piece and said the dame thing about here..She's no saint and the same folks who blame Breitbart who said it was the NAACP he was after (and he got them); and Fox which held off printing it; and Republicans when it was the White house; are trying to make us forget she expressed animus to whites, rich people, Bush and republicans and Fox .

[Clarice]

**SAME thing about her**

[mefolkes]

Dunno. I love your typos, Clarice.

[bunkerbuster]

Even before Breitbart's attempt to lynch Sherrod, it was far easier to find a conservative condemning Obama, or liberals, as racists, than it was to find a liberal condemning Tea Partiers as racist. Google conveniently provides a quick scorecard showing people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh -- by far the country's most representative conservative commentators -- repeatedly accusing Obama of being a racist. I could find no name liberal, let alone any that could be construed as representative, calling the Tea Party racist. Try it. Type Obama racist, and the first few Google pages will be filled with conservatives calling Obama a racist. Type in Tea Party racist and the page will be filled with Joe Biden saying the Tea Party is not racist, Fox News saying the Tea Party is not racist and videos showing racist signs at Tea Party rallies. You won't find any name liberals calling the Tea Party racist. Frank Rich, as emblematic of liberalism as any bigtime columnist, takes a look at neo-Confederate rhetoric in the GOP and at surveys showing most Tea Partiers think blacks get too much in the way of benefits from the government, but never makes the assertion that the Tea Party or its members are racist and, more to the point, is careful to point out that the issue is racists in the midst of conservative groups, not the racism of conservative groups in general. Bottom line, fresh from the attacks on Mexican immigrants, the wingnutosphere is now in full swing of yet another attack on blacks and, this time, the charge is that leading blacks are racist...

[bunkerbuster]

Shorter bunkerbuster: Is it possible for blacks to criticize conservatives without being accused of racism?

[matt]

The politics of division is once again at work.This has been the history of a certain sector of the power structure for the past 150 years.

Play the Irish against the Blacks against the Italians against the Jews against the Mexicans as they laugh all the way to the bank.

Too many people from too many subsections of our society have bought into that one. What I see out there these days is an awful lot of beige.

The professionally offended and aggrieved are almost exclusively of the Left and have been tossing racist classist hand grenades unchallenged for far too long.

I think we're at a point where the vast majority has come to the realization of some of these issues and the pot is about to boil over.

The eugenicist racist policies of progressivism are being exposed for what they are. How many trillions have been spent on the War on poverty? How many on Education? How many on the War on Drugs? and in each case, the conditions have simply gotten worse.

We tried the Left's prescriptions for the past 40 years. It's time to go back to what works.

[Captain Hate]

Shorter bunkerbuster rational entity: Is it possible for blacks to criticize conservatives without being accused of accusing them of racism?

[bunkerbuster]

Professionally aggrieved? I can't think of a better term to describe Beck, Limbaugh and Brietbart. They're making millions whining ad nauseum about how terribly their race, religion and ideology is treated and blaming the failure of conservatism in academia and the media on some inchoate conspiracy like "jornolist'' lol...

[bunkerbuster]

Your being ironic, right Capt. Bigot? lol...

[Captain Hate]

You still don't understand the meaning of that word, do you? Or the correct use of homonyms.

[JM Hanes]

bunkerbuster:

"Google conveniently provides a quick scorecard...."

LOL! The "first few pages" gets you maybe two days of the latest news when a big story breaks..

You could make a pretty good living, yourself, if you could get someone to pay you for playing the race card. Even at a dime a dozen.

[MarkO]

Even shorter bunkerbuster: Bye.

[Rick Ballard]

I heard something a little different than did McCarthy. Comrade Sherrod's tale evoked memories of surviving members of the Chinese bourgeoisie upon exit from Mao's re-education camps. Comrad Sherrod's tale was an explanation of the false consciousness engendered by the oppressor class in order to divide the oppressed masses into warring factions, unable to unite and achieve the redistribution of all material goods which will be necessary if we are to reach Marxist heaven (AKA - Hell). Comrade Sherrod was tasked with enlightening a racist organization in the hope that some in her audience might set aside their racist beliefs long enough to unite with white parasites of like mind in an effort to devour their evil host in one last fantastic banquet that would ring in the new millennium. If Comrade Sherrod was willing to set aside her racism (if even for a moment), perhaps other racists in the audience would set theirs aside and make sure and vote for the party which assures the destructive change necessary to achieve the end so devoutly hoped for by every right thinking Marxist.

[bgates]

Ms. Sherrod spent a few hours on Monday as a vile racist....By Tuesday, she was the heroic star of a tale of moral redemption....Andy McCarthy is ready for yet another version:

Hell, I took her through all three of those steps myself on Monday.

[bunkerbuster]

Wrong again, JM: the first few Google pages are rife with references by the Beck and Limbuagh, the most representative conservative commentators, calling Obama a racist. And they didn't make those charges in the past two days. You might have considered checking before making that claim, but I suppose there's the cost to you for being proven wrong yet again has been diluted to zilch...

[Pagar]

Riehlworld explains it a little differently,
Here.

"the-real-threat-from-shirley-sherrod-is-economic."

[Rick Ballard]

Pagar,

Now read that again in conjunction with this about FinReg putting Uncle Sugar in the payday loan business and this about the FHA tapping out on their Cash to Trash loans.

Things are somewhat less green shootey than I had previously believed - and I previously believed we were heading straight into another sharp downturn.

[Jane]

We are appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers.

Just how many women farmers are we talking about?

I soured on Shirley last night. She is a litigious government worker blaming her life on everyone else. With an attitude like that no wonder she feels aggrieved.

[Extraneus]

I hope she keeps talking.

[Janet]

Here is Willie Nelson saying how great Shirley Sherrod is....
(It is a link to HuffPo)
From the article - "Like Ms. Sherrod herself has said, she's always tried to help those who don't have so that they can have a little more."! Quick honey, hide the silverware!!!!

[hit and run]

OK,I'm still pushing the Sherrod or Vilsack are lying meme.

Vilsack said in his presser that Sherrod had tried to contact him,but used a bad address.

Sherrod said she was caught by surprise when someone emailed her after Breitbart posted the video.

Here's more. In the http://mediamatters.org/strupp/201007210037>Media Matters article,Sherrod said:

"I never heard that name until a few minutes ago," she said Tuesday night about Breitbart. "He never contacted me. I think they intended it to be what it ended up being, a racist thing that could unite even more the racist people out there who follow them."

Well. Is that consistent with http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/21/AR2010072103871.html>this reporting?

After Breitbart first referred to the existence of the video clip during a radio interview last Thursday, Sherrod tried to contact Vilsack and Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan through e-mail accounts the department had created for employee feedback. But they are checked infrequently, a spokesman said.

What led her to attempt to contact Vilsack?

Breitbart referring to the video days before it was released.

But she had never heard that name before the interview with Media Matters?

Well.

[Ellie Light]

Oh this woman would be so out of place at the Rev. Wright's church!

[Danube of Thought]

James Rosen on FNC just made the point I'm aching to see emphasized: from the standpoint of her speech being a parable of redemption, there is not a whole lot of difference between the full 43-minute speech and the Breitbart excerpts. The latter clearly included a passage about her realization that this wasn't a matter of black and white, but rather of rich and poor. (Let us set aside for the moment the question whether the latter formulation is any more sensible than the former.)

[MarkO]

Well, she wants to sue someone. Right on. Farm out. White on. Anyway, there is no claim here. As Rosen said, there is a piece on the Breitbart excerpts that says, in substance and effect, that she had an epiphany on the road to racial Damacus and saw Karl Marx hovering above her.

No one who saw the Breitbart excerpts and paid attention could have missed that part that she claimed to have turned away from the sin of sending a white man to his own kind.

The entire episode has become farce. Obama calling; NBC suggesting that Fox is scaring white folk with the specter of, shall we say, the Other, falling among them; and the "victim" herself making more appearances in one day than Elvis in his career.

I think she remains a racist and that the laughing and joshing at the NAACP while she recounted socking it to whitey is the real deal. Later, she substitutes class warfare, but the players remain almost fully the same.

I guess, based on her history and her comments about Fox and everything else, I could not really expect her to be race neutral. Can you?

And, based on his spotty background and performance, I can not really expect Obama to be any different from her. Can you?

[glasater]

MarkO-

No! And well said.

[Towering Barbarian]

Bunkerbuster@ 5:51PM, July 22: "Try it...Type in Tea Party racist and... You won't find any name liberals calling the Tea Party racist"

Oh really? o_O

Funny how I found the following on the very 1st page then! ^o^

"Too much tea party racism - Joan Walsh - Salon.com"

Is it really so wise for you to make claims that are so easily proven false? :P

BTW, when did you first form the impression that "name liberals" are the only liberals who matter and that no other liberal has the right to express an opinion? Are you a "name liberal" who disdains anyone who's lived a life without fame or merely a "nameless liberal" whose self-esteem is perhaps a trifle too low? O_o

[bunkerbuster]

Thanks Barb! I appreciate that you've helped me underscore the fact that no major columnists have called the Tea Party racist. Joan Walsh is a nobody and it says it all that that's the best you could do. As I pointed out, Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck, the two most popular, most representative conservative commentators have called the president a racist.

[squaredance]

The canonical BB: Idiot.

[bunkerbuster]

Thanks SquareD! I appreciate your effort.

[Rob Crawford]

BTW, when did you first form the impression that "name liberals" are the only liberals who matter and that no other liberal has the right to express an opinion?

He apparently believes that fame is the primary factor in determining whether an opinion is valid.

[narciso the harpoon]

For you BB, in the LUN

[bunkerbuster]

Gracias Roberto! Even if you're just parroting, I know that, for you, that represents effort and appreciate it. You too Narco! Don't give up, one day you'll have something to say, perhaps, and your typing fingers will be nice and warm...

[Cecil Turner]

We are appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers.

Hey, whaddya know? They managed to find the moral high ground . . . even though they rolled off of it pretty quickly (in a way that just happened to benefit a person "of color" . . . bonus!).

[boris]

Bubu the innumerate discovers the Man bites Dog phenomenon and seems quite sure it provides a quick scorecard for bubu to evaluate the relative frequency of bite events.

[btraven]

To me it interesting that Ben Jealous did in fact know the full content of the video before he condemned Sherrod. But that did not stop him from claiming the NAACP had been "snookered" by Breitbart. And it did not stop even conservatives like Radosh from demanding that Breitbart apologize!

Now, if Ben Jealous knew the full content of Sherrod's speech, then so did the White House.

If so, then why did the WH cherry pick her early in the speech admission to being reluctant to help the white farmer?

One can only speculate but what the heck: I think the WH had a deal with the NAACP to attack the TP as racist. Which the NAACP duly did.

When the video surfaced the WH thought they had a chance to double down - to not only condemn the TP as racist, but to show how quickly the Obama team would stomp on any sign of racism in their own ranks. I don't think they panicked but rather thought that they could use Sherrod to win back some of the ground on this issue (ground they had given up a year ago in the Gates affair).

Of course, it blew up in their faces when somehow the public was allowed to see the whole tape.

Apparently, Axelrod/Gibbs/Jarrett/Obamas did not count on that happening!

[Clarice]

I don't think that's what happened. I don't think the NAACP looked at the full tape beforehand nor do I think anyone high up in the wh or DpA did either.

I think this is just like the Gates fiasco last summer.

[btraven]

The initial statement by Ben Jealous condemning Sherrod admits that she went on to explain that she learned from the experience that white and black farmers had common concerns. It is clear they knew what she had said in toto.

If Jealous knew it, Obama knew it.

It is like the Gates affair in that they waded into the situation under extreme pressure without thinking it through. In both cases they had a tin ear for how the public would actually view the entire speech.

But to suggest as the NAACP does now - that they got snookered - is disingenuous.

[Towering Barbarian]

Bunkerbuster,
No charge for helping you point out that even liberals regard their fellow liberals as nothing more than a bunch of nobodies! ^_^

[bunkerbuster]

Andrew Breitbart: the Rosa Parks of the American conservative movement. He shall overcome! He's sweating day and night to show by hook or by crook -- ok, by crook, anyway -- that whites in America need more power and are prepared to fight off their black oppressors. And the wingnutosphere is cheering him on. Going to be very entertaining to watch the GOP try to walk this cat backward...

[boris]

Sure thing Baghdad Bubu.

[DrJ]

Bubu,

How many employees do you have?

[bunkerbuster]

DrJ: That's an odd question to ask. What would make you assume I run a company?

[Chubby (formerly Parking Lot)]

((Andrew Breitbart: the Rosa Parks of the American conservative movement.))

TRANSLATION: gotta keep the heat on Breitbart ... gotta deflect from the admin's fubar reaction to Sharrod

((He shall overcome! He's sweating day and night to show by hook or by crook -- ok, by crook, anyway -- that whites in America need more power and are prepared to fight off their black oppressors.))

TRANSLATION: did someone raise the temperature in here? ... it's getting hot ... conservatives ain't buying the white guilt schtick any more

((And the wingnutosphere is cheering him on.))

TRANSLATION: geez there's more of 'em pushing back than I ever thought there could be

((Going to be very entertaining to watch the GOP try to walk this cat backward...))

TRANSLATION: I'm scared shiteless cuz if we lose the race card we're gunna have to fold

[bunkerbuster]

Chub: Looks to me like its Breitbart and the Tea Party that are playing the race card. Again, the most popular conservative commentators, Limbaugh and Beck, are on record calling Obama a racist. Who's on record calling the Tea Party a racist? Um, well, there's Joan Walsh of Salon.com (and if you read her column, she's actually a lot more circumspect than the headline.) No, Chubb, the facts are clear: The GOP knows it needs to stir up resentment against black people among its extremely white voter base. If that weren't the case, you wouldn't have the leading spokespeople like Rush and Beck calling the president a racist. Thing is, I really think this is going to backfire. A lot of Republicans are like David Frum. They see right through this white power BS and find the dwelling on Obama's race a big turnoff. That may not be enough to make them vote Democrat, but it will be enough to keep them from donating and volunteering to a party run by wingnuts...

[Chubby (formerly Parking Lot)]

((Chub: Looks to me like its Breitbart and the Tea Party that are playing the race card. ))

TRANSLATION: the nerve of Breitbart pushing back

((Again, the most popular conservative commentators, Limbaugh and Beck, are on record calling Obama a racist.))

TRANSLATION: how moronic can these people be, don't they know it's impossible for black people to be racist? only white Republicans can be racist

((Who's on record calling the Tea Party a racist? Um, well, there's Joan Walsh of Salon.com (and if you read her column, she's actually a lot more circumspect than t about he headline.) ))

TRANSLATION: I won't mention the resolution passed by the NAACP, Jeanette Garofolo's crap on Olbermann, Spencer "Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists" Ackerman or Mary Frances Berry's "Tainting the tea party movement with the charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats. There is no evidence that tea party adherents are any more racist than other Republicans, and indeed many other Americans. But getting them to spend their time purging their ranks and having candidates distance themselves should help Democrats win in November. Having one’s opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness."

((No, Chubb, the facts are clear:GOP knows it needs to stir up resentment against black people among its extremely white voter base.))

TRANSLATION: ok so they're still not buying the line that they're stirring up resentment and that most whites in the GOP base are all a bunch of racists ... that means I gotta gotta gotta repeat this one over and over and over ... my Goebbels Handbook promised that if I just repeated it often enough ....

(( If that weren't the case, you wouldn't have the leading spokespeople like Rush and Beck calling the president a racist.))

TRANSLATION: I just gotta say this again: these morons actually think it's possible for black person to be racist ...
idiots!

((Thing is, I really think this is going to backfire. ))

TRANSLATION: I can't understand why the racist crap we're flinging at conservatives ain't stickin...

((A lot of Republicans are like David Frum. They see right through this white power BS and find the dwelling on Obama's race a big turnoff.))

TRANSLATION: David Frum is such a wimp .. if only more conservatives were as wimpy as he is my job would be a whole lot easier ...

((That may not be enough to make them vote Democrat, but it will be enough to keep them from donating and volunteering to a party run by wingnuts...))

TRANSLATION: if calling racism on anyone who criticizes Obama results in just one less donation to the Tea Party or Republicans, I'll consider my job well done..

...ah well...an agitpropper can dream ...

[bunkerbuster]

``Spencer "Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists" Ackerman.''
But no one in the mainstream media called Barnes or Rove a racist. Like I said, the journolist archives actually show that the mainstream media you call liberal doesn't use the list to coordinate coverage at all and the journos on the list all reject ludicrous ideas like Ackerman's.

[Towering Barbarian]

Bunkerbuster: "The GOP knows it needs to stir up resentment against black people among its extremely white voter base"

Do they? Is that why a bunch of white Obama supporters took it into their heads to beat up on Kenneth Gladney while chanting racist epithets? o_O

http://biggovernment.com/jhoft/2010/03/03/court-date-set-for-the-kenneth-gladney-beatdown-case/

Who can doubt that the SEIU, when they do things like this, is what liberalism truly stands for? :P

[bunkerbuster]

Barb: the video link shows now beatdown. Nor does it identify who is even in the video. If you have some evidence that someone was beaten by Obama supporters, bring it on. If you don't, go back to cheerleading for white power...

[Chubby]

((But no one in the mainstream media called Barnes or Rove a racist.))

MSNBC is alternative media?

The Raw Story | MSNBC analyst: Rove Obama attack close to ...
11 Jan 2008 ... It was uncomfortably close to the edge of being plain-out racist." "That's Karl," said Olbermann. The racist slant of Rove's op-ed has ...
www.rawstory.com/.../MSNBC_Analyst_Rove_Obama_attack_almost_0111.html - Cached

[Chubby]

by the way ... Ackerman's comments aren't time specific ... they crystalize exactly what's happening now

[narciso the harpoon]

Chubby, don't try to humor Spunkmeyer, it's like trying to teach a pig French, a total waste of time

[Chubby]

((((The GOP knows it needs to stir up resentment against black people among its extremely white voter base))))

what a hoot ... resenting statist government expansion, higher taxes, no jobs, and tripling the debt are RACIST!!!!!!!!!

[Chubby]

narcisco, I understand exactly what you're saying .. responding to trolls only encourages them .. but I wonder if not pushing back like Bush did not push back works better for us or them ... if they are telling lies should lies stand? should they not be corrected?

[narciso the harpoon]

When he comes up with a argument that isn't the Billy Madison trolling course, then we engage him, at other times, killfile

[Chubby]

thanks narcisco ...

[Captain Hate]

The race-baiting troll is only expressing the snuff-flicks that go on in the demented construct of his halfwit excuse for a brain; in which zombie Martin Luther King is killed by zombie Malcolm X who is then killed by zombie Calypso Louie. So juvenile and pathetic; all brought to you by our great public education and not to be taken seriously.

[narciso the harpoon]

Then again, Captain, he could be Howard Dean, in the LUN

[Chubby]

((Then again, Captain, he could be Howard Dean))

I don't see any discernible difference in world view from the trenches to the WH

[Captain Hate]

narc, I saw and heard that live. Yeeeaaarrrgh must've altered his medication because he didn't have his standard moist-skinned post-bender appearance that he usually has on the blah-fests. Still it's pretty embarrassing that a major political party sends out such an unhinged individual to be a spokesman. I'm no fan of Newt at all but at least you don't have to put vinyl covers on the seat cushions when he's in the studio.