Posted on 07/20/2010 7:59:45 PM PDT by kristinn
The NAACP has released a 43 minute long video of the controversial speech given by fired USDA official Shirley Sherrod. Excerpts of the speech showing her using racist language with the support of those attending an NAACP dinner in March were released yesterday by Big Government. Sherrod was forced to resign from her position last night.
The video can be viewed at the NAACP website or go directly to the YouTube video.
After pulling their initial statement denouncing Sherrod, the NAACP released a new statement today claiming the group was "snookered" by Fox News and Andrew Breitbart.
Earlier today, a bitter Sherrod complained of being betrayed by black people in an interview given to Georgia TV stationWALB:
She feels like no one's been willing to fight for her. "It hurts especially when the NAACP is doing it and Roland Martin is doing it. These are black people, they never asked me what happened, these are people who haven't been on the front line like I have for 45 years..."
The new statement by the NAACP:
July 20, 2010
(BALTIMORE, MD) - NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous issued the following statement today after a careful investigation into the presentation of former USDA Official Shirley Sherrod.
"The NAACP has a zero tolerance policy against racial discrimination, whether practiced by blacks, whites, or any other group.
The NAACP also has long championed and embraced transformation by people who have moved beyond racial bias. Most notably, we have done so for late Alabama Governor George Wallace and late US Senator Robert Byrd -- each a man who had associated with and supported white supremacists and their cause before embracing civil rights for all.
With regard to the initial media coverage of the resignation of USDA Official Shirley Sherrod, we have come to the conclusion we were snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias.
Having reviewed the full tape, spoken to Ms. Sherrod, and most importantly heard the testimony of the white farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans.
The fact is Ms. Sherrod did help the white farmers mentioned in her speech. They personally credit her with helping to save their family farm.
Moreover, this incident and the lesson it prompted occurred more that 20 years before she went to work for USDA.
Finally, she was sharing this account as part of a story of transformation and redemption. In the full video, Ms.Sherrod says she realized that the dislocation of farmers is about “haves and have nots.” "It’s not just about black people, it’s about poor people," says Sherrod in the speech. “We have to get to the point where race exists but it doesn’t matter.”
This is a teachable moment, for activists and for journalists.
Most Americans agree that racism has no place in American Society. We also believe that civil and human rights have to be measured by a single yardstick.
The NAACP has demonstrated its commitment to live by that standard.
The Tea Party Federation took a step in that direction when it expelled the Tea Party Express over the weekend. Unfortunately, we have yet to hear from other leaders in the Tea Party movement like Dick Armey and Sarah Palin, who have been virtually silent on the “internal bigotry” issue.
Next time we are confronted by a racial controversy broken by Fox News or their allies in the Tea Party like Mr. Breitbart, we will consider the source and be more deliberate in responding. The tape of Ms. Sherrod’s speech at an NAACP banquet was deliberately edited to create a false impression of racial bias, and to create a controversy where none existed. This just shows the lengths to which extremist elements will go to discredit legitimate opposition.
According to the USDA, Sherrod’s statements prompted her dismissal. While we understand why Secretary Vilsack believes this false controversy will impede her ability to function in the role, we urge him to reconsider.
Finally, we hope this incident will heighten Congress’s urgency in dealing with the well documented findings of discrimination toward black, Latino, Asian American and Native American farmers, as well as female farmers of all races."
###
Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.
Still not seeing anything on the web about today’s Hannity show. The Hannity website shows yesterday’s stuff. You got anything I can look at?
Also seems their “NAACP has a zero tolerance policy against racial discrimination”, didn’t kick in until the tape leaked out. They can say all they want, BS doesn’t count after the fact. Zero tolerance, the video would have shown naalcp admonishing her immediately and on camera.
The ‘money’ quote:
“Finally, we hope this incident will heighten Congress’s urgency in dealing with the well documented findings of discrimination toward black, Latino, Asian American and Native American farmers, as well as female farmers of all races.”
The fraudulent shakedown and rip off of the American taxpayer contines....(eye roll)
“Harvest of Lies: The Black Farmer Lawsuit Against the U.S. Department of Agriculture” by Louis T. March.
http://www.vdare.com/misc/080909_march.htm
“...The Tea Party Federation took a step in that direction when it expelled the Tea Party Express over the weekend. Unfortunately, we have yet to hear from other leaders in the Tea Party movement like Dick Armey and Sarah Palin, who have been virtually silent on the “internal bigotry” issue.”
Unfortunately, we have yet to hear from leaders in the NAACP who have been virtually silent about the NBPP members threatening to murder “cracker babies” and police, Eric Holder’s apparent race-based enforcement of the law, and the racist and anti-Semitic Nation of Islam...
You should tell that to Howie Kurtz, who did his own creative editing of Rush Limbaugh the other weekend to make him look racist.
Sherrod admited her racism caused her to give this guy minimal help. That is plain as day.
The NAACP and Obama come out with egg on their face no matter how this ends. Just gotta love it.
C of a C here shares my opinion. Why did Breitbart not research this more thoroughly?
Shabby and low just like the liberal counterpart if you ask me. This gives the conservative movement’s credibility a black eye.
How could the audience have known the ending prior to her saying it. Was a playbill passed out?
What really bothers me about this woman’s story is that as she recalls this different kind of man telling her his long story, she was sitting there thinking that he is trying to prove that he is superior to her. She was also thinking well I’ll prove I’m superior to him by witholding some of the things I could do for him.
She wasn’t even listening to the details of this man’s situation, rather she was obsessing over race and racial superiority while this man was telling her every single detail, I am quite certain, because his farm is important to him, not because he is superior to her.
She is insane. She is obsessed with her race, and she cannot see anything past race. She does not deserve a position of power. Furthermore, if any white person had said anything even remotely close to this, I don’t care if that story ended in the North Pole with Santa Claus and Rudolph, that white person would be DONE FOR.
Kurtz is an idiot, that’s obvious.
It doesn’t take much to make the NAACP and Obama look bad. I don’t think it helps our cause to resort to.... “creative editing” ... to do that. Unfair as it may be, we are held to a higher standard than the libs.
Just put the shoe on the other foot and have a white official talking about how he “only did enough” to help a black farmer.
Rev Al, Rev Jackson, CNN and the NAACP would not be so understanding.
So are you defending this reverse racist or are you saying the thing didn’t occur and Andrew Breitbart made it from nothing?
AMEN! Brother or Sister.
It will be rebroadcast in 30 minutes, and no it does not give the conservative movement a black eye. She is a self-admitted racist who was at her job thinking about race and what she could personally do the even the situation.
She said this out loud and on tape, and the blatantly racist NAACP appluaded her.
I really do not care what she learned form her time as a racist government employee stickin’ it to whitey.
Breit's main agenda was in showing how the audience responded--the NAACP audience in March of this year--in approving of her story about how she discriminated against a white farmer. It was practically, Amen, sister.
the NAACP has had the whole tape from the beginning. They look like total idiots. And Sherrod helpfully named names from the WH in ordering her to quit on her car phone.
I'm pleased and proud of Breitbart. This was a triple-play.
Right on. It looks like Lindsey Grahmm or pmsnbc is posting on this site.
Yes, that statement is textbook perfect. It hits all the rights notes and throws the matter right back in our faces. Also, the quality of the writing seems to be a cut or two better than what I remember from the NAACP in the past. It makes me wonder who wrote it.
Who started this whole racism dust up? They'd come after you from the left and beat on your corpse. They, at least, have balls unlike mushy centrists.(I mean conservatives with a conscience)
The audience knew where she was going with the story, because she told them that she once thought everything was about race, but then learned that she was wrong. The story about the white farmer was an illustration of that change.
Wow!! CNN is devoting the entire air time today to defend this woman...
Can any one remember CNN devoting ONE SECOND of air time to defend ANY conservative accused of racism?
I agree. If Breitbart had all of the tape, he released the part he did to flush out the larger part of this story: The racism in the NAACP.
Sherrod was not thrown under the bus by Breitbart. She was thrown under the bus first by the Obama administration and then by the NAACP. But once people came to her defense (I don’t believe she is innocent; she bragged about how little she did), the NAACP had to post the entire video, which, if anything, proves even more of Breitbart’s point: the NAACP is a racist organization way past relevancy.
Breitbart is not done—he plays his cards close to his chest, and he plays them well.
Beitbart said he released the tape that he had recieved.
It wasn’t the whole tape and he knew it and said so.
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