Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Black USDA Official Resigns

Black USDA official resigns after admitting she only 'did enough' for white farmer
NAACP condemns remarks, saying 'her actions were shameful'
A black USDA official in Georgia has resigned after publicly admitting she didn't help a white man trying to save his farm to the "full force" of her power and instead referred him to "own of his own."

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he had accepted Shirley Sherrod's resignation, saying there was "zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA."

The NAACP, which recently condemned racism in tea party groups , also issued a statement Monday night saying: "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."

The Huffington Post said a YouTube video clip of her speech was first posted on the biggovernment.com blog and a report was then aired by Fox News.

Sherrod, who resigned late Monday from her job as USDA's Georgia director of rural development, is shown talking about "the first time I was faced with having to help a white farmer save his farm." Her remarks came at a local NAACP Freedom Fund banquet, which the video says took place in March this year.

She says in the clip that the farmer had tried to show he was "superior" to her.
"He had to come to me for help. What he didn't know, while he was taking all that time trying to show me he was superior to me, was I was trying to decide just how much help I was going to give him," she says in the film.
GO HERE to read more.

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

They condemn her comments ? they were applauding !

Anonymous said...

They only condemn her comments because were caught red handed how shameful.

Anonymous said...

This proves how deep racism runs in the NAACP !

Anonymous said...

Definetly the "fall guy" here. The woman was telling the story to highlight how she was WRONG in an attempt to demonstrate how these issues effect the way we work with each other. But of course you will not hear that on the 24 hour cable news cycle. Just like they portray the racist crazies on the fringe of the tea party are portrayed as representatives of the whole. When will you people see that the news today is only out to sell ads and the politicians and pundits are only out to look good while taking money.

Anonymous said...

Racism can go many ways.

Anonymous said...

Practice what your preach.

Anonymous said...

i bet we are gonna hear about riots in atlanta now for the "injustice" and "racist witch hunt" againist their homegirl.

they opened a can of worms. hopefully we can all learn from this and be more sensible.

Anonymous said...

10:12 How do you explain the racist NAACP members clapping before they knew the outcome of her speech ? Because they're racist !

Anonymous said...

Black people need to deal with their racism and own it .

Anonymous said...

I don't defend her comments or claim that she may not still have those feelings, but she was sharing her account of an event that happended 24 years ago (when she didn't even work for the Dept of Ag)....and the clips shown on MSM don't highlight the part where she goes on to discuss her conclusion that white or black, the real issue at hand was poverty and that her biases got in the way of seeing that this farmer needed help.

Anonymous said...

10:12 AM are you serious? WTF have you been smoking? This illiterate moron was clearly trying to demonstrate how "superior" she was to the white man and saying he was acting that way to her. Then she claims how she hates agriculture but she insinuates that she is the intelligent one by saying "have you ever heard of anyone getting laid off in a government job? That's all I have to say."


What is sad about this is the fact that reverse racism happens every day in America and has been for years. The the only problem here is she got caught. It took over 3 months for them to catch up with her? The NAACP applauded her and laughed at her comments. They are trying to put on a show now that they are criticized for claiming Tea Partiers were racist. What a shame this pig was allowed to earn a very comfortable living at tax payers expense.

Anonymous said...

12:23, I know the 24 hour news and Fox chopped the clip, but even in Joe's version posted below you see that she describes the story as an "eye opener" which showed her that it was not about "black vs. white". As in, "yes, audience, I was wrong in my behavior".

Anonymous said...

Obama stood by the dumb@$$ Gates for throwing a hissy fit, but sounds like this woman, who was trying to teach us something, is thrown out on her keester. The NAACP also demonstrated that they are a bunch of pansies who again are simply out for self preservation.

Anonymous said...

The double standard and self entitlement has been around for years and is the reason many black people are still doing poorly today.

Anonymous said...

Why don't you geniuses watch the whole thing instead of the excerpt? You'll be embarassed to discover that the woman was owning up to her racism and that she nd the farmer's family are all friends now. But that would be too complicated, right?

Concerned Retiree said...

So what she resigned. She receives no punishment, keeps her pension and benefits. If it was reversed that individual would be stripped of everything and punished for violating Federal Discrimination law. Where is Sharpton and Jackson? They are usually the first comments if it was reversed. Tells me a lot about the "Ministers."

Anonymous said...

Regarding 12:23's comment: Come on. Why is that it is acceptable to apologize for her (racist) behavior without actually aplologizing for being racist? If she had been a white, she would be racist, a horrible person, uneducated, the adjectives go on and on...she should apologize for her "racist behavior" and we should realize that this was not an isolated incident...

Anonymous said...

gee, they had such "harsh" words for "one of their own"

Anonymous said...

10:12 keep watching ABC,CBS,and NBC its good for you ,your already brain dead they cant do any more damage to you.

Anonymous said...

1:45, sorry if you don't like to get the full facts before commenting. The video corraborates my comment.

1:36, she was speaking about an incident that occurred well before she was hired with the USDA.

Man, no wonder you are the same dumb@$$es that believe Obama is a secret muslim terrorist out to destroy the world. Must be that good ol eastern shore education system.

Chimera said...

What do you expect from someone who got their job because of affirmative action?????

Anonymous said...

2:04, I am not from the Eastern Shore, but someone doesn't have to be a good ole boy to see that Obamination is not good for this country. He IS Muslim and I have never seen anything but extreme viewpoints from Muslims. They are not crazy about us "infidels" you know.

Anonymous said...

2:16, Oh boy. I could almost agree with you. Obama is open to plenty of criticism. Then you fall off the deep end with the "he's a muslim" crap. You guys are laughable.

Anonymous said...

Right, bluto, all black people have their jobs from affirmative action. Let me guess: Tea Party member?

Anonymous said...

It is the dark secret that has been around for many years now. Those that are all consumed by race are the blacks.
How many time have you gone to McDonalds to have a black wait on you at the register only to have them sneer, give dirty looks and who knows what else?
Every drive through an all black neighborhood and have comments and agression aimed toward you?
How much of a double standard is there in society when NAACP is okay but NAAWP would be investigated and closed down by the FBI.
People of color better get their own house in order!

Anonymous said...

4:03 Typical racist comment ! To the rest of you who wish to make excuses for this women s remarks, I listened to the entire speech yea she did tie it all together as a lesson learned however my beef is with the NAACP members that were cheering her on until she made her final point of personal enlightenment . The NAACP must rid itself of the racist element from it's ranks and do it very publicly !

Anonymous said...

I'm confused Obama won't do anything about the Black panthers but then forces this woman from her job !

Anonymous said...

The next time I see some pseudo intellect on C-Span lecture how "by definition Blacks cannot be racial bigots because they are not empowered"
(this was actually the finding of a Congressional funded think-tank)

the irony is this public sector bureaucrat was dually guilty of being truly honest...

Chimera said...

Anon 403....
For your information,I do NOT belong to or associate with any "Tea Party" or any other socio-political groups.I abhor racists of all colors and I am not a racist but I am a REALIST.Figure that out!And I am a registered Libertarian.
I am simply stating the obvious.How do I know how she got her job? Well it was over 2 decades ago and it was a federal agency-doesnt take much of a brain to decipher that.....Wheres the pity for the farmer who lost everything?Im guessing he didnt belong to a specially protected group so no one gives a damn about him....

Mardela said...

Why must we all rid our ranks of those who we disagree with? Nobody is perfect, nobody is a saint, we all have thoughts from either the way we were raised, some experience, or a host of other reasons. I don't have a problem with anybody who dislikes anyone else for whatever reason. It's an opportunity for us all to open a dialogue and work together to try and heal whatever has happened in the past. But once the dialogue begins, we must move forward and stop looking back.

We are all brothers and sisters of the human race. it's time to accept one another even with all of our differences. Even though my brothers and I came from the same 2 parents, we are all very different. We acknowledge these differences and even joke about them sometimes. The difference is that none of us are offended by what the other says. It's very selfish to be offended. It means that my feelings are more important than yours. God didn't create us to be selfish, but instead to be the opposite.

Once we learn to stop thinking in the me me me and instead start giving ourselves for our brothers and sisters, then and only then will we stop looking at our diffences negatively and appreciated than we aren't all cardboard copies of each other.

Remember, anyone who tries to divide us, no matter if they use race, size, ethnic origin, IQ, or anything else is only trying to conquer and control us for their selfish reasons.

Unknown said...

The administration made a mistake. They asked for the resignation of an innocent person. The information is now out that she was telling a story in a speech that illustrated her thought process in realizing that her job was to help poor people, regardless of race. Breitbart posted an edited video that did not show the point of her story.
She will be reinstated, and should be.

Anonymous said...

The scandal here was NAACP applauding the racial comments before she revealed it was wrong !

Anonymous said...

Ban the NAACP. Get rid of the problem. They contribut more racist BS than anything. BAn the NAACP.

Anonymous said...

Waiting for all of you to acknowledge you were wrong!!

And bluto, now I get it! You aren't saying it is impossible for a black person to get a job today because they actually deserve it, just that it was impossible for that to be true in the 1990s! Because as we all know, there were no highly educated, highly qualified black people in America until the last couple of years. Right. Given that the real story here is people jumping to exactly the wrong conclusion, you might want to look at your own assumptions. How about starting with the assumption that she WAS qualified until proven otherwise? That perspective would change everything.

Anonymous said...

Like many, I have seen this video a few times now. I hear what the woman is saying yesterday and today about her speech to this NAACP crowd back in March, but I can't get beyond the way in which she recalled this story, especially the part where she says she didn't give the white farmer the full force of her ability. It was as if she was bragging, not showing remorse for her actions some 22 years ago, as she is saying now.

But it is something how the NAACP threw this woman quickly under the bus without even talking to her or viewing the rest of the video. Now they're blaming their rush to judgment on the mean old conservative media who most certainly held a gun to their heads and order the NAACP to quickly and publically denounce this woman. The fired employee herself said she was told to pull over immediately and type her letter of resignation because the administration was worried the story was going to air on the Glenn Beck show that night. Beck didn't even know about the incident until later that night, and the video didn't air on Beck's show until the next day, after the woman had already resigned. Tell me Beck doesn't have the White House worried? Then the Obama administration showed it willingness to rush to judgment without all the facts, the same way Obama did with the Cambridge police officer, and okayed the firing of this women. But hey, if this administration can fire a comptent white inspector general simply because he caught one of Obama's pals with his hands in the federal cookie jar, then I suppose it's okay for his administration to shit-can a federal employee without having all the facts before doing so.

Anonymous said...

Well I think this story effectively illustrates several things:

#1 you dummies on the right will believe anything that Rush et al. tell you as long as it SOUNDS like it could be true without any factchecking

#2 the partisan fighting has gotten so viral that it clearly has a negative impact on the decision making of our elected officials

#3 dummie Dems. are so afraid of the rightwing attack machine that they allow themselves to get beat up everytime.