USDA official resigns amid racism claims

[YoUDeeMan]

"Sherrod, who resigned late Monday from her job as USDA's Georgia director of rural development, is shown talking about "the first time I was faced with having to help a white farmer save his farm." Her remarks came at a local NAACP Freedom Fund banquet, which the video says took place in March this year.

She says in the clip that the farmer had tried to show he was "superior" to her.

"He had to come to me for help. What he didn't know, while he was taking all that time trying to show me he was superior to me, was I was trying to decide just how much help I was going to give him," she says in the film.

"I was struggling with the fact that so many black people have lost their farmland and here I was faced with having to help a white person save their land — so I didn't give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough," she adds.

Some of her remarks appear to be greeted with laughter by some of the crowd.

Sherrod says she took the farmer to see "one of his own," referring to a white lawyer. "I figured that if I take him to one of them, that his own kind would take care of him," she says."



Sure, there can be no racism involving minorities.

This was a meeting of local leaders...and some laughed.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38321920/ns/us_news-life" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AshevilleApp]

"Sherrod, who resigned late Monday from her job as USDA's Georgia director of rural development, is shown talking about "the first time I was faced with having to help a white farmer save his farm." Her remarks came at a local NAACP Freedom Fund banquet, which the video says took place in March this year.

She says in the clip that the farmer had tried to show he was "superior" to her.

"He had to come to me for help. What he didn't know, while he was taking all that time trying to show me he was superior to me, was I was trying to decide just how much help I was going to give him," she says in the film.

"I was struggling with the fact that so many black people have lost their farmland and here I was faced with having to help a white person save their land — so I didn't give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough," she adds.

Some of her remarks appear to be greeted with laughter by some of the crowd.

Sherrod says she took the farmer to see "one of his own," referring to a white lawyer. "I figured that if I take him to one of them, that his own kind would take care of him," she says."



Sure, there can be no racism involving minorities.

This was a meeting of local leaders...and some laughed.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38321920/ns/us_news-life" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So who has claimed that racism only exists in whites?

[OSBF]

RD, Rural Development, has a long and well documented history of civil rights "issues"

unfortunately, this sort of thing is not un-common for them

[OSBF]

Response by the Secretary of Agriculture:

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20250


Dear employee:

Some of you may have seen the news stories about USDA today. I want to reiterate my commitment and that of the leadership at USDA to civil rights. We all must work to ensure that we are treating our customers and employees equally and fairly and we all should have zero tolerance for discrimination.

I also want to remind all of you that you have a unique and important individual responsibility to represent this sentiment in your official actions, statements, and public presentations. We are lucky to have the opportunity to work for the American people and we owe it to them to instill confidence in our leadership. Our words and actions matter.

We have been working hard through the past 18 months to reverse the checkered civil rights history at the department and I thank you for your service and efforts to achieve this goal,

Secretary Vilsack

[native]

Credit where credit is due. Vilsack did the right thing!

Response by the Secretary of Agriculture:

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20250


Dear employee:

Some of you may have seen the news stories about USDA today. I want to reiterate my commitment and that of the leadership at USDA to civil rights. We all must work to ensure that we are treating our customers and employees equally and fairly and we all should have zero tolerance for discrimination.

I also want to remind all of you that you have a unique and important individual responsibility to represent this sentiment in your official actions, statements, and public presentations. We are lucky to have the opportunity to work for the American people and we owe it to them to instill confidence in our leadership. Our words and actions matter.

We have been working hard through the past 18 months to reverse the checkered civil rights history at the department and I thank you for your service and efforts to achieve this goal,

Secretary Vilsack

[89Hen]

So who has claimed that racism only exists in whites?

Several posters here and at AGS.

[Mountaineer]

More to the story:

Her resignation came after media outlets aired the video, in which Sherrod, speaking to an audience, said she did not give the white farmer "the full force of what I could do" to help him avoid foreclosure.

She said Tuesday that those remarks were taken out of context and that the 1986 incident, which occurred before she started work for the USDA and was working at a nonprofit, helped her learn to move beyond race. She tells the story to audiences to make that point, she said.

Meanwhile, the wife of the white farmer referenced in the clip told CNN she credits Sherrod with helping her family save their farm. Eloise Spooner remembered Sherrod as "getting in there and doing all she could do to help us."

She said that when she saw the story of the tape and Sherrod's resignation on television, "I said, 'That ain't right. They have not treated her right.' "

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/20/ ... tml?hpt=T1

[native]

More to the story:

Her resignation came after media outlets aired the video, in which Sherrod, speaking to an audience, said she did not give the white farmer "the full force of what I could do" to help him avoid foreclosure.

She said Tuesday that those remarks were taken out of context and that the 1986 incident, which occurred before she started work for the USDA and was working at a nonprofit, helped her learn to move beyond race. She tells the story to audiences to make that point, she said.

Meanwhile, the wife of the white farmer referenced in the clip told CNN she credits Sherrod with helping her family save their farm. Eloise Spooner remembered Sherrod as "getting in there and doing all she could do to help us."

She said that when she saw the story of the tape and Sherrod's resignation on television, "I said, 'That ain't right. They have not treated her right.' "

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/20/ ... tml?hpt=T1

Which begs the question, "Why did it take so long for the story to surface, and why didn't the finger-pointing and race-baiting NAACP clean up their own house before this episode became public knowledge?

[death dealer]

I love how the African American commentator completely skips over the incident and immediately dives into how racist the tea party really is.

[native]

I love how the African American commentator completely skips over the incident and immediately dives into how racist the tea party really is.

I am so sick of that shat. My family is mostly brown. As a Tea Partier, I absolutely could not care less about the color of someone's skin, ONLY the content of their character.

[GannonFan]

More to the story:

Her resignation came after media outlets aired the video, in which Sherrod, speaking to an audience, said she did not give the white farmer "the full force of what I could do" to help him avoid foreclosure.

She said Tuesday that those remarks were taken out of context and that the 1986 incident, which occurred before she started work for the USDA and was working at a nonprofit, helped her learn to move beyond race. She tells the story to audiences to make that point, she said.

Meanwhile, the wife of the white farmer referenced in the clip told CNN she credits Sherrod with helping her family save their farm. Eloise Spooner remembered Sherrod as "getting in there and doing all she could do to help us."

She said that when she saw the story of the tape and Sherrod's resignation on television, "I said, 'That ain't right. They have not treated her right.' "

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/20/ ... tml?hpt=T1

Ahh, politics these days . Apparently wanting to be out in front of the story, the WH and the NAACP couldn't dump this person fast enough, and now the story appears to be a lot more benign than previously thought. For people who claim not to believe or trust the extreme right wing new sources, they sure did take it at face value this time. You can tell we're definitely in election mode.

[native]

More to the story:



http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/20/ ... tml?hpt=T1

Ahh, politics these days . Apparently wanting to be out in front of the story, the WH and the NAACP couldn't dump this person fast enough, and now the story appears to be a lot more benign than previously thought. For people who claim not to believe or trust the extreme right wing new sources, they sure did take it at face value this time. You can tell we're definitely in election mode.

The moral equivalency is not quite where you imagine it to be, GF. There is still a double standard favoring libs on race issues of all sorts.

I would call Obama's reaction "panic" mode, even more so than "election" mode.

This is a bit of a sideshow. Except in cases of fraud and other criminality, the government, including the USDA, should not be adjudicating who wins and who loses in the marketplace.

[houndawg]

Ahh, politics these days . Apparently wanting to be out in front of the story, the WH and the NAACP couldn't dump this person fast enough, and now the story appears to be a lot more benign than previously thought. For people who claim not to believe or trust the extreme right wing new sources, they sure did take it at face value this time. You can tell we're definitely in election mode.

The moral equivalency is not quite where you imagine it to be, GF. There is still a double standard favoring libs on race issues of all sorts.

I would call Obama's reaction "panic" mode, even more so than "election" mode.

And you'd be wrong again; you're consistent if nothing else.

She got what a white administrator would have got in the same situation, and she deserved it. Poor judgement to be telling that story in public.

[native]

The moral equivalency is not quite where you imagine it to be, GF. There is still a double standard favoring libs on race issues of all sorts.

I would call Obama's reaction "panic" mode, even more so than "election" mode.

And you'd be wrong again; you're consistent if nothing else.

She got what a white administrator would have got in the same situation, and she deserved it. Poor judgement to be telling that story in public.

Yes, she may have gotten what she deserved, but as the posted links indicate, she made her mistake long before she ever assumed public office.

Like almost all "race" cases this political season, with the exception of the voter intimidation case in Philly, this is just a diversion from facts and issues. It is truly a sign of Obummer panic.

I am indeed wrong sometimes, dawg, but you have yet to catch me in that state.

[JohnStOnge]

I think that poor woman got railroaded to the max. She was talking about something she thought decades ago. My understanding is that she ended up helping that guy a lot. All she was doing was, as part of a larger story, talking about her own bout of racial thought. She was not endorseing the thought she had at that moment. My understanding is that even the white farmer and his family said she ended up doing very right by them.

See http://www.ajc.com/news/farmers-wife-sa ... 74027.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A quote:

"But Spooner, who considers Sherrod a 'friend for life,' said the federal official worked tirelessly to help the Iron City couple hold onto their land as they faced bankruptcy back in 1986."



She was just tallking about some of her initial reactions and thoughts. Conceding that she herself was not perfect when it comes to race.

This is a tragedy. That woman did not deserve what happened to her. And what happened to her is yet another blow against people being able to be honest when they speak.

[BlueHen86]

I think that poor woman got railroaded to the max. She was talking about something she thought decades ago. My understanding is that she ended up helping that guy a lot. All she was doing was, as part of a larger story, talking about her own bout of racial thought. She was not endorseing the thought she had at that moment. My understanding is that even the white farmer and his family said she ended up doing very right by them.

See http://www.ajc.com/news/farmers-wife-sa ... 74027.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A quote:

"But Spooner, who considers Sherrod a 'friend for life,' said the federal official worked tirelessly to help the Iron City couple hold onto their land as they faced bankruptcy back in 1986."



She was just tallking about some of her initial reactions and thoughts. Conceding that she herself was not perfect when it comes to race.

This is a tragedy. That woman did not deserve what happened to her. And what happened to her is yet another blow against people being able to be honest when they speak.

Looks like the NAACP has retracted it's criticism of her.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38321920/fr ... ?gt1=43001" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

I think that poor woman got railroaded to the max. She was talking about something she thought decades ago. My understanding is that she ended up helping that guy a lot. All she was doing was, as part of a larger story, talking about her own bout of racial thought. She was not endorseing the thought she had at that moment. My understanding is that even the white farmer and his family said she ended up doing very right by them.

See http://www.ajc.com/news/farmers-wife-sa ... 74027.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A quote:

"But Spooner, who considers Sherrod a 'friend for life,' said the federal official worked tirelessly to help the Iron City couple hold onto their land as they faced bankruptcy back in 1986."



She was just tallking about some of her initial reactions and thoughts. Conceding that she herself was not perfect when it comes to race.

This is a tragedy. That woman did not deserve what happened to her. And what happened to her is yet another blow against people being able to be honest when they speak.

[AshevilleApp]

So who has claimed that racism only exists in whites?

Several posters here and at AGS.

Who?

[YoUDeeMan]

I think that poor woman got railroaded to the max. She was talking about something she thought decades ago. My understanding is that she ended up helping that guy a lot. All she was doing was, as part of a larger story, talking about her own bout of racial thought. She was not endorseing the thought she had at that moment. My understanding is that even the white farmer and his family said she ended up doing very right by them.

See http://www.ajc.com/news/farmers-wife-sa ... 74027.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A quote:

"But Spooner, who considers Sherrod a 'friend for life,' said the federal official worked tirelessly to help the Iron City couple hold onto their land as they faced bankruptcy back in 1986."



She was just tallking about some of her initial reactions and thoughts. Conceding that she herself was not perfect when it comes to race.

This is a tragedy. That woman did not deserve what happened to her. And what happened to her is yet another blow against people being able to be honest when they speak.

It is NOT a tragedy. Read the whole article and other supporting articles. The woman, in her official government position, initially refused to help the farmers because they were white. No other reason except for their skin color. She dumped them on "one of their own". She references many of her racist comments and thoughts.

She abused her position and she was, and probably still is, a racist. She deserves to lose her job.

Continuing the story, she didn't help those folks for at least 6 months...and she allowed some other person (a white person who should also be terminated for not doing their job) to take their money for 6 months. It was only after she heard that the farmers were still struggling, that her guilt kicked in and she finally decided to help out the white folks.

And the white farmers who support her? They are just happy to have their farm. They were, at the time, unaware of her racist comments. All they saw was a person going all out to thelp them..not realizing she dumped them and allowed them to shell out their money for 6 months on a white helper.

Hey, if she truly has turned a corner, then she will get another job. But, she used her government position to deny people help because of their race. Termination is justified.

[dbackjon]

I think that poor woman got railroaded to the max. She was talking about something she thought decades ago. My understanding is that she ended up helping that guy a lot. All she was doing was, as part of a larger story, talking about her own bout of racial thought. She was not endorseing the thought she had at that moment. My understanding is that even the white farmer and his family said she ended up doing very right by them.

See http://www.ajc.com/news/farmers-wife-sa ... 74027.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A quote:

"But Spooner, who considers Sherrod a 'friend for life,' said the federal official worked tirelessly to help the Iron City couple hold onto their land as they faced bankruptcy back in 1986."



She was just tallking about some of her initial reactions and thoughts. Conceding that she herself was not perfect when it comes to race.

This is a tragedy. That woman did not deserve what happened to her. And what happened to her is yet another blow against people being able to be honest when they speak.

It is NOT a tragedy. Read the whole article and other supporting articles. The woman, in her official government position, initially refused to help the farmers because they were white. No other reason except for their skin color. She dumped them on "one of their own". She references many of her racist comments and thoughts.

She abused her position and she was, and probably still is, a racist. She deserves to lose her job.

Continuing the story, she didn't help those folks for at least 6 months...and she allowed some other person (a white person who should also be terminated for not doing their job) to take their money for 6 months. It was only after she heard that the farmers were still struggling, that her guilt kicked in and she finally decided to help out the white folks.

And the white farmers who support her? They are just happy to have their farm. They were, at the time, unaware of her racist comments. All they saw was a person going all out to thelp them..not realizing she dumped them and allowed them to shell out their money for 6 months on a white helper.

Hey, if she truly has turned a corner, then she will get another job. But, she used her government position to deny people help because of their race. Termination is justified.

I guess they don't teach reading comprehension at UD.

She WAS NOT a government employee at the time.

Repeat

She WAS NOT a government employee at the time.

[dbackjon]

From your own link...

She and her husband, Roger Spooner, approached Sherrod for help in 1986 when Sherrod worked for a nonprofit that assisted farmers.

[JohnStOnge]

I guess they don't teach reading comprehension at UD.

She WAS NOT a government employee at the time.

Repeat

She WAS NOT a government employee at the time.

I was going to say that my understanding is that she was not a FEDERAL government employee at time. Whatever happened, it happened decades ago before she went to work for the Federal government and my understanding is that she came to recognize what she did as wrong then did what she did to correct it. I've heard enough to know that I do not agree with her on many things. But now way she should've been pressured to resign from her current job over the incident she described involving that farmer.

[Rob Iola]

It is NOT a tragedy. Read the whole article and other supporting articles. The woman, in her official government position, initially refused to help the farmers because they were white. No other reason except for their skin color. She dumped them on "one of their own". She references many of her racist comments and thoughts.

She abused her position and she was, and probably still is, a racist. She deserves to lose her job.

Continuing the story, she didn't help those folks for at least 6 months...and she allowed some other person (a white person who should also be terminated for not doing their job) to take their money for 6 months. It was only after she heard that the farmers were still struggling, that her guilt kicked in and she finally decided to help out the white folks.

And the white farmers who support her? They are just happy to have their farm. They were, at the time, unaware of her racist comments. All they saw was a person going all out to thelp them..not realizing she dumped them and allowed them to shell out their money for 6 months on a white helper.

Hey, if she truly has turned a corner, then she will get another job. But, she used her government position to deny people help because of their race. Termination is justified.

I guess they don't teach reading comprehension at UD.

She WAS NOT a government employee at the time.

Repeat

She WAS NOT a government employee at the time.

Actually, no, to my knowledge they do not teach reading comprehension at UD - they kinda assume you picked that up in elementary and high school. Guess collegiate reading comprehension class is an Arizona thing...

But hearing this lady's story is quite eye-opening - she's owning up to a human weakness, a mistake, and tries to focus on redemption.

For once it would be nice to get away from the heavily edited gotcha videos and actually listen to what the person is saying...

[YoUDeeMan]

I guess they don't teach reading comprehension at UD.

She WAS NOT a government employee at the time.

Repeat

She WAS NOT a government employee at the time.

My bad about the federal job.

She should still be fired because she is still a racist. Have you seen the entire video?

Fact: she was a racist and did not help out the farmers because of their skin color. In fact, the only reason she initially referred them to a white lawyer was because she knew the person who sent her would follow up and she had to show that she tried to help...you, her words. Only later, when a lawyer had taken their money for 6 months, did she feel guilty and tried to help.

During the video, she says a couple times that she learned that it is about poor versus rich, but later in the video she stumbles and comes out and says that it is about black and white. Present time...not in the past.

Furthermore, she tells a story about some black farmer who died and some cousins wanted to force the sale of the land. In the end, the family only sold 62 of the 515 acres...and watch her roll her eyes and get a disgusted face when she says, "and guess what, they already have a WHITE man lined up to buy it, and its the land on the creek which is what he wanted".

Racist.

My grandfather died and one of my uncles forced the sale of the land...we didn't give a flying fvck about the color of the skin of the buyer.

Can you imagine the outrage if a white federal employee at the DOA expressing disgust while saying, "and guess what, they already have a BLACK person lined up to buy it.

She goes on to talk about how black people..."OUR people" (uhhhh...seems she forgot about that part about it not being a black/white thing ) should help each other out. It is about race with her.

Defend her all you want, she is still expressing racist sentiments...CURRENTLY...and she should be dismissed. A white person expressing the same thoughts would be called a racist...or a Tea Party racist. But she gets a new job offer.



Oh, and depsite the NAACP posting that their video is the FULL video...it is not. Anyone notice the funny splice at 20:59? Why was part of the FULL video edited out?

[Grizalltheway]

I guess they don't teach reading comprehension at UD.

She WAS NOT a government employee at the time.

Repeat

She WAS NOT a government employee at the time.

Actually, no, to my knowledge they do not teach reading comprehension at UD - they kinda assume you picked that up in elementary and high school. Guess collegiate reading comprehension class is an Arizona thing...

But hearing this lady's story is quite eye-opening - she's owning up to a human weakness, a mistake, and tries to focus on redemption.

For once it would be nice to get away from the heavily edited gotcha videos and actually listen to what the person is saying...

Bingo, but such is the age we live in.