One of the disadvantages of the electronic age (or the advantages, depending on your point of view) is that anything you say can show up on a video at any time. For most of us that's not really a problem, but for Shirley Sherrod it is. Some comments Ms. Sherrod made at an awards ceremony held by the NAACP in March have come back to haunt her.
You can follow the link to biggovernment.com to hear the speech and see the statement by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as to why they accepted her resignation. The basic story is simple. When a white farmer came to Ms. Sherrod at the USDA because he was about to lose his farm, Ms. Sherrod provided the minimum required assistance. She had mixed emotions about helping the man because she was thinking about the number of black farmers who had lost their farms. I don't know if she was actually telling the truth or thought she was playing to an audience. Either way, her actions were wrong.
Racism is wrong, regardless of who is practicing it. I am glad to see that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was quick to affirm a nondiscrimination policy at the department. I wonder if the NAACP will be as quick to denouce the racism Ms. Sherrod exhibited.
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