Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Dr. Elwood Watson
September 10, 2010
For anyone who thought the election of Barack Obama ushered in an era of post-racial harmony, several events that have transpired over the past few months should assuage any doubts of such a notion. Here are a few of the incidents:
Shirley Sherrod, a 62-year-old Black woman with a long history of civil rights activism, was falsely accused of racial bias by right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart and is forced to resign from her position as Georgia state director of rural development in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Oscar-winning director Mel Gibson is caught (for a second time) spewing racist language to his wife including the word ‘nigger’.
A brawl between several Black and White men at a state fair in Iowa City, Iowa was believed to have racial overtones.
Talk show host Laura Schlessinger, in a conversation with a Black female caller, launches into verbal tirade repeating the word ‘nigger’ multiple times.
Fox News host Glenn Beck leads a march in the nation’s capital in an effort “to reclaim the civil rights movement.
Michael Enright, a 21-year-old White college student, is charged with stabbing Ahmed Sharif, a New York cab driver and 43-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant.
A number of right-wing organizations have drummed up perverse propaganda in an effort to convince Americans that Obama is not a Christian.
Full Story: http://diverseeducation.com/blogpost/298/the-season-of-racial-discontent.html
Showing posts with label Shirley Sherrod. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shirley Sherrod. Show all posts
Friday, September 10, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Thrown to the Wolves
The New York Times
By BOB HERBERT
Published: July 23, 2010
The Shirley Sherrod story tells us so much about ourselves, and none of it is pretty. The most obvious and shameful fact is that the Obama administration, which runs from race issues the way thoroughbreds bolt from the starting gate, did not offer this woman anything resembling fair or respectful treatment before firing and publicly humiliating her.
Moving with the swiftness of fanatics on a hanging jury, big shots in the administration and Bill O’Reilly of Fox News came to exactly the same conclusion: Shirley Sherrod had to go — immediately! No time for facts. No time for justice.
What we have here is power run amok. Ms. Sherrod was not even called into an office to be fired face to face. She got the shocking news in her car. “They called me twice,” she told The Associated Press. “The last time, they asked me to pull over to the side of the road and submit my resignation on my BlackBerry, and that’s what I did.”
This woman was thrown to the wolves without even the courtesy of a conversation. Her side of the story? The truth? The administration wasn’t interested.
Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/opinion/24herbert.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1279980134-aodYWizyecQGNr4J7tY1Mw
By BOB HERBERT
Published: July 23, 2010
The Shirley Sherrod story tells us so much about ourselves, and none of it is pretty. The most obvious and shameful fact is that the Obama administration, which runs from race issues the way thoroughbreds bolt from the starting gate, did not offer this woman anything resembling fair or respectful treatment before firing and publicly humiliating her.
Moving with the swiftness of fanatics on a hanging jury, big shots in the administration and Bill O’Reilly of Fox News came to exactly the same conclusion: Shirley Sherrod had to go — immediately! No time for facts. No time for justice.
What we have here is power run amok. Ms. Sherrod was not even called into an office to be fired face to face. She got the shocking news in her car. “They called me twice,” she told The Associated Press. “The last time, they asked me to pull over to the side of the road and submit my resignation on my BlackBerry, and that’s what I did.”
This woman was thrown to the wolves without even the courtesy of a conversation. Her side of the story? The truth? The administration wasn’t interested.
Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/opinion/24herbert.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1279980134-aodYWizyecQGNr4J7tY1Mw
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
USDA Flap Shows 'Post-Racial' Future Has Not Arrived
NPR
by Alan Greenblatt
July 21, 2010
The decision to fire Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod — an action Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has now rescinded — is clearly part of a larger debate about discrimination and racial sensitivity in the public sphere.
It's also evidence that hopes so often expressed during the 2008 presidential campaign that Barack Obama would lead the country into a "post-racial" future have thus far gone unrealized. The controversy has brought up complaints about past government discrimination against African-Americans and highlighted a feeling among some whites that the administration is biased against them.
In video posted online, Sherrod is seen recounting her thoughts that a white farmer who came to her for aid in 1986 should go seek help from "his own kind." But the clip initially posted by blogger Andrew Breitbart failed to show the larger context of her remarks, in which Sherrod described how she had overcome such sentiments.
It's also evidence that hopes so often expressed during the 2008 presidential campaign that Barack Obama would lead the country into a "post-racial" future have thus far gone unrealized. The controversy has brought up complaints about past government discrimination against African-Americans and highlighted a feeling among some whites that the administration is biased against them.
In video posted online, Sherrod is seen recounting her thoughts that a white farmer who came to her for aid in 1986 should go seek help from "his own kind." But the clip initially posted by blogger Andrew Breitbart failed to show the larger context of her remarks, in which Sherrod described how she had overcome such sentiments.
Picture: Shirley Sherrod, NPR
Sherrod not sure she would go back to Ag Dept
Yahoo News
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and BEN EVANS, Associated Press Writers Mary Clare Jalonick And Ben Evans, Associated Press Writers – 22 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The woman at the center of a racially tinged firestorm involving the Obama administration and the NAACP said Wednesday she doesn't know if she'd return to her job at the Agriculture Department, even if asked.
"I am just not sure how I would be treated there," Shirley Sherrod said in a nationally broadcast interview. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday he would reconsider the department's decision to oust Sherrod over her comments that she didn't give a white farmer as much help as she could have 24 years ago.
The White House called the Agriculture Department Tuesday night after more information about Sherrod's remarks emerged, a White House official said. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the call, said the White House and the department agreed that the case should be reviewed based on the new evidence.
"I am just not sure how I would be treated there," Shirley Sherrod said in a nationally broadcast interview. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday he would reconsider the department's decision to oust Sherrod over her comments that she didn't give a white farmer as much help as she could have 24 years ago.
The White House called the Agriculture Department Tuesday night after more information about Sherrod's remarks emerged, a White House official said. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the call, said the White House and the department agreed that the case should be reviewed based on the new evidence.
Full Story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100721/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_usda_racism_resignation#mwpphu-container
Picture: Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
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