Breitbart’s defenders need a dictionary. Sherrod’s relative was lynched
While many conservatives rightly and promptly demanded that Andrew Breitbart apologize for his smear of Shirley Sherrod, some on the right have — inexplicably — kept up their crusade to prove that Mrs. Sherrod is, if not a racist, then a contemptible liar. It’s very odd and has had the effect of making conservative media outlets like The American Spectator appear unhinged.
In a piece on its Web site, the Specator comes to the conclusion that Sherrod told an outrageous lie in her NAACP speech when she said a relative had been lynched.
This is the Spectator’s proof, from Supreme Court documents:
The arrest was made late at night at Hall’s home on a warrant charging Hall with theft of a tire. Hall, a young negro about thirty years of age, was handcuffed and taken by car to the courthouse. As Hall alighted from the car at the courthouse square, the three petitioners began beating him with their fists and with a solid-bar blackjack about eight inches long and weighing two pounds. They claimed Hall had reached for a gun and had used insulting language as he alighted from the car. But after Hall, still handcuffed, had been knocked to the ground, they continued to beat him from fifteen to thirty minutes until he was unconscious. Hall was then dragged feet first through the courthouse yard into the jail and thrown upon the floor, dying. An ambulance was called, and Hall was removed to a hospital, where he died within the hour and without regaining consciousness. There was evidence that Screws held a grudge against Hall, and had threatened to “get” him.
So the Spectator apparently agrees that Hall was viciously beaten to death by law enforcement agents, including the sheriff. Still:
It’s also possible that she knew the truth and chose to embellish it, changing a brutal and fatal beating to a lynching. . ..The image stirred by the image of the noosed rope in the hands of a racist lynch mob was, to say the least, frighteningly chilling. Did Ms. Sherrod deliberately concoct this story in search of a piece of that ugly romance to add “glamour” to a family story that is gut-wrenchingly horrendous already?
I have no idea why the American Spectator would go to such lengths to prove that racist law enforcement officials actually beat a black man to death and were not forced to pay for his crime, in the service of attempting to make his distant relative, Sherrod, look bad.
It is certainly true that the widely perceived definition of “lynching” is to hang a person with a rope. Nevertheless, if this argument is really over semantics, here’s the definition of lynching, from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: “To execute without due process of law, especially to hang.”
That’s especially, but not exclusively.
Geez.
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200 comments Add your comment
Orange10
July 26th, 2010
7:04 pm
Cynthia, still throwing your little racial fits. When does it end?
Keep up the good fight!
July 26th, 2010
7:06 pm
The “that’s right” is not evidence of racism…it is an acknowledge of a white man acting as a superior to a black female in the 1980’s. But spin like a top!
Terrence
July 26th, 2010
7:08 pm
Keep up the good fight!, it’s there. Cynthia won’t let us link to the tape here. The one I’m referencing can be found at h t t p : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m / w a t c h ? v = E 9 N c C a _ K j X k.
See for yourself. Remove the spaces in the url.
Keep up the good fight!
July 26th, 2010
7:08 pm
Granny….. does anybody really know what time it is?
Scout
July 26th, 2010
7:10 pm
Cynthia:
My great, great grandfather (who was from the deep hills of W.Va. and may not even had ever seen a black man up to that time) fought for the Confederacy and was captured by Yankees at the age of 62. He was sent to Camp Chase, Ohio were he was starved and brutally treated (even though the Yankees had plenty of supplies). He was finally paroled but died from his treatment.
Why do I tell you this? Because a larger percentage of Confederates died at Camp Chase than Yankees did at Andersonville.
Now, if you want to get into the genocide of Native Americans by the United States Government I will be happy to.
Bottom line ………….. a lot of people have been mistreated in our past.
If we keep dwelling on it we will never reconcile !
Granny Godzilla
July 26th, 2010
7:10 pm
Keeps
Keen intercept.
Now 8575309
hnf
July 26th, 2010
7:11 pm
Keep up the good fight!,
What are you talking about? How can you say who would or wouldn’t introduce it w/o any mention of the claim or style? That makes no sense. “Clearly false evidence”? While it might not be my interpretation of the video, the video itself cannot be “false”; it is what it is. And while Breitbart’s testimony might be highly lacking in credibility, any statement he makes w/ regard to his subjective motivations wouldn’t be objectively knowable to the attorney. A zealous defense would require as much should he be sued for slander; it would be evidence for both sides, asserted for differing purposes.
You claimed malpractice, and then misunderstood independence and awareness as applied to decision making.
Scout
July 26th, 2010
7:12 pm
Orange 10:
I think she could make something racial out of an ice cream cone. You know …….. more people like vanilla than chocolate …………….. must be hidden racism !
Tech Man
July 26th, 2010
7:12 pm
Keep up the good fight! 7:08 pm
It’s 2010 election time.
Granny Godzilla
July 26th, 2010
7:13 pm
Damn….I’ve just blown the mission….it’s 8675309….now the operatives are in danger.
I make a lousy stealth warrior, but gravy to die for and killer cole slaw.
bootney farnsworth
July 26th, 2010
7:15 pm
the idiocy of the column is breathtaking.
even by the AJC standards
hnf
July 26th, 2010
7:18 pm
Keep up the good fight (6:29): “calling someone a liar is not ‘name-calling’, it is a fact. Not even subject to dispute.”
Logic fail again—w/o a voluntary admission by the speaker or the ability to delve into his/her conscious thought process at the time of the statement, you can never know—in an objective sense, as in “Not even subject to dispute”—that someone “lied”; it’s merely your opinion until then and always open to dispute. There’s always a chance it was mistake or reckless indifference, both unprofessional. To be CLEAR—I don’t have an opinion on the veracity of Breitbart’s claims; it was sloppy and he’s responsible in either case.
Truth-o-meter
July 26th, 2010
7:21 pm
Andrew Breitbart, thank you for your scheme to embarrass the NAACP. I am African-American and must admit that I was not familiar with the outstanding work of Mrs. Sherrod. (You see, I was in high school when Mrs. Sherrod’s father was murdered. My parents understood the dangers of growing up Black in the south during that period, so they protected my siblings and me from as much exposure to danger as possible. For example, rather than having us subjected to rejection at a restaurant, we were taught not to go and attempt to eat there. And we were taught not to even think about going in the front door of a bus station—that was for “Whites Only”. ) I guess if it had not been for brave people such as the Sherrods, many of us would still be going in the back door. Why, if you hadn’t posted that edited video and those misleading captions, others and I would not be aware of this woman and her story that should be an inspiration to all of the Americans who truly want to move beyond racial bigotry. I have recommitted myself to being more understanding to the views of other races. No matter how much you try to divide this country, there are more Shirley Sherrods out there than there are Andrew Breitbarts. And the former, Blacks, Caucasians, Muslims, Jews, Hispanics and the rest are feed up with the race baiting you, Fox News and your cohorts have unleashed on our country. We are mad and aren’t going to take it anymore!
One last thing. There is a passage in the Bible that states in part, “what you did you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good…” How appropriate for this situation. (I am sure you have studied this passage in your local church’s weekly Bible Study class.)
Thanks, Andy!
Doubling down with the race card and a bunch of jokers | Notes from Underground
July 26th, 2010
7:21 pm
[...] Tucker also weighs in on this little sidebar of l’affaire Sherrod. Of course, the right wing trolls are not ready to let go of their ragegasm, and demand that [...]
Keep up the good fight!
July 26th, 2010
7:22 pm
terrence… the laughter is at a point where she says “I was trying to decide how much help I was going to give him.” That laughter is not evidence of racism, it was was an acknowledgment that the “superior” person needed help for the purported “inferior” person. However try at 17:40+ where she says “so I didn’t give him the full force of what I could do” — absolutely no reaction.
hnf…I did not say the video was false (although videos can be falsified). Statements as to his “motivations” are not supported by his actual words used.
Granny….. I got your number! Who do I turn to?
godless heathen
July 26th, 2010
7:25 pm
Merriam Websters Online Edition: : to put to death (as by hanging) by mob action without legal sanction.
Now use it in a sentence: Fifty three people were lynched in Los Angeles, CA, following the Rodney King verdict. or Reginald Denny was dragged from his truck and almost lynched.
Mr Charlie
July 26th, 2010
7:25 pm
So the right they took a sound bite out of context and used to smear the person who said it. Hmm, why does that sound familiar?
Mary Elizabeth
July 26th, 2010
7:26 pm
Cynthia, I sincerely appreciate your gracious words. I don’t blog often, but thank you.
Moderate Line, once when I was teaching in a high school, students laughed at what I thought was an inappropriate moment in my instruction. I mentioned this to an Assistant Principal. He said to me that neither he, nor I, could really control when students laugh. I might add, now that I am older and hopefully wiser, nor would we want to control the laughter of others, unless that laughter was deliberately malicious and deliberately hurtful, as a sneer would be. Laughter can come from many reasons and can even have cultural variances. I saw no maliciousness in the laughter of the people I heard on the Sherrod tape. I saw only very human people who released some tension they felt, through laughter, upon hearing an honestly told story of a very ugly system of repression in the South, which I think most audience members had experienced firsthand. As the tape progressed, I, further, felt the audience’s warmth of response (sighs, etc.) when Ms. Sherrod talked about her change of heart as if they, too, believed that that “turning the other cheek” and helping the white farmer was the right, and spiritual, way for her to have responded. I thought that that audience was very human and large of heart. It was so touching to witness Ms. Sherrod’s deliberate “through line” within her speech which was obviously meant to help the young people reject hating, even when there may have been good cause, and instead turn to becoming a “giver” in society instead of perceiving themselves as victims. The best way for whites and blacks, and all others who have been victimized by society, or by individuals, to transform themselves is to become self-sufficient and then give back – even to those who have hurt them. This is one reason that I think public service is so much to be valued. One is giving back to others, not just accuring for themselves. The black race, in my opinion as a white woman, can elevate this nation, for the better, in ways we could never have imagined if they will continue to follow the nonviolent principles espoused by Martin Luther King, Jr., because their previous victimization was soprofound and finally now fully acknowledged. I believe Mrs. Sherrod was trying to be a leader in that new positive vision by being totally honest and transformational and, as a result, she affected the souls of all races who heard her speech later on TV. It should be noted that when she gave that speech she thought she was only going to elevate the small number of young people in that room, but I believe God had bigger plans for that speech in our world.
Keep up the good fight!
July 26th, 2010
7:29 pm
hnf…. a logic failure…. I dont think so but of course you may intercourse the penguin! But you can of course look up the definition of liar and lie yourself.
godless heathen
July 26th, 2010
7:43 pm
And we get this retraction from the New York Times:
“The Political Times column last Sunday, about a generational divide over racial attitudes, erroneously linked one example of a racially charged statement to the Tea Party movement. While Tea Party supporters have been connected to a number of such statements, there is no evidence that epithets reportedly directed in March at Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, outside the Capitol, came from Tea Party members. Tea Partiers have made these racial slurs, we all know that, it’s just that we can’t find any in this one specific instance, and when we find some to validate the accusation in the first part of this sentence, we’ll be sure to pass those along to you as well.”
We know it’s twu, we just know it’s twu.
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 26th, 2010
7:45 pm
So the Idiot Messiah fired someone for not being a racist?
What a moron.
Granny Godzilla
July 26th, 2010
7:47 pm
Truth O Meter
You are my new hero! Brilliant.
You are always welcome to Sunday Supper.
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 26th, 2010
7:49 pm
Perhaps Truth-o-meter will now expound upon what the Idiot Messiah meant by “typical white person”.
godless heathen
July 26th, 2010
7:51 pm
CT: Will the AJC begin to now use the word “lynch” properly? If three hoods jump a guy after the Braves game and beat him to death, I’ll expect to see the AJC report that the poor man was “lynched”.
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 26th, 2010
7:53 pm
The victim will be blamed for injuring the assailant’s fists with his face and charged with a “hate crime”.
Mari
July 26th, 2010
7:54 pm
Okay, so when the entire tape of Mrs. Sherrod’s speech was posted, those disappointed that hers was a story of growth and reconciliation then complained that the audience was cheering when she spoke of her temptation to not give the white farmers the full force of her effort. For those individuals, I say that nothing will ever persuade them otherwise. They need to believe the worst and will always find the evidence that they need to support their already made-up minds.
For those of you who are troubled by the response of African American audiences during speaking events, especially in a church or similar venue, there is clearly a cultural divide here. People, I don’t understand why Catholics and Episcopalians stand up and sit down so much during worship (my cousin is a Right Reverend, so I harbor no disrespect) but I accept that it is what it is. I don’t “get” why many churches frequented by whites in particular (and some Blacks)are very quiet and stoic. But I don’t criticize that, it is what it is. It does not mean that they are any less spiritual, devoted, religious, or anything else. It is a style of worship. For African Americans one will find that there is a style of worship that often spills over into other gatherings. In many African American churches one will experience the “give and response” to the speaker. It’s called “witnessing.” Persons in the audience or congregation will clap, say “amen”, or make other comments to show that they are following the speaker. That’s what I heard when I listened to the video tape of Mrs. Sherrod’s speech. Now, if you still don’t get this, go visit a “Black” church for about a month and maybe you will. Caution: This is in many Black churches, not all. I was in a church recently and the speaker couldn’t “buy” an “amen.”
Keep up the good fight!
July 26th, 2010
7:59 pm
heathen… I am sure the AJC will if it is not just a fight but rather a mob imposing execution without due process of law. A serious distinction.
Granny Godzilla
July 26th, 2010
8:01 pm
poster @ 7:53
yassir yabetcha
then we are going to ask him for his papers, waterboard him while in stress positions with dogs watching AND
shuttle him to a black site where he’ll be forced to listen to
vanilla ice singing the rosemary clooney songbook.
stealth is our friend….boom shaka laka boom
MikeB
July 26th, 2010
8:06 pm
Breitbart is a fool and a disgrace. Anybody that reacted to that video and influenced Ms. Sherrod being fired is as big a fool as Breitbart (Insert Obama Administration here).
This appears to be a very similar due dillegence process that was undertaken to investigate the BP-Gulf mess. Just look at that fiasco (Unless of course it was all a design play….Who knows and will we ever really know the whole entire truthful story there..) It seems like amatuer hour in D.C. policies falling to pieces, no forward progress, job growth stagnant, so did the White House go get everyone fired up about race on purppose here?….. Or are they just plain lazy about being thorough and precise……….. Which is worse? I don’t have a clue and don’t care for either scenario.
General McChrystal is looking more and more like a great Patriot for shining a light on this administration’s incompitence…….. Don’t let race distract you from a lack of meaningful performance and an increase in taxes coming your way in 2011.
These hacks need a one way ticket out of office. Think about it….They really do… And they can take any self serving conservative with them. We need people serving people. More importantly serving tax payers. Want something from the Govt. Pay taxes into the system 1st….
granite head
July 26th, 2010
8:06 pm
‘ “To execute without due process of law, especially to hang.” That’s especially, but not exclusively. ‘
I’m sure Justice Thomas would agree. He claimed he was the victim of an electronic lynching.
Owl
July 26th, 2010
8:10 pm
146 years ago a bunch of white people marched to Atlanta, killed a bunch of white people and burned the city to the ground. It wasn’t good enough…
T-Town
July 26th, 2010
8:13 pm
Here’s a little tidbit that may get you thinking: did you know a white person can be an African-American?
tiredofitall
July 26th, 2010
8:14 pm
The Republican party has become so corrupted by the religious right that they can never again have power in this country. . They must be forcefully disbanded and all their members tried for TREASON!!!!
Granny Godzilla
July 26th, 2010
8:16 pm
Mike B
Good question!
Now that Obama got everyone fired for being racist, who’s gonna fly the F16’s and put out fires and direct interstate commerce and keep the radar array’s working and inspect incoming containers for radioactivity and teach our children and give medals of honor and make the laws and build the bridges and run covert ops and fund the childrens television workshop and maintain the power grid and keep oreo cookies safe for dunking?
woe is us.
calvinb
July 26th, 2010
8:18 pm
What else is new. People are still going to have different opinions on the topic. Big deal. I am more interested in discussing more issues as well as race. For example, I cannot for the life of me figure why no attention is paid to the upcoming Senatorial race. That is gonna have just as much impact on all of us as well.
Dan
July 26th, 2010
8:19 pm
Um the white house and the NAACP smeared her, Breitbart simply posted a video. Any and all misdeeds misreptesentations are from the left. Whether or not someone in her family was lynched (more than likely impossible to prove or disprove) matters not. If it does than any white person who has had a family member robbed or murdered by a black is free to be a racist???? The utter biased ignorance of CT’s articles has increased exponentially in the last year and a half. I used to view her as a source of reasonableness from the left but now. Blind bias
bank walker
July 26th, 2010
8:27 pm
Everyone,please click this link. It will show you just how racist the Sherrods really are:http://www.marklevinshow.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2010/07/sherrod-we-must-stop-the-white-man-and-his-uncle-toms-.html
Robbin Hood
July 26th, 2010
8:33 pm
And now the poor conservatives are trying to argue that the dictionary is wrong? Reminds me of a neighbor’s dog that just couldn’t stop chasing cars. He wouldn’t know what to to with it if he caught it anyway.
casual observer
July 26th, 2010
8:34 pm
Ms Tucker if not for race you would be layed off with the rest of AJC.
jh
July 26th, 2010
8:37 pm
Wow what a surprise another race related column by CT? Why don’t you just copy and paste the same thing every week and save yourself some time. Republicans/Bush are evil, racist, warmongers, and have ruined the world. Democrats/Obama can do no wrong and we should all be just listen to them because they are so much smarter than we are. In a time when so many people are looking for work can the AJC not do any better???
godless heathen
July 26th, 2010
8:45 pm
Good fight: A street beating is not without due process of law? A fine distinction, perhaps? Was Mr. Denny nearly lynched in LA? Can a white person be lynched? Can a white person be a victim of a hate crime?
Seems to me that the story of the death of Mr. Hall was no more one of a lynching than any other death by beating. So if Mr. Hall was lynched, many are lynched every day.
Kamchak
July 26th, 2010
8:48 pm
Granny Godzilla
(I’ve got you number, written on the) Back of My Hand.
MobetterBlues
July 26th, 2010
8:50 pm
Cynthia you are a very sick liberal lady and I pray for you. You keep up the racial rhetoric just like white bigots and are no better than them. My uncle was murdered by white policeman in south ga during the 50’s and I am over it however I don’t pass judgment on all white people and conservatives like you do. I would guarentee the people that lynched Sherrod’s family member was Democratic since Ga did not turn Republican until the 1990’s. Its funny how liberals forget history and the pass when Jim Crow was established by Democratic and white Republicans started organizations like the NAAPC, and help establish schools such as Spelman, named after a white Republican’s wife.
Traveling Man
July 26th, 2010
8:54 pm
Shirley Sherrod was found guilty of being a racist when she said ” So I took him to a white lawyer that had attended some of the training that we had provided because Chapter 12 bankruptcy had just been enacted for the family farm. So I figured if I take him to one of them, that his own kind would take care of him.” ONE OF THEM… if a white person had said that black people would be marching in the street wanting to burn down the house of the one that said it.
Cynthia once again you are nothing more than a pot stirrer. YOU are a waste of life, and your purpose is to be a tool. You do nothing good and its time you need to a.) do some real journalism or b.) please shut your mouth. Its that simple.
jh
July 26th, 2010
8:57 pm
We all know that blacks can’t be racist. They have been opressed therfor they can do no wrong. CT how about focusing on the real problem in the black community; 70%+ children born to single moms, black on black crime, and generational poverty. As an average everyday white person how is any of that my fault???
Keep up the good fight!
July 26th, 2010
8:58 pm
Granny…you be careful walking that dino. The dinos may be drinking tea before they go extinct.
Notsobright “simply posted a video”…right! There were no words with that video, no editing, no “hey this may not be accurate”. Simply posted a video….. what next? Rape is simply having sex as part of God’s will? Oh wait, they are arguing that too.
Lil' Barry Bailout
July 26th, 2010
9:07 pm
Conservatives are having a good laugh about this whole Sherrod incident. It’s hilarious watching the libtards fall victim to the smear tactics that they so often employ when they’re out of ideas, which of course is their natural state.
All under the leadership of their Idiot Messiah and his band of incompetents.
Keep up the good fight!
July 26th, 2010
9:09 pm
Heathen….now try to breath slowly and think…. a white man can be lynched. The lynching discussed was by the law enforcement without due process. If a mob grabs a white man and says “he did X crime, kill him”, that is a lynching. If a mob says “let’s beat up that guy, just because he is wearing a green shirt”, there was no due process due. Its just an angry mob breaking the law. There was no claim of justice. I know this is difficult to grasp but you can do it.
Traveling Man… again, out of context. Her entire story was about her growth to move beyond her own preconceptions. Yes, the comment was about her own failing and she acknowledged it. The context was about how she moved past that and realized that it was not black or white it was about being poor. When someone stands up in church and tells their story of personal weakness and redemption, you understand the journey.
A CONSERVATIVE
July 26th, 2010
9:10 pm
MAYBE ROBERT (KKK) BYRD….superestar of the democrats…attended the lynching……think maybe….men who lunched him were all good democrats…could be.
Scout
July 26th, 2010
9:15 pm
Ms. Tucker:
Vanilla or chocolate ??
“And so he bowed”