Thread: CAUGHT ON VIDEO: Official Didn't Help White Farmer 'Full For

CAUGHT ON VIDEO: Official Didn't Help White Farmer 'Full Force'

Days after the NAACP clashed with Tea Party members over racism allegations, video surfaces showing USDA official regaling an NAACP group with story about how she withheld help to a white farmer facing bankruptcy — video that now has forced her to resign.
Shirley Sherrod, the department's Georgia director of Rural Development, is shown in the clip describing "the first time I was faced with having to help a white farmer save his farm." Sherrod, who is black, claimed the farmer took a long time trying to show he was "superior" to her. The audience laughed as she described how she determined his fate.

"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 said. "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."

The Agriculture Department announced Monday, shortly after FoxNews.com published its initial report on the video, that Sherrod had resigned.

"There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA, and I strongly condemn any act of discrimination against any person," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a written statement. "We have been working hard through the past 18 months to reverse the checkered civil rights history at the department and take the issue of fairness and equality very seriously.

Sherrod explained in the video that, at the time, she assumed the state or national Department of Agriculture had referred the white farmer to her. In order to ensure that the farmer could report back that she was indeed helpful, she said she took him to see "one of his own" -- a white lawyer.

"I figured that if I take him to one of them, that his own kind would take care of him," she said.

The video clip was first posted by BigGovernment.com. The clip is dated March 27 from an NAACP Freedom Fund banquet.

FoxNews.com is seeking a response from both the NAACP and the USDA. The clip adds to the firestorm of debate over the NAACP's decision to approve a resolution at its convention last week accusing some Tea Party activists of racism -- a charge Tea Party leaders deny.

In a second clip from the same event posted online, Sherrod appeared to urge black job seekers to find work at the Department of Agriculture because the federal government won't lay people off.

"There are jobs at USDA and many times there are no people of color to fill those jobs because we shy away from agriculture. We hear the word agriculture and think, why are we working in the fields?" she said. "You've heard of a lot of layoffs. Have you heard of anybody in the federal government losing their job? That's all I need to say."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07 ... te-farmer/

I sent the video from Big Gov to both of my Senators and my
Congressman this morning.

They are getting the BBB ( Brown Beret Bilge) video in the morning.

Link to Sherrod's video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_xCeItx ... r_embedded


Comments from Hotair.com column. Glass houses indeed...



Breitbart hits NAACP with promised video of racism
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posted at 12:55 pm on July 19, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
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The NAACP is about to learn one of the most basic of all lessons in life — those who live in glass houses should avoid provoking a stone-throwing war. After the civil-rights organization threatened to issue a condemnation of Tea Party activism by equating it with racism (a position from which they ultimately retreated), Andrew Breitbart announced that he would publish at least one video of the NAACP itself cheering racism. Breitbart delivers on that promise today at Big Government, showing USDA official Shirley Sherrod explain to an appreciative NAACP audience in July 2009 how she deliberately withheld information from a white farmer in Georgia trying to save his land and his business:

We are in possession of a video from in which Shirley Sherrod, USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development, speaks at the NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in Georgia. In her meandering speech to what appears to be an all-black audience, this federally appointed executive bureaucrat lays out in stark detail, that her federal duties are managed through the prism of race and class distinctions.

In the first video, Sherrod describes how she racially discriminates against a white farmer. She describes how she is torn over how much she will choose to help him. And, she admits that she doesn’t do everything she can for him, because he is white. Eventually, her basic humanity informs that this white man is poor and needs help. But she decides that he should get help from “one of his own kindâ€

NAACP Video: USDA Official Refused to Help Whites

Monday, 19 Jul 2010 09:48 PM

A video showing an African-American official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture telling an NAACP convention how she refused to help a white farmer facing bankruptcy resulted in her resignation Monday night after FoxNews.com posted a story on the film.

The video, apparently shot at an NAACP convention sometime in March, comes on the heels of an NAACP resolution last week condemning the tea party movement for being racist.

The video – displayed by Fox News on its website Monday night – shows a woman identified as Shirley Sherrod, the department's Georgia director of Rural Development, saying she put the “superiorâ€

Press release from september 2009,
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2009 Contact:
Heather Gray - 404 765 0991

The Federation’s Shirley Sherrod Now Heads USDA's Rural Development in Georgia
Sherrod is the first African American to hold this position in Georgia

Photo: Federation staff Jerry Pennick, Federation staff John Zippert, Federation staff Shirley Sherrod, USDA's Rural Development Director Dallas Tonsager, Federation staff Ralph Paige at the Federation's Annual Meeting in August 2009


ATLANTA, GA.... In July 2009 former Federation staff member Shirley Sherrod was appointed as the USDA Rural Development Georgia State Director. Sherrod had worked with Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund since 1985 as the organization's Director of the Georgia State Office. "We are proud that Shirley has been appointed to this position at Rural Development not just because she is the first African American in Georgia to hold the post, but also because of her vast experience in agriculture and rural development. Now the entire State of Georgia will benefit from her expertise. There is probably no one in the state who understands the challenges faced by rural communities as well as Shirley. In fact, under her leadership and creative initiatives she has been instrumental in vastly increasing opportunities and income for farmers and rural communities" said Ralph Paige executive Director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund.

Below are excerpts of the press release issued by the USDA on July 30 announcing her appointment with Rural Development.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION CONTINUES NAMING
STATE DIRECTORS FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

WASHINGTON, July 30, 2009- The Obama Administration today continued naming individuals who will serve as State Director for Rural Development at the USDA.

"These individuals will be important advocates on behalf of rural communities in states throughout the country and help administer the valuable programs and services provided by the USDA that can enhance their economic success," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack....

Shirley Sherrod (to serve as USDA Rural Development Georgia State Director) - Since 1985, Sherrod has served as Director of the Georgia Field Office for the Federation of Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund. She has also served as Georgia State Lead for the Southern Rural Black Women's' Initiative for Economic and Social Justice. From 1999-2000, Sherrod served as Executive Director for Community Alliances of Interdependent Agriculture, Inc., in Albany, Ga. Sherrod has more than 15 years experience working with agriculture-focused organizations. Sherrod received a B.A. in Sociology from Albany State University in Albany, Ga., and a M.A. in Community Development from Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Rural Development administers and manages over 40 housing, business, and community infrastructure and facility programs as laid out by Congress through a network of 6,100 employees located in 500 national, state and local offices. These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural America. Rural Development has an existing portfolio of over $114 billion in loans and loan guarantees.
The USDA provides leadership on food, agriculture and natural resources and touches the life of every American. Reflecting President Obama's commitment to expanding economic opportunities in rural America, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and the USDA are working to enhance availability of broadband, promote the development of renewable energy, to conserve, maintain and improve our natural resources and environment, and promote a sustainable, safe, sufficient and nutritious food supply.

For more information about Rural Development and its many programs please go to its website at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/ .

###
Note: The Federation/LAF, now in its 43rd year, assists Black family farmers across the South with farm management, debt restructuring, alternative crop suggestions, marketing expertise and a whole range of services to ensure family farm survivability.

http://www.federationsoutherncoop.com/p ... pt2409.htm

Maybe all race-based and nation-based groups and culture or religion based groups need to be made illegal and discrimination be prosecuted regardless of origin.