USDA Reconsiders Decision On Shirley Sherrod
On Monday, Shirley Sherrod was forced out of her senior position at the Agriculture Department over her alleged racial comments that took the media by storm.
Here is a wonderful story that has so many facets, and any reader with sensitivity would be moved by it. What made me all tears is when the white farmer, who was allegedly discriminated against by Ms Sherrod, came to her defense. This is where the story rises above all small- mindedness and brings out the universal message that whatever one’s color may be, underneath, the same blood flows though the veins. It also demonstrated that ordinary people in the USA do not care for race or color, while the evildoers prey on them for their own benefit.
There was one victim in this saga, but many perpetrators, the activist who started this drivel, the cable news network who played the clip and talked about it relentlessly, the NAACP, and ultimately the Obama administration—they all have egg on their face.
It all started when media circulated edited video clips that appeared to show Sherrod dispensing racial bias towards a white farmer. It was a total reversal of what Shirley had stood for and accomplished in her life. Yet, no one would trust her explanation, not even her coworkers who had known her for many years. She told them repeatedly that the tape was doctored, it was taken out of context; albeit, no one would believe her.
NAACP was swift to condemn her, entirely disregarding her lifelong civil rights work and her record of fairness. The secretary of agriculture wasted no time in tightening the screw on her. Shirley Sherrod was a broken person on Monday, when she decided to quit.
Then the whole tape with Shirley’s speech at the NAACP event surfaced. It did not take much time for people to see that, in effect, she was talking of reaching out to people, beyond race, despite the long history of black sufferings in this country and her own experience. The rights group retracted their previous statement condemning her. The proclaimed racially discriminated white farmer came strongly in Shirley’s defense.
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