Shirley Sherrod Resigns USDA Job After Admitting Use Of Racial Preference During NAACP Banquet VIDEO

[democracy1st]

Shirley Sherrod, a USDA official in Georgia, has resigned after publicly admitting that race played a factor in her decision to limit how much aid would be given to a white farmer.

Sherrod, who is African American, made the comments during a local NAACP banquet on March 27, according to information displayed on the video. A clip of her speech first appeared Monday morning on BigGovernment.com and aired that evening on Fox News.

Her resignation as the agency's state director of rural development was quickly accepted by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. He cited a zero-tolerance policy and told CNN that he was working to "reverse the checkered civil rights history at the department."

In her controversial speech, Sherrod discussed the first time she was "faced with having to help a white farmer save his farm." She claimed that during the conversation, the man "was trying to show me he was superior to me."

"I was struggling with the fact that so many black people had lost their farmland," Sherrod told the crowd. "And here I was faced with having to help a white person save their land."

"I didn't give him the full force of what I could do."

During the portion of her speech posted online, she mentioned that Chapter 12 bankruptcy had just been enacted for family farmers. That protection started in 1986, more than two decades before Sherrod joined the USDA. She added that the incident "opened my eyes."



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_xCeItxbQY


For more info
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/20/shirley-sherrod-resigns-usda-naacp_n_652185.html

[OregonBlue]

1. This happened 24 years ago. She and the farmer are good friends.

But the Atlanta Journal-Constitution interviewed the woman, Shirley Sherrod, and if what she says is true, there's a lot more to this story. She tells the paper that the incident she was recounting happened 24 years ago, before she worked for the USDA, that she went on to provide considerable assistance to the farmer, that she eventually became friends with the farmer and his wife, and that the whole point of retelling the story was to show how she had managed to move beyond race herself.

Sherrod is on CNN telling a similar version of events right now.

But none of that part of her speech is in the clip that Breitbart and Fox are running. We're on the hunt for the full video. The local production company won't release it to us without the sign off of the local NAACP chapter. But the guy who owns the production company confirmed to us over the phone that the entire video matches what Sherrod is saying.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/07/everyone_take_a_deep_breath.php?ref=fpblg

[democracy1st]

3. It's going to be interesting to see who demanded her resignation if what you're saying is true.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. This is outdated, right?

[Obamanaut]

4. Holy Crap! Does this mean that a person of ANY race can show bigotry toward

a different race?

Who knew.

[ecstatic]

6. -1 nt

[AspenRose]

5. "Everyone take a deep breath."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8779846

Sounds like good advice.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8780018