Ever since Barack Obama took office became a serious contender for the United States presidency, the right-wing media has been on a crusade to spur racial animosity among whites. The saddest part is, they know the Democrats will fall to their knees any time they accuse them of doing anything wrong. In an effort to prove that the NAACP is more racist than the Tea Party, conservative media hack Andrew Breitbart recently targeted black USDA employee Shirley Sherrod, accusing her of discriminating against white farmers.
One of his websites, Big Government, posted a portion of her remarks in a March 2010 speech to a Georgia chapter of the NAACP, in which she told of how she got past her prejudices when she worked for the Federation of Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund 24 years ago. The selectively edited video shows Sherrod talking about her decision not to help a white farmer because she was “struggling with the fact that so many black people had lost their farm land.” That, according to Breitbart, is evidence that Sherrod keeps white farmers down and the NAACP and Obama administration are “racist” against whites. In fact, Sherrod ended up helping that farmer and he and his wife credit her with saving their farm. They consider her a friend to this day.
Sherrod told the story of overcoming prejudice and Breitbart cast her as a bigot. Keep in mind, this is the same outfit that destroyed ACORN last year with its deceptive videos. I think Breitbart and his ilk aim to do the same thing to the NAACP. Naturally, the non-story played on a continuous loop on Fox News. But no matter. Without waiting for context, or viewing the entire, unedited video, the administration took Breitbart’s word and pushed Shirley Sherrod out of her USDA job. The NAACP even condemned her before finally viewing and releasing the video in its entirety.
Now Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack are scrambling to save face and are reconsidering the decision to oust Sherrod. The woman deserves her job and an apology. But, Sherrod says she’s wary. “I’m just not sure how I would be treated,” she explained. And who can blame her? The NAACP, the USDA, and the White House threw her under the bus to comfort and reassure insecure white people. What a bunch of cowards.
This was inevitable, as inevitable as the sunrise, when a black man finally ascended the ladder to the Presidency. It was like a needle pricking a balloon, which had been slowly inflating since April 1865, and the torrential gust of wind thus released swept out and would batter everything before it. At last, a black man had reached the one place that certain whites thought he would never reach. Suddenly, all their hopes and aspirations for continuing their silent rage and shame at the failure of slavery and Jim Crow came gushing out, like oil in the Gulf.
But you can build a cap and cement closed an oil well; you cannot stuff racism back into some mystical bottle. Now loosed, this flood of bigotry and vitriol must, of needs, play itself out, expend its energy, and die down of its own accord. What we must do is help it along, counter it at every turn, and stand against the wind.
If the NAACP is going to single out the Tea Party as a racist group they should expect some push back. I don’t think it’s fair to label the Tea Party people racists as a whole anymore than it’s fair to call this woman a racist and demand her scalp for an incident that happened over 20 years ago.
charlemagne, c’mon. How many signs, slurs and dogwhistles do you need before it’s “okay” to say that the Tea Party is deeply racist? They’re (probably) not going to put “Up with Whitey!” in their founding principles, but the actions they’ve taken and the images they continue to display are clearly, inarguably racist. They’re hardly the only group, but they’re the poorest at hiding their contempt for non-white/Christian people.
@charlemagneinsweats: The squeaky wheel gets the grease. The Tea Party has been very obvious, just not in the racism of some members, but of the slow condemnation of those fringe members by the main body of the party. If the Tea Party is not, in the main, racist, then they should have no trouble repudiating and expelling those members who envince bigotry.
But those go to a deeper level, because this was an attempt by a conservative rabble-rouser to paint a picture that was clearly not true, to force the administration to respond. That is the genesis of this issue. The poor handling by the White House, the USDA, and the NAACP, goes to show that no one seems to have their feet under them. There was no need for a rapid response, until such time as the context of the speech could be verified. If there’s anything wrong here, it’s that these groups feel they have to dance to the tune played by conservatives. They are better off taking the time to make measured responses, than off-the-handle decisions.
@charlemagne: Just in case you hadn’t seen it, this is how Mark Williams, Tea Party Express spokesman, responded to the NAACP’s accusations. I don’t know about you, but I think it sounds pretty fucking racist (also hateful, sneering and thoroughly douche-y).
Dear Mr. Lincoln
We Colored People have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!
In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.
The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.
And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.” What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!
The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.” Again, they directly target Colored People. That means we Colored People would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.
Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous! How will we Colored People ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?
Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.
Sincerely
Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Head Colored Person
Yes there are racists in the Tea Party. Every group has kooks and the Tea Party certainly draws a fringe element. (John Lewis is a hero of mine and anyone that would insult him is a disgrace.) That letter is a very clumsy and insensitive attempt at satire
But when I see Tea Partiers I see an admittedly motley bunch in favor of smaller government and opposition to health care reform, not a group of racists. Liberals can’t just point to every conservative and say “you’re racist” and end the discussion.
Being opposed to Obama and against health care reform is not a “dog whistle” or coded language for “I hate black people.”
I worked for the USDA last summer under Vilsack. I almost feel bad for him — he seemed like a pretty low-key guy and I can see how he might consider this to be a distraction from getting the job done and the temptation to take the path of least resistance. That doesn’t mean it’s the right thing or indeed the most productive or useful thing to do, however. Ultimately, though, I think this is something the electorate will have to deal with because as it stands right now, too many people don’t care what the conservatives say in terms of truthfulness or honor. The standards for what counts as acceptable behavior from these people are atrociously low. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to fix that except by waiting for the current middle-aged tea party demographic to die off.
@charlemagne: No, being opposed to Obama and against health care reform isn’t coded language for “I hate black people”, but that “satire” is. It’s not satire. He can call it that—he can call it a prose poem or a space opera for all I care—but there’s no getting around the fact that it’s 100% disgusting hate speech. The Tea Party recognized it as such and expelled Williams…and he was their spokesman .
Breitbart said, in reference to the edited video he tried to pass off as evidence of NAACP racism, “This is why the Tea Party is necessary.”
Isn’t that interesting? I thought the Tea Party was necessary because of “big government.”
He basically admitted the Tea Party is an organization for resentful white people.
The open racism in our public discourse is really scary. (Though maybe it’s always been this bad, and being white I wasn’t aware of it until the 2008 election?) And sorry, charlemagne, I can’t believe you’re arguing in good faith. There is nothing subtle about the way Tea Partiers espouse/exploit racism, especially in the wake of this NAACP incident. If the movement was truly nonracist, there would be many prominent individuals falling all over themselves to expel the racist elements. Instead they just complain about the accusation.
Personally I just want someone in the tea party movement to explain to me why a free education isn’t socialism but free health care is.
Also I do wish people on the left and right would stop excusing offensive writing with the words ‘it’s satire’. Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is satire, very little else comes close.
I am beyond disgusted. Hopefully next time they’ll wait and catch their breath before they force some woman out of her job on the word of a well known racist.
Also I would just like to say I have absolutely no compunction in calling the Tea Party as a whole a racist organization.
What are the arguments against that belief? That there hasn’t been some scientific study done? The majority of information that various Tea Party orgs put out is racist, sometimes straight forwardly so, sometimes implied. Lets all be real about what that organization represents and lets all be honest about the reason they even came into existence in the first place (cough * Obama being elected * cough)
But when I see Tea Partiers I see an admittedly motley bunch in favor of smaller government and opposition to health care reform, not a group of racists. Liberals can’t just point to every conservative and say “you’re racist” and end the discussion.
But then why didn’t these groups exist when GWB was in office? I’m sorry was GWB actually NOT growing the federal government the entire 8yrs he was in office? No wait. He was. Small government is code.
Spark and Blue–calling them racists is the easy way out and leads to silly counterchargers like this one against Ms. Sherrod.
I’d much rather take on the group’s hypocrisy and incoherent message–”keep your government hands off my medicare.”
This whole disaster makes me livid. The right has honed their strategy to a fine art: lying, misrepresenting words from anyone who’s not a Republican, taking remarks out of context, using code words. And the left falls for it every single time. Instead of calling these villains out on their tactics and their aim of creating divisiveness and anger, we fold like paper dolls and beg their forgiveness.
For the love of God, Obama, DNC, NAACP and liberals in Congress-GROW A SPINE. Stand up to lies and disinformation. Call it what it is. Every time someone caves to this attack on a civil society, the bad guys grow bolder. If you want to be leaders, then how about leading?
Wait how is it the easy way out to call them racists? What’s the right way of addressing the RAMPANT racism that issues from various sundry Tea Partiers?
I’m fine taking the easy way out by calling the Tea Party racist. They make it so easy for me to do so.
It’s easy because it takes zero intellectual acumen to call a person a racist.
But if that person is saying and doing racist things what is wrong with calling it like you see it?!
Should people just never call anything racist?
What if I called them racist in latin?
ut humus of populus es racist
Sarah–no of course not! There are certainly racists among us. But I’ve seen the invective thrown at pretty much every left-of-center politician and group in the country along with the entire Fox news network. I just think it’s absurd for the left to dismiss the entire rightwing in this country as a bunch of racists.
Blue-LOL.
It’s easy because it takes zero intellectual acumen to call a person a racist.
It also takes zero intellectual acumen for me to notice that the sky is blue. You don’t have to be brilliant to notice what’s obvious.
@emilyanne: I’ve always wondered the same thing. Even the most hardcore conservative/libertarians I know will balk when I say “so we shouldn’t have free public education, either?” I think it’s just what you’re used to. Public health is new and different, and conservatives by nature abhor change.
And speaking of Modest Proposal…don’t think I haven’t noticed how plump and tasty your little Irish children look.
@emilyanne – You’re presuming too low a level of tolerance for cognitive dissonance. I’ve heard tea partiers say things like, “*I* never asked for help from the government even when I was on welfare and using food stamps!” It’s the same as the “the only moral abortion is my abortion” thing — just plain cognitive dissonance.
@baraqiel – that dissonance just made me laugh, it shouldn’t have but there’s something so inane and insane about that welfare statement that it cracked me up.
@becky – particularly the younger one. I often think he’d taste nice roasted. With apple and onions. And a bit of rosemary (for remembrance of course).
@charlemagne – I’m torn here because actually I agree in part with your point, I think it is too easily flung as an insult from the left to the right to shut down the conversation. The problem I have is that I do also feel that a large portion of the tea partiers are, well, racist. It’s hard not to when you see footage of children chanting about monkeys (admittedly it’s not common but I think there’s something to be said for the argument that the tea partiers should have better control of their fringe, failure to act can look a lot like endorsement).
This thread has gone way off point. The point here isn’t whether the TP is or isn’t racist. The point is that, yet again, people of color are being used by the right to create dissention among Democrats and to stroke the “Obama hates whites” contingent. And yet again, the “left” (I use that term with bitter cynicism) is all too ready to toss an ally out the plane door on the basis of a statement by a party whose reliability, to say nothing of his motivation, is deeply suspect.
Right wingers lie. They do it daily, with enthusiasm and evil intent. Anythingthat comes from their blogs, newspapers, “fair and balanced” talk shows or any other source should be treated like the putrid garbage it is and thrown to the curb immediately. You don’t need to label them to call out their behavior.
I just ranted about this at length on Newt’s blog, but jeebus isn’t it obvious that 1) Breibart thought it was OK to trash Sherrod’s career? and that 2) the TP wants to excuse its racism by talking about someone else’s racism and that 3) points one and two add up to something really heinous and evil?
and btw I think that reverse racism only exists in the ivory tower. The power differential between whites and blacks makes reverse racism a non-issue on a societal scale. I realize that’s really difficult for some to swallow. But try.
@emilyanne – I know, it would be hilarious if those people didn’t vote.
Argh. When will these people realize that on a systematic level, PEOPLE OF COLOR CANNOT BE RACIST?! Going by the racism = power + prejudice definition as given on countless anti-racism blogs, POCs can certainly be bigoted, prejudiced and hateful—but not racist. Only the people in power, which has always been WASPs in this country, can do that. End of discussion.
Er, sorry, I meant racism = power + privilege. Mixing up my P-words here…
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/07/the-naacp-is-right/59793/
The above take on the situation resonates with me. When it’s not just some fringers showing up with racist signs at town hall meetings, you’ve got a problem.
‘The saddest part is, they know the Democrats will fall to their knees any time they accuse them of doing anything wrong.’
YES, YES and more YES.
This poor woman, her career’s been ruined and that blogger is completely unrepentant about it. What an ass.
And Becky, that letter is absolutely appalling.
On the question of ‘is the TP racist’ I also vote yes, for what it’s worth. I don’t think they even really try to hide it. Actually I think a lot of the Republican party is racist though…
Happily, the Obama people have seen the error of their craven, cowardly ways and asked Ms Sherrod to return to her job.
Please, please show that you’ve learned your lesson, Obama administration.
In the interest of fairness, I took one for the team and ventured over to Rush Limbaugh’s site to see what blabbering he’s done on Sherrod. I can only stand about 3 minutes on that site before bile begins to dissolve my esophagus, but here are some bons mots I came across:
I know that Andrew Breitbart’s done great work getting this video . . . You don’t need Shirley Sherrod or whatever her name is to prove racism at the NAALCP [sic]. All you need to know is that Jeremiah Wright’s a featured speaker at the NAALCP [sic]. That’s all you need to know. The NAACP is as racist an organization as there has been and is in this country, and you don’t need Shirley Sherrod. The thing about Shirley Sherrod, this is the US Department of Agriculture babe who has been fired by Tom Vilsack . . . [imitates Vilsack's voice]” (from his 7/20/10 show) — “great work getting this video”? Of course! “Department of Agriculture babe”? Spectacular!
“Now, they talk about Andrew Breitbart here. I know Andrew Breitbart. He doesn’t purposely screw around with edits. I don’t know what he was given. I don’t know what he had. Maybe he was set up. I have no idea what went on here. But there was enough context for any fair person to gather what she was actually trying to say. Vilsack didn’t care. Vilsack didn’t care to get the context and the White House didn’t care to get the context.” (from his 7/21/10 show) — OK, you don’t know what went on here, but you’re SURE this fool didn’t play with edits? Who writes this crap?
Awesome. I am off to find some extra strength Zantac.
Maybe he was set up! OMG.
But there was enough context for any fair person to gather what she was actually trying to say.
Any fair person, which means not Breitbart, natch. I have so much hate …
I like to alternate between being grossed out by his site and by Glenn Beck’s. They are both a complete assault on the eyes, and that is before you get to the vitriolic/insane rantings, respectively.
Yeah Sarah, that bothered me too — like, was he set up by the White House? Or is it what you say later, that the White House just didn’t do their homework? It doesn’t really matter, does it? All that matters is filling several hours of airtime every day with They’re Doin It Rong.
Amusing aside: I always get a kick out of the ads on their sites. In these ads, I am asked to believe that Glenn Beck uses the Cash for Gold people and Rush Limbaugh uses Kryptonite locks? Call me a skeptic.
The Department of Agriculture babe?
Oh, how I would like to take a baseball bat to his fat head. Even O’Reilly said he was wrong on this one.