Shirley Sherrod and the right’s new weapon
Soon, we will forget about Shirley Sherrod. But not the fallout from her smearing.
Sherrod might go back to USDA. She may give more speeches. But, while she has handled herself with aplomb, one could hardly blame her if she’s ready to step out of the Klieg lights.
As for us, we’ll promise not to rush to judgment next time, and to finally have that National Conversation about race. Maybe the president will even convene a Race Summit. Maybe, having already hosted last summer’s Beer Summit to atone for another hasty racial conclusion, he’ll seek the learning end of this Teachable Moment.
But one thing has changed.
Our politics increasingly resembles a cold civil war, and the Sherrod story was like the right’s first successful A-bomb test. Accusations of racism have long been the left’s, and only the left’s, most explosive weapon. No more.
I don’t make this observation with admiration or pride. I understand that this could turn out badly.
It’s not as if the right had unilaterally disarmed when it comes to political attacks. Far from it. But until now, charges of racism detonated only when dropped on the right.
George Allen’s “macaca” moment cost him re-election to the Senate. Trent Lott’s praise for Strom Thurmond cost him leadership of the Senate. Fabricated quotes, approving of slavery, pinned on Rush Limbaugh cost him a chance at partially owning the NFL’s St. Louis Rams.
Joe Biden called Barack Obama “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy”; he became vice president. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid theorized that Americans accepted Obama because he was “light-skinned” and spoke “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one”; he kept his job.
A real National Conversation about race would acknowledge that humans often say things that later make them wince, or worse, and that liberals like Biden and Reid aren’t the only ones who deserve the benefit of the doubt, of context, of grace.
In fact, I suspect most of us already reached that conclusion, or would have if not for the political point-scorers.
But there are points to score. And while I don’t condone what he did, I believe right-wing provocateur Andrew Breitbart when he says he posted the video of Sherrod to make a point about the NAACP, which days earlier condemned tea party groups for their “racist elements,” and that the effect on Sherrod was essentially collateral damage.
Breitbart is clear about his desire to turn the tables on liberal media and activist groups. That’s why he went after ACORN, and why it makes sense that he’d set his sights higher than an obscure bureaucrat.
It worked. Some of the people quickest to denounce others as bigoted, as we saw, do so a little too quickly.
But besides haste, we can detect some defensiveness. Did the administration’s rash reaction betray worries that it’s become vulnerable to charges of reverse racism? That when Obama presumes a white cop “acted stupidly” in arresting a black Harvard professor, and his Justice Department handles the New Black Panther Party with kid gloves, it undermines his post-racial appeals?
In any event, it’s clear that the left’s monopoly on these most powerful attacks is over. Perhaps, instead of retaliations that ensnare more Shirley Sherrods, we’ll recognize our mutually assured destruction. Perhaps we’ll pull back from the brink and let relations thaw.
Perhaps.
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284 comments Add your comment
ViewFromMidtown
July 24th, 2010
11:41 am
Kyle,
I continually wonder whether you’re hopelessly naive or deliberately obtuse. Breitbart’s and Faux News’ attacks and fraudulent charges against Shirley Sherrod and ACORN (a video also subsequently found not to be what it was made to appear) are merely the continuation of the GOP/right wing’s Southern Strategy – “FEAR the black people! They’re going to take your homes and rape your women!”
Of course, it’s still working well in the South and is becoming more and more successful in other parts of the country where economic upheaval has left many already nervous about their livelihoods and looking for someone to blame susceptible to being manipulated with their fears of the different or unknown.
The question once again is whether you’re actively pulling the levers for the right-wing propaganda machine or simply a mindless cog.
hsn
July 24th, 2010
11:55 am
Andrew Breitbart has his right to make a point about the NAACP, BUT HIS POINT MUST BE BASED ON GENUINE OCCURRENCES, and facts, NOT EDITED VIDEOS, illegal wiretaps (in LA), and fake stories.
That is called fabrication, and when you do that you lose your credibility. The guy was wrong, call him on it and stop the useless excuses. That’s like making up a story that a cop who wrote you a speeding ticket was drunk himself, when that wasn’t the case. But you say it is okay because YOU WANTED TO MAKE A POINT TO THE COP.
“BrightBat” is an attention-seeking fool, and should go away!!
hsn
Scout
July 24th, 2010
11:55 am
Kyle:
Well, well, well ………….. I just heard old Roy Barnes will be in South Georgia come Monday and just won’t be able to be here for “Che” Obama’s visit to Hotlanta and the Democrat fund raiser. How sad and how convenient !
HA ! HA ! HA !
P.S. to you libs. out there …………. what say ye ?
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
12:05 pm
“I am still trying to find when bush went through the EXACT SAME TREATMENT that President Obama is undergoing.”
Bush went through far worse than Obama.
Here, let’s take a trip down left wing retard hypocrite lane shall we.
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621
Scott
July 24th, 2010
12:05 pm
Breitbart is a liar and a criminal. He is everything most Americans think is bad and frightening about the Tea Party Radicals. He lied and thought nothing of ruining someones like to make point like some 5 year old saying “see! they do it too!”, and Kyle after all that this has been through…you’re still buying into it too. Breitbart is to be nothing but condemned for the scum he is, but I believe God has already taken care of that…at least his soul
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
12:07 pm
“but being challenged about where is was born, being called a monkey, is not something bush encountered.”
Isn’t it interesting that to this day, Obama has never released his birth certificate! Yet, left wingers call us all racist for asking. Idiots.
Who cares if someone calls Obama a monkey. Left wingers believe in evolution so that should make you retards proud since you all believe we all came from monkeys.
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
12:08 pm
“Breitbart is a liar and a criminal. ”
Then go arrest him.
“but I believe God has already taken care of that…at least his soul”
You obviously don’t know God.
Scott
July 24th, 2010
12:09 pm
Grand Forks…enough with the childish “Bush did it too”. Sure he did, but that didn’t make it right then and its not right now. I spoke up about it being wrong then even though I didn’t support his policies. These are all human beings. We all forget that sometimes. Just because you dont agree politically with someone doesn’t mean they aren’t good people.
Scott
July 24th, 2010
12:10 pm
…and you do Grand Forks? Tell him I said hi since you have his ear and know I’m wrong
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
12:11 pm
More bad news for the Bozo in the White House.
Obama’s Soft-Core Socialism
A comedian or satirist could not have come up with the recent scenario of Treasury Chief Timothy Geithner and other Administration officials suddenly trying to reassure corporate chieftains that the Obama Administration is pro business and loves free enterprise. A close and powerful Obama aide, Valerie Jarrett, sent Verizon CEO (and Business Roundtable chairman) Ivan Seidenberg a letter declaring: “While we may disagree on some issues, we have an open door and are always willing to consider input and ideas from everyone, including the business community.” That’s like Dracula saying he prefers bottled water to blood.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/21/fact-and-comment-opinions-steve-forbes.html?boxes=opinionschanneleditors
Scott
July 24th, 2010
12:12 pm
and your a birther…that truly is enough said. It makes it easier when you know what you are dealing with lol
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
12:13 pm
“…and you do Grand Forks? Tell him I said hi since you have his ear and know I’m wrong”
You claimed that God has already decided the fate of Breibart which leads me to believe that you have never read the Bible.
If you had you’d know that God is a forgiving God and anyone can ask for forgiveness through his son Jesus Christ.
Scout
July 24th, 2010
12:13 pm
“AND SO HE BOWED”
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
12:14 pm
“and your a birther…that truly is enough said.”
Your words not mine. I just claimed that left wingers HOWL and SCREAM when anyone brings up the birth certificate yet he’s never produced it. Just saying.
“It makes it easier when you know what you are dealing with lol”
Trust me, ma’am. I’m MUCH MUCH smarter than you are.
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
12:15 pm
“Grand Forks…enough with the childish “Bush did it too”.
Your words not mine.
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
12:16 pm
Hey left wingers, it’s going to be hilarious when your own party extends the Bush Tax Cuts.
Each and everyday, Bush is vindicated.
Iraq War continues
Afghan War continues
Gitmo is still open
LOL
@@
July 24th, 2010
12:39 pm
Grand:
A comedian or satirist could not have come up with the recent scenario of Treasury Chief Timothy Geithner and other Administration officials suddenly trying to reassure corporate chieftains that the Obama Administration is pro business and loves free enterprise.
Early on, it became apparent to me that Obama talks to much. He says things that will benefit himself, without giving thought to the far-reaching impact that his words would have.
He’s what I call “loopy”….say it….suffer the consequences, and then go back and try to repair the damage. He’s overexposed himself. He stands nekkid before the American people, and the majority ain’t likin’ what they’re seein’.
He’s hopeless.
Mr Attitude
July 24th, 2010
12:45 pm
Grand Forks,
If you are going to pull my quotes, the least you can do is attach my name to them.
I see that you are working directly from the right wing’s playbook. bush did not encounter the EXACT SAME TREATMENT as President Obama. Are you still looking for the monkey comments as well? And why should President Obama show his birth cerficate? What other sitting president was challenged to show his birth certificate. And read the question carefully.
bush never encountered any racial hatred that President Obama has and continues to encounter.
Amazing how right wingers have been screaming socialism when President Obama is in office when socialism has been going on for years before this president took office. Truth be told, none of them really understand what socialism is really about. Just take a conspiracy and run with it.
And to this day, right wingers/neocons/dittoheads/tinfoil hat brigade can’t differentiate between racists and racist elements.
Since bush is still popular in your eyes, why isnt he on the stump for the gobp candidates?
Still hard for many white men to believe that a black man is President of the United States. That’s why the senatorial white caucus (aka senate gop) is so pissed.
Scout
July 24th, 2010
12:57 pm
Grand Forks:
“AND SO HE BOWED”
hmmmm
July 24th, 2010
1:04 pm
Mr. Attitude is quickly devolving into who he really is. A hard leftist who would support Obama no matter the circumstances. It’s not about race, it’s about need.
Beware of wolves in sheeps clothing.
BADA BING
July 24th, 2010
1:18 pm
Daddy, what is ‘our own kind’?
Mr Attitude
July 24th, 2010
1:21 pm
Hey hmmmm,
Don’t confuse providing the truth in how my thoughts are aligned. It is not my fautlt that your sensitivity meter is pinging very high today.
I see you are following the dittohead’s playbook. Why don’t you show me where I stated that I would support President Obama’s agenda no matter what.
While you are at it, tell me about this needs things.
“Beware of wolves in sheeps clothing”. Isn’t that the phrase that was uttered during the bush administration? Remember, the saying “compassionate conservatism”? Yep, the right certainly got snookered with that one.
BADA BING
July 24th, 2010
1:31 pm
Hmmmmmmm……… it’s more like ‘beware of wolves in wolves clothing’.
DEWSTARPATH
July 24th, 2010
1:32 pm
hmmmm – July 24th, 2010 – 1:04 pm
“Mr. Attitude is quickly devolving into who he really is. A hard leftist who would support Obama no matter the circumstances. It’s not about race, it’s about need.”
- The same can be said about “Forks” on the right & Pres. Bush no. 43. Just
look at the last five or six forums. But you made an excellent point regarding
the last sentence of your post. Priorities always have to take precendence
over preference.
Herman Cain
July 24th, 2010
1:34 pm
obozo may not be a monkey but he is a jacka$$.
BADA BING
July 24th, 2010
1:39 pm
Support AZ. The Park Sevice has dropped entrance fees this summer. Go take the family to the Grand Canyon for free and spend a lot of tourist$$ in AZ. Boycott L.A., CA, S.F., NYC, naacp, and alphabet soup.
BenFranklin
July 24th, 2010
1:43 pm
After looking at this story from every conceivable side, I have realized that there is almost no racism left in this country. In the true classical definition of the word, there are few people who believe in the inherent superiority of one race vs another. I refuse to acknowledge race anymore. I refuse to feel guilt or shame or pride because of my melanin content. There is only one race – the human race.
I acknowledge that there are prejudices held by every single person. This cannot be helped. We prejudge people based upon our sum total of experiences and beliefs. Ms. Sherrod was prejudiced in the video. No matter how anyone can cut it, she referred to taking the farmer to “one of his own kind.” The President has shown his prejudices as well.
I had a good deal of respect towards her up until she made the comment that Foxnews and Breitbart want to re implement slavery. That statement is patently absurd.
Ms C Tucker goes on and on how right-wing talk show hosts are racists. This is also absolutely absurd. I don’t believe she even listens to their shows or watch their tv programs. If she did, she would recant that statement.
This so-called discussion of “race” is a major distraction from what is really going on: an out and out war of the classes. Ms. Sherrod is a CLASSIST. To paraphrase her on the tape: It is about black and white. It is about the “haves” and the poor. At what tax bracket do we define the “rich”? Families that make $100K? $150K? $200K? What is the “middle-class”? Families with $75K? $100K? The “Haves” are not obligated to the “Have-nots”. The HNs do not own the Hs. The Hs are not slaves to the HNs. By demanding their money, the HNs are demanding the life of the Hs. The Hs spend their time, their lives to EARN money. It is THEIRS, no one else’s.
I give to charity. Unfortunately, if my taxes keep going up, I will be giving less. I refuse to part with my life willing when I have to do so unwillingly at the point of a federal or State gun.
End the classism. End all claims on the “rich”. End on claims on the “haves”.
hmmmm
July 24th, 2010
1:58 pm
DEWS, no matter what you call or Tucker want to call it–class or race–the need is highest among blacks and hispanics. Same demwitted game, different name. Keep them on the plantation so the democrap pols can take their dumps in high cotton.
Mr. Attitude, I can see the hand you’re playing in waters you’ve muddied.
BADA BING
July 24th, 2010
2:02 pm
The obama administration puts the DA in USDA.
get out much?
July 24th, 2010
2:29 pm
I am just waiting for Michael Steele to ask Andrew Breibart to help him in his efforts to recruit more minorities to the Republican Party.
Breitbart Jr.
July 24th, 2010
2:30 pm
S. Mullen
July 24th, 2010
9:33 am
“…Tea Party activists… are ignorant…, undoubtedly because they are greedy and self-serving… and need to wake up! …They are being used and abused.”
Now you know how Ms. Sherrod feels as a victim of selective editing.
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
2:36 pm
“Still hard for many white men to believe that a black man is President of the United States. That’s why the senatorial white caucus (aka senate gop) is so pissed.’
Ma’am, keep playing the race card. It’s the only thing you left wingers have left.
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
2:38 pm
“If you are going to pull my quotes, the least you can do is attach my name to them.”
Make me.
“Amazing how right wingers have been screaming socialism when President Obama is in office when socialism has been going on for years before this president took office.’
Whatever you say, ma’am. James Carville says differently. Eat crow, left winger.
James Carville Poll: 55% Think Obama Is A Socialist
A new poll from James Carville’s firm, Democracy Corps, says that 55% think Obama is a Socialist. They likewise think Obama is too liberal and a big spender, too! The poll, which was 115 questions long and surveyed Likely Voters for 2010 and who did vote in 2008 may be the most accurate reading on the nation’s pulse to date. Carville has become quite the critic of the Obama Administration.
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
2:40 pm
“I am just waiting for Michael Steele to ask Andrew Breibart to help him in his efforts to recruit more minorities to the Republican Party.”
You mean like these minority GOPers?
Nikki Haley and Tim Scott win GOP nominations in South Carolina
South Carolina state Rep. Nikki Haley cruised to the Republican nomination for governor tonight, a victory that makes her not just the frontrunner for the office this fall but a likely national GOP star.
Haley crushed Rep. Gresham Barrett in the runoff race, an expected result given that she took 49 percent of the June 8 primary vote — narrowly missing the chance to win the nomination outright. The Associated Press called the runoff race for Haley at 8 p.m. eastern time.
“This is a story about determination, and a story about a movement,” said Haley in her victory speech tonight. “This was the best grassroots, underdog campaign we have ever seen.”
Haley also credited former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who endorsed her candidacy, for giving the campaign a “boost we needed when we needed it.”
State Rep. Tim Scott (R) also claimed victory in the 1st district runoff; Scott’s likely victory positions him to be the first black Republican in Congress since Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts’ retirement in 2002.
http://anotherblackconservative.blogspot.com/2010/06/nikki-haley-and-tim-scott-win-gop.html
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
2:42 pm
@@
Obama is a liar plain and simple.
Candidate Barack Obama ran as a moderate. He promised a “net spending cut.” Health reform was not, we were assured, intended to take over the insurance industry or feature an individual mandate. Taxes would go down for anyone making under $250,000 a year. “Too big to fail” was to be a thing of the past. Our nation was to become post-racial by the long-awaited election of a black man to the White House. And so it goes.
Instead, we got… more of everything. Taxes, spending, regulating, mandates, racial division — the entire liberal waterworks turned up to the max and pretty much all at once.
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
2:44 pm
Gotta love left wingers! No pun intended
15 killed in mass panic at Germany’s Love Parade
DUISBURG, Germany – A stampede inside a tunnel crowded with techno music fans crushed 15 people to death and injured dozens at the Love Parade festival in western Germany on Saturday.
Other revelers initially kept partying at the event in Duisburg, near Duesseldorf, unaware of the deadly panic that started when police tried to prevent thousands more people from entering the already-jammed parade grounds.
Police are still trying to determine exactly what happened at the event that drew hundreds of thousands of people, but the situation was “very chaotic,” police commissioner Juergen Kieskemper said.
He said just before the stampede occurred at about 5 p.m. (1500 GMT, 11 a.m. EDT), police had closed off the area where the parade was being held because it was already overcrowded. They told revelers over loudspeakers to turn around and walk back in the other direction before the panic broke out, he said.
Emergency workers had trouble getting to the victims in the large tunnel that leads to the grounds.
A young man told WDR television that he was among those caught up in the crush.
@@
July 24th, 2010
3:22 pm
Grands:
I always knew he wasn’t a moderate. His past was there for all to see. All anyone had to do was look to where the bulk of his campaign financing came from. Aside from the big corporate donors, MoveOn, headed up by Soros, the globe’s biggest hedgehog brought him to power.
You’d think those who voted for him would have it figured out by now.
Question: How much attention do you pay to what’s going on in Afghanistan and the areas surrounding–Pakistan and India? There’s a reason I ask, but there may be a delay in my responding. I’ve got a dozen things going at once.
Also, are you familiar with General Kayani? He’s been given a three year extension on his retirement deadline.
@@
July 24th, 2010
3:24 pm
Schnirt!
I just posted that link to the killer “LOVE” Parade over at bookman’s. People are gonna think we’re the same person.
Scout
July 24th, 2010
3:41 pm
BADA BING:
Boy, I sure could have used you lastl night on Tucker. It was me against about seven of them.
But just like bayonet training I kept circling to the one on the far left and took them out one at a time !!!
@@
July 24th, 2010
4:00 pm
Scout:
You are incorrigible.
(ISH)
CJ
July 24th, 2010
4:02 pm
Kyle: “Accusations of racism have long been the left’s, and only the left’s, most explosive weapon.”
Oh dear. In fact, racism has long been the right’s, and only the right’s, most explosive weapon.
Kyle appears to be willfully ignorant of the Republican Party’s explicitly stated strategy of winning elections by exploiting racial divisions. The “Southern Strategy” isn’t a phrase manifested in the imaginations of those on the left. The phrase was used by Nixon’s political strategist to describe his approach to campaigning in the South and elsewhere. Since Nixon, the Southern Strategy has been a staple in the playbook of Republican office holders and Republican strategists everywhere.
Perhaps he’s just a unwitting pawn in their game, but Kyle is playing his part in executing the Strategy beautifully with his continual references to the New Black Panther issue and his false implications that Obama seeks to win elections by, well, cheating with the help of scary black people. Kyle will never inform his readers that it was the Bush Administration that made the decision not to press criminal charges in this case. Kyle will also never provide the reasons given by the Obama Administration for dropping civil charges against three of the men and reducing the charges against one of them (again, perhaps he doesn’t know). In truth, gathering and providing the whole story would hurt Kyle’s cause and conflict with the narrative running through his head and spewed into his column.
So, if we want to get all sides of the story, then we’re on your own. But if we believe that we have all sides of the story, better still.
If truly interested, one might start with PolitiFact.com, where the story is rated as “FALSE.” In the meantime, Kyle might consider pulling his head out of the sand.
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
4:45 pm
“How much attention do you pay to what’s going on in Afghanistan and the areas surrounding–Pakistan and India?”
A lot. Just like I’m paying attention to China as well.
Grand Forks
July 24th, 2010
4:46 pm
“People are gonna think we’re the same person.”
That’s because all the left wingers are paranoid dope smokers.
Fang1944
July 24th, 2010
4:59 pm
One more time, Kyle, it was BUSH’s administration that decided not to go after the pitiful Black Panther in Philadelphia. Repeat after me: Bush is Bush. Obama is Obama.
tscali
July 24th, 2010
5:15 pm
prosecution of the new black panthers began as a civil case within the doj for two reasons 1) to gain an immediate injunction in an attempt to deter racial tension and 2) because it takes time to prove criminal wrongdoing.
bush’s intent was to have it progress through procedural channels in order to spare the country racial division following the possible election of america’s first black president. he was doing obama a favor and holder pays the country back by turning a blind eye to blatant voter intimidation.
democratic strategy is to use thugs like the new black panthers to get the unwanted votes out.
Rusty Rivers
July 24th, 2010
5:27 pm
It’s a new day. I hope bloggers like Andrew Breitbart continue to expose the equally racist left. It’s long overdue. Cameras should be taken into every meeting that the NAACP or ACORN conducts. I’m sure Mr. Breitbart would have plenty of material.
When I turn the tv on and here black people calling white people all sorts of names and marking it down as artistic liberties with no ramifications, it concerns me. Also, what concerns me about Ms. Sherrod speech was the fact that when she admitted withholding services to the white farmers, the mostly black audience chuckled. Real understanding!
The handling of the matter looked like something from a sitcom! Our country is in one of the biggest financial messes ever and our leaders are jumping around acting like the stooges.
I am not surprised that the left is racist just like the right…it’s that we are just now exposing it!! Mr. Andrew Breitbart got the results that he was hoping for with the video. Hopefully there’s many more. Maybe then we can have a “Serious” Beer Summit.
CJ
July 24th, 2010
5:56 pm
“bush’s intent was to have it progress through procedural channels in order to spare the country racial division following the possible election of america’s first black president. he was doing obama a favor and holder pays the country back by turning a blind eye to blatant voter intimidation…”
Complete rubbish.
On the other hand, former Bush officials are open about the fact that they couldn’t prove that the guys in the video did anything criminal that they could convict them of. Despite such lack of evidence, former Bush assistant attorney general for civil rights, Hans von Spakovsky, still argues that Obama didn’t reinstate criminal charges because “radical career lawyers shared the apparent view of the Obama political appointees that no civil-rights cases of any kind should be brought against blacks.”
Bizarre.
tscali
July 24th, 2010
6:10 pm
On the other hand, former Bush officials are open about the fact that they couldn’t prove that the guys in the video did anything criminal that they could convict them of.
which is why it was to progress through the criminal division. See reason #2) because it takes time to prove criminal wrongdoing.
holder chose to sweep the rubbish under the rug, refusing to take it out. it looks bad for your side.
Yankee in Gooberville
July 24th, 2010
6:16 pm
Since when is it new for the right wing to use race?? Nixon’s ’southern strategy’? Helm’s ‘black man got my job’ ad?
As Eugene Robinson’s column this week states:
After the Shirley Sherrod episode, there’s no longer any need to mince words: A cynical right-wing propaganda machine is peddling the poisonous fiction that when African-Americans or other minorities reach positions of power, they seek some kind of revenge against whites.
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=953440&category=COMMENTARY#ixzz0udmBXaaq
Scout
July 24th, 2010
6:18 pm
@@:
Thank you. You made my day !