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
HDB
July 26th, 2010
12:49 pm
Grand Forks July 26th, 2010
12:41 pm
Limbaugh has a superiority complex; if you don’t agree with him, you’re cut off on his show (know that from EXPERIENCE!)
If it’s racist to bring forth facts, experience, and/or opinion, so be it; I know different. My experiences are different from yours….since you haven’t been in the South as long as I have……
Made a typo….the word is “insults”
HDB
July 26th, 2010
12:51 pm
Grand Forks July 26th, 2010
12:47 pm
As you requested: http://newsone.com/nation/casey-gane-mccalla/top-10-racist-limbaugh-quotes/
It’s as racist as Fox News……
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
12:52 pm
“If it’s racist to bring forth facts, experience, and/or opinion, so be it; I know different.”
You didn’t post any facts. You never do.
“My experiences are different from yours….since you haven’t been in the South as long as I have”
And you know this how?
HDB
July 26th, 2010
12:52 pm
…and the quote from Sophia Nelson can be found here:
http://www.theroot.com/views/black-conservatives-listen
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
12:53 pm
HDB
You posted comments from a racist black website yet you claim that other people are racist.
“It’s as racist as Fox News……”
I watch Fox News everyday, HDB. If you called me a racist to my face I’d knock your damn teeth out.
HDB
July 26th, 2010
12:56 pm
Grand Forks July 26th, 2010
12:52 pm
“And you know this how?” — From what you’ve told me….since you are from ND…and NOT a native Southerner, our experiences MUST be different! FACT! That also counters your argument that I never give facts…plus…..when I DO post facts, you tend to discount and marginalize them…..
C’est la vie……
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
12:58 pm
“when I DO post facts, you tend to discount and marginalize them…..”
You don’t post facts, HDB.
HDB
July 26th, 2010
1:00 pm
Grand Forks July 26th, 2010
12:53 pm
The vantagepoint that information is getting disseminateed to you has racist elements!! I have yet to call anyone racist…..those are YOUR words!! You’ve made MY point!! As I’ve stated…the websites I read are as racist as Fox News…….and I watch Fox, CNN, BBC. MSNBC, ABC every day!! I read AJC, NYTImes, Denver Post, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Boston Globe, Forbes……just for a few……and they are as racist as FOX News…..
Get the point!!!
HDB
July 26th, 2010
1:02 pm
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
12:58 pm
“when I DO post facts, you tend to discount and marginalize them…..”
You don’t post facts, HDB.
In your humble opinion…….I just posted one that you have yet to counteract……
ghostwriter
July 26th, 2010
1:02 pm
Grand Forks,
You keep making my point; Keith O. and David Letterman are also entertainers (and pretty disgusting to boot). However, unlike Rush the pretender, neither has ever addressed the faithful at a national political party convention.
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
1:03 pm
“I have yet to call anyone racist…..those are YOUR words!”
No not really HDB. You claimed that Rush is racist. I listen to Rush everyday.
You claimed that Fox is racist and I watch it every night.
Every single topic on the AJC gets turned into a race topic by you. EVERY SINGLE ONE.
“and they are as racist as FOX News…..”
HDB, you’re a racist. Anyone who reads your crap assumes that as well.
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
1:04 pm
“neither has ever addressed the faithful at a national political party convention.”
That’s because they aren’t powerful people.
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
1:06 pm
“In your humble opinion…….I just posted one that you have yet to counteract……”
????????????
HDB
July 26th, 2010
1:06 pm
ghostwriter July 26th, 2010
1:02 pm
Don’t forget…FOX News and Hannity were sponsors of the Tea Party….and FOX News made Hannity stop promoting it as an inherent conflict-of-interest……
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
1:10 pm
“Don’t forget…FOX News and Hannity were sponsors of the Tea Party….and FOX News made Hannity stop promoting it as an inherent conflict-of-interest……”
Did you get that from your black only website?
HDB
July 26th, 2010
1:13 pm
Grand Forks July 26th, 2010
1:03 pm
“You claimed that Rush is racist”……from my treatment when I called in , the experience lends credence to that statement…..and I stand by that!!
“You claimed that Fox is racist and I watch it every night.” It has it elements…..Glenn Beck called Obama a racist when he’s not; Hannity called Obama racist….when he’s not! Limbaugh called him racist…when he’s not!!
“Every single topic on the AJC gets turned into a race topic by you. EVERY SINGLE ONE” – False….I never said the BP oil spill was a racist entity! (All it takes is ONE to disprove your logical statement!)
Remember….when you point ONE finger at me…there are THREE point back at you!!
Remember what is said about assume…you’ll make as @$$ out of U and ME!! I’m not like what you portray me to be…….
The fact that I posted: you and I have different experiences………
HDB
July 26th, 2010
1:14 pm
Grand Forks July 26th, 2010
1:10 pm
Nope…..from Fox and CNN!!
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
1:16 pm
“The fact that I posted: you and I have different experiences………”
You’re a racist, dude. Grow up.
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
1:17 pm
“Nope…..from Fox and CNN!!”
Uh huh. Again, get a life.
HDB
July 26th, 2010
1:22 pm
Grand Forks July 26th, 2010
1:16 pm
Am grown…got a life…enjoying it…..and like Jack Nicholson said: “You can’t handle the truth!”
SMILE…it’ll make your day better…….:)
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
1:26 pm
“SMILE…it’ll make your day better…….:)”
I don’t smile at people like you, HDB. People like you are a cancer on society.
HDB
July 26th, 2010
1:47 pm
Grand Forks July 26th, 2010
1:26 pm
I’m not a cancer…..people tghat don’t admit that there are problems in this nation….and many of them are racially based — those are the cancers! Those who continually put the problem out there to be discussed….and hopefully solved…are attempting to heal the land!! The more we’re talking about it…the closer we’re getting to solving it…….
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
1:55 pm
HDB
You’re a racist.
No More Progressives!
July 26th, 2010
2:06 pm
HDB
July 26th, 2010
12:04 pm
……and for NMP and Grand Forks who feel that I am the only one who feels as they do about black conservatives (and I think I can hold my own with any of them!)…..
Herman Cain, Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams would have a field day with you.
HDB
July 26th, 2010
2:08 pm
No More Progressives! July 26th, 2010
2:06 pm
Had my bout with Herman Cain….I held my own!! Williams and Sowell are interesting….but not afraid of the challenge!!
HDB
July 26th, 2010
2:12 pm
Grand Forks July 26th, 2010
1:55 pm
“HDB — You’re a racist.”
I know I can’t change YOUR opinion…but the facts speak otherwise!! The more we talk about issues….the more insight we can find to solving them……the more you are in denial, the more you can’t see all sides…….
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
2:21 pm
“Had my bout with Herman Cain….I held my own!! Williams and Sowell are interesting….but not afraid of the challenge!!”
Don’t care. They’re all smarter than you.
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
2:24 pm
“I know I can’t change YOUR opinion…but the facts speak otherwise”
You’ve never posted facts and it’s sad when a person calls his own “opinions” facts without backing them up.
You called the Tea Party racist and therefore you called me a racist since I’ve been to them.
SO, since you called me a racist I will now refer to you as a racist.
“the more you are in denial, the more you can’t see all sides”
Oh, there’s no denying that you’re a racist, DB. No doubt about that.
HDB
July 26th, 2010
3:49 pm
Grand Forks July 26th, 2010
2:24 pm
1) You’ve never posted facts and it’s sad when a person calls his own “opinions” facts without backing them up.
I have backed my instances up….as facts…with factual correlations! If you wish to ignore them, that’s on you!
2) You called the Tea Party racist and therefore you called me a racist since I’ve been to them.
Is this “guilt by association”? From the experiences I’VE had, there are racist elements in the Tea Party! When I attended the one, I had a sign in support of the President….and I was called every prejorative in the book!! No one was willing to debate….just name calling!! Sorry if that irritates you…but that’s the facts!!
3) SO, since you called me a racist I will now refer to you as a racist.
Call me whatever you want….doesn’t matter….for those that know me (and you don’t)…know the truth!
4) “Had my bout with Herman Cain….I held my own!! Williams and Sowell are interesting….but not afraid of the challenge!!” Don’t care. They’re all smarter than you.
They’ve made more money that I have…but I’m not afraid to confront them with my experiences and ideology!! Unlike many here that tend to marginalize………
Many can’t handle the truth……many don’t want to see the truth…..but the truth will set you free…..
As Spike Lee said in “School Days”" WAKE UP!! (…and I’m wide awake!)….
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
5:13 pm
“I had a sign in support of the President….and I was called every prejorative in the book!”
Like what, HDB?
“Call me whatever you want….doesn’t matter….for those that know me (and you don’t)…know the truth!”
Oh I can spot a race baiter from a mile, and you sir, are a race baiter.
“ut I’m not afraid to confront them with my experiences and ideology!! Unlike many here that tend to marginalize………”
You for instance.
“As Spike Lee said”
Spike Lee hates white people.
Grand Forks
July 26th, 2010
5:13 pm
“I have backed my instances up….as facts…with factual correlations!”
You’ve never backed anything up with facts. You posted a link to a racist all black website that took 10 Rush Limbaugh quotes out of context.
Gene716
July 27th, 2010
11:47 am
Kyle, you pinched a few nerves, pushed the hot buttons, and ruffled the feathers. The “lefty” responders could be spotted light years away in the distance. They are consumed by their rage. I needn’t name them, anyone with a grain of good sense can read ‘em like a book.
Keep up the good work.
Ed Driscoll » Nobody Can Fire Andrew Breitbart
August 1st, 2010
11:49 pm
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September 12th, 2010
4:48 pm
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