NAACP retracts criticism of USDA worker (Mistreat first, apologize later is ok with NAACP)

ap ^ | 7/20/2010 | BEN EVANS and MARY CLARE JALONICK

[tobyhill]

NAACP leaders are calling on the Obama administration to reconsider its ousting of a black Agriculture Department worker who was pushed out of her job over racially tinged remarks, reversing their previous criticism of the employee.

NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous said in a statement that the group was "snookered" into believing that USDA employee Shirley Sherrod expressed racist sentiments at a local NAACP meeting in Georgia earlier this year. Jealous said conservative activist Andrew Breitbart, whose website posted video of Sherrod's remarks, deceived millions of people by releasing only partial clips. He said the full video makes clear that Sherrod was telling a story of racial unity.

[UCANSEE2]

[Tarpon]

I am confused, are they now saying she didn’t say what she said? And that they acted stupidly calling the tea party people racist with no proof?

And so how about the Obama regime, did they act stupidly as well?

Acting with no proof or facts never ends well.

[Man50D]

The NAACP is flip flopping almost as much as Juan McAmnesty!

[cripplecreek]

This is gonna be fun. The NAACP can prove her innocent but to do so requires showing that the white house wrongly fired her.

[Grut]

I am confused, are they now saying she didn’t say what she said?

They're saying Breitbart altered the meaning of what she said by editing the clip. Now, it's Breitbart's turn to put up or shut up.

[freespirited]

She says she ultimately became close friends with the farmer and helped him for two years to save his farm.

This just doesnt make sense. The way she talks about him in the clip ... rolling her eyes as she explains he went out of his way to show he was superior to her... is hard to reconcile with the claim that she became close friends with him. He's now deceased ... who would talk this way about a good friend who has passed?

I'm willing to view the entire tape but I am skeptical.

[Brian Mosely]

I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the flip-flopping...story is getting more interesting.

[tobyhill]

We’re all confused. Some want to give her a free pass because the incident happened 20 years ago but some in the black community don’t want to give free passes for things that happened 150 years ago.
I do feel bad for the lady but she said what she said and did what she did.

[cripplecreek]

Now, it's Breitbart's turn to put up or shut up.

Now its time for the NAACP to prove that Breitbart did what they accuse him of.

[rabidralph]

If you listen to the way she tells the story, she is unrepentant about what she did. If she had learned any useful lesson from the experience, she would have been more contrite in the re-telling. But what comes through is “Hey y’all, I cheated a cracker.”

[tobyhill]

I think she scrounged up some white farmer that she actually did know and help and proclaimed them as the ones she was talking about.

[cranked]

NAACP going to have a beer summit with her? =.=

[FR_addict]

Thanks for you link on this story. Maybe you need to give it a separate thread.

“The NAACP, at whose Freedom Fund Banquet Sherrod spoke of her discriminatory posture, and at which the audience seemed to indicate approval of her outlook, followed a short time later, virtually echoing Vilsack.

So I guess we're supposed to forget about Shirley Sherrod from this point forward.

Not just yet. Luckily, she's not going away quietly, and is complaining about Fox News and the Tea Party causing her dismissal. Keep it up, ma’am, because you and the USDA both deserve further scrutiny.”

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/Examiner-Opinion-Zone/Shirley-Sherrods-Disappearing-Act-Not-So-Fast-98846149.html#ixzz0uGlwk19p

[Brian Mosely]

The wife and I are about to head out, would appreciate it if you could handle that....besides, I don’t want to get Jim Rob in another copyright SNAFU...;)

[A_Former_Democrat]

Then bring back The Tea Party Express

[ANGGAPO]

Someone is going to have foot in mouth disease before this is over. I doubt if even the President can fire someone with out due process. But then again, in the Far Country who knows.

[cripplecreek]

She was fired (Resigned) the same way Gerald Walpin got the boot.

[Mustangman]

Race politics just never ends well. First of all, there is no institutional racism in the USA anymore. This does not mean there are not idiots amongst us. It just means institutional racism is a thing of the past.

The constant whining the NAACP does to fuel the anger of its members is despicable. Most folks found the NAACP’s labeling of the Tea Party as ‘racist’ to be gratuitous, mean spirited, and a low blow.

Obviously, the NAACP felt some guilt too because they then completely over-reacted by calling for the USDA woman to be fired. O’Reilly ran the clip of her last night on his show basically, I think, because he’s mad at the NAACP labeling the Tea Party movement as racists....without any facts to back it up. Heck, we’re all tired of being labeled racist when we’re simply discussing political issues.

Anyway, I’ve seen the entire video. It is obvious the USDA woman is recounting a time in her life that she was not proud of and she’s grown since then. She does not deserve to be fired based on what I’ve seen.

We people get all emotional, wiggly and lurch and jump like jumping beans on the racial issues. Our brains fall off as we rush to be sensitive. But, basically, we’re all getting played and I truly, think the left is mostly responsible for it. But, the political right definitely bit the apple with this latest USDA lady.

The bottom line is playing racial politics is like playing with fire. The Tea Party is not a racist movement. The Border situation is not a racist issue. The USDA lady is not a racist.

Can we all please act like adults and just argue the political issues!!!!