Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Shirley Sherrod, Journolist, the NAACP, and the Tea Party
by Latoya Peterson
Kill the phony mean before it kills you. That the truth is probably somewhere in the middle… that if both sides think you are biased against them it probably means you’re playing it straight… that the extremes on both sides are equally extreme, deluded and irresponsible— these practices have rotted out, and the sooner they are done away with, the better footing political journalism will be on. Just as it should be routine for reporters to ask themselves, “am I showing undue favoritism here, am I slanting my account?” it should be routine to ask, “am I creating a false symmetry here, am I positing a phony mean?”
This is mayhem and foolishness!
So let me get this straight.
Joe Biden will go on record saying that both he and Barack Obama do not believe the Tea Party is a racist organization.
However, the Obama Administration will not go to bat for Shirley Sherrod, who shared a story about overcoming racial bias, which was manipulated into a false charge of racism.
The NAACP straight up condemned Sherrod (who was speaking at one of their events!) before all the facts were on the table, leading to a semi-apology from the organization. Which means that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was first at bat for white folks unjustly smited by years of black oppression.
Meanwhile, the NAACP was already on the offensive since it had lobbed bombs at the Tea Party, alleging it was a racist organization.
The Tea Party and various conservative outlets responded with an “I know you are but what am I” play, complete with “playing race card” reference.
Then, some fool named Mark Williams thought that was his cue, so he decided to let his racist flag fly with every anti-black stereotype in the book, pretending he was “satirizing” the NAACP.
The Tea Party Federation responded by removing Williams from his post, but other members of the Tea Party Express continue to allege that the NAACP are the “real racists”.
And amid all of this, more emails were published from the now-defunct journolist, advocating charging Republicans with racism as a political strategy to deflect from the attention given to Jeremiah Wright during one segment of the 2008 Presidential Campaign.
Where do we even start?
While I would have loved to give each of these topics their own, thorough discussion, time is just not permitting for us to do so. Arturo is on the way to Comic Con; I’m knee-deep in three major assignments. However, briefly, I did want to at least broach some of these major issues.
On Shirley Sherrod
Ta-Nehisi, in his comments section, summarizes exactly how I feel in three short paragraphs:
In the video Sherrod talks about her family and friends were repeatedly victimized by racial violence and how she carried that into her career to the point of almost not helping a white farmer in trouble. But when she saw the white farmer was being ripped off by a white lawyer, who she’d referred him to, she saw that it wasn’t about black v. white but rich v. poor. She ultimately was able to save the guy’s farm.
Now. You can quibble with that analysis. What you can not say is that this is evidence of racism, and the Obama administration’s willingness to bow before that claim–within days of defending the Tea Party against charges of racism–is, to me, sickening. Its utter cowardice. Complete cowardice.
The White House claims it wasn’t their doing. Fine. Apologize and give her a job back. Man the fuck up.
Page 1 of 4 | Next page