Until last week Shirley Sherrod was virtually unknown. However, through no fault of her own that's no longer the case. The premeditated, willfully misleading actions of an ethically-challenged individual and subsequent over-the-top responses to them have given her unwanted notoriety.
Shirley Miller, an African-American native of Baker County, Georgia, was born in 1948. Her father, a deacon at the family's Baptist church, was shot to death by a white farmer when she was 17, reportedly because of a dispute over some cows. An all-white grand jury declined to file charges over the incident. The circumstances surrounding her father's unfortunate demise ultimately convinced Shirley, who was one of the first black students to attend previously all-white Baker County High School, to stay in the south and try to bring about change.
Shirley met her future husband Charles Sherrod, a minister, at one of the three colleges she attended. She ultimately earned a master's degree in community development at Ohio's Antioch University, then returned to her home state, where she helped found a black communal farm project. New Communities, Inc. was modeled after Israel's kibbutz system, but was strongly opposed by local white farmers who equated it with Communism. The project ultimately failed in 1985, a victim of persistent drought and the inability to secure needed financing.
The Sherrods lost their own land when they were unable to secure government loans, but rather than despairing Shirley and some fellow activists sued the United States Department of Agriculture in an effort to protect remaining southern black farms in danger of being shut down. As a result the USDA had to pay a total of almost a billion dollars to nearly 16,000 victims of their refusal to afford minority farmers an equal opportunity to obtain financial backing.
Give the USDA credit for recognizing quality, though; last August they hired Shirley Sherrod as Georgia Director of Rural Development.
Last Tuesday a video released by an ethically-challenged blogger showed Ms. Sherrod making some overtly racist statements. Her seemingly incendiary remarks suggested that she looked down on whites, and in particular the first non-minority farmer to seek her assistance when she worked for government. The usual right wing blowhards predictably trumpeted the story, trying to make it a national cause célèbre. But far more disheartening was the piling on of others who should have known enough to at least explore the other side of the story.
An "appalled" NAACP president Benjamin Jealous excoriated Ms. Sherrod for her "shameful actions." Labor Secretary Tom Vilsack pontificated, "There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA, and I strongly condemn any act of discrimination against any person." Ms. Sherrod was called twice as she drove home from work the day the video was released by a government official so insistent she step down that she pulled over and tendered her letter of resignation via E-mail.
But Ms. Sherrod is no more racist than Ronald Reagan was Communist. The unedited video from which her controversial statements were culled revealed her remarks to be a small piece of an inspiring personal story, one describing the epiphany she experienced when she realized that poverty, not race, is the most significant factor in rural development. But the out-of-context words she was shown speaking on the video were painstakingly chosen by an individual utterly unconcerned with integrity who appeals solely to easily-led, resentment-fueled, misinformed extremists who unquestioningly accept his blather as gospel solely because it reaffirms what such zealots are so certain they already know about big government, liberals, and similar right-wing bogeymen.
The farmer Shirley Sherrod referred to in her remarks, Roger Spooner, told CNN, "I don't know what brought up the racist mess," continuing, "They just want to stir up some trouble, it sounds to me in my opinion." Those sentiments were echoed by Spooner's wife Eloise, and why not? Sherrod's efforts on behalf of struggling Spooners, who weren't supported by local black farmers or an ineffective (white) lawyer who suggested that Roger and Eloise "just let the farm go," helped them save their livelihood.
When all the facts came to light the Obama administration quickly backpedaled and apologized profusely, albeit by assigning all the blame for the firing on Secretary Vilsack. They also offered her an unspecified job, though at this writing Ms. Sherrod hadn't decided whether or not to accept it.
In an ideal world soulless Internet provocateurs that willfully mislead and incite ignorant masses by quoting people out of context would be ignored. But 2010's reality couldn't be more different.
Those on all sides of the political spectrum who rushed to judgment regarding the Sherrod affair should be red-faced, but given that so many of them make handsome livings thanks to an inability and/or steadfast refusal to acknowledge mistakes, shame, or embarrassment, that's not likely to happen.
Andy YoungReturn to main page
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