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Sherrod Shakes Her Fist at Breitbart–and Hugs the NAACP
originally posted by Jamilah King for Colorlines [click here]
Aug 17th
Shirley Sherrod stepped back into the spotlight today. The former USDA state director from Georgia, whose ousting sparked a massive media controversy last month, has some fighting words for the right–and a big make-up kiss for the NAACP.
In an NAACP email, sent under Sherrod’s name this afternoon, she calls out conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart directly, saying that she’s “surely not going to yield because some Tea Party agitator sat at his computer and turned everything I said upside down and inside out.” Which, it’s clear, is exactly what Brietbart did.
Last month, the Obama administration abruptly axed Sherrod after Breitbart published a heavily edited video of an NAACP speech in which she appeared to say she discriminated against white farmers. The full video revealed the opposite: That Sherrod had been telling a story about overcoming personal prejudice in order to confront economic injustice. Both Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Visack have since apologized to Sherrod.
In her email today, Sherrod doesn’t discuss the Obama administration, but she does make nice with the NAACP. The organization helped fuel the uproar by initially denouncing her, before reviewing and releasing the full video of her faux-controversial speech. The email urges folks to put all that “behind us” and support the NAACP’s work:
Not long ago, I sat here in my living room in Albany, Georgia for an afternoon of deep conversation with NAACP President Benjamin Jealous. As he has done in public, Ben movingly apologized for the fact that the NAACP was initially hoodwinked by Breitbart and Fox into supporting my removal. I told him what I want to tell you.
That’s behind us, and the last thing I want to see happen is for my situation to weaken support for the NAACP. Too many people confronted by racism and poverty count on the NAACP to be there for them, especially those in rural areas who often have nowhere else to turn.
People ask me, “Shirley, how are you getting through all of this?” I tell them that, if they knew what I have lived through, they’d understand that these current challenges aren’t about to throw me off course.
When I was 17 years old, my father was murdered by a white man in Baker County, Georgia. There were three witnesses, but the grand jury refused to indict the person responsible. I knew I had to do something in answer to my father’s death.
While it’s still unclear if Sherrod will press charges against Brietbart, she’s already making a pretty good case in the court of public opinion. Today’s words are the strongest public statement Sherrod’s made so far. But most importantly, it’s a laudable effort to recast the whole mess for what it really is: a sloppy attempt by the right to put poor black folks on the defensive.
Here’s the full text of Sherrod’s letter:
Back in March, I delivered a speech to an NAACP Freedom Fund banquet in my home state of Georgia. I drew on my personal life story to urge poor people, white and black, to pull together and overcome racial divisions. We have to understand that our struggle is against poverty and against those who are blocking our path out of poverty.
Unless we figure this out, I warned, our communities won’t thrive and our children won’t prosper.
As you know, a Tea Party blogger named Andrew Breitbart released an intentionally deceptive, heavily edited clip from that speech to make it look as if I was delivering exactly the opposite message. Then Fox News blasted that false message across America’s airwaves, creating a firestorm that led to my ouster as the USDA State Director here in Georgia.
Not long ago, I sat here in my living room in Albany, Georgia for an afternoon of deep conversation with NAACP President Benjamin Jealous. As he has done in public, Ben movingly apologized for the fact that the NAACP was initially hoodwinked by Breitbart and Fox into supporting my removal. I told him what I want to tell you.
That’s behind us, and the last thing I want to see happen is for my situation to weaken support for the NAACP. Too many people confronted by racism and poverty count on the NAACP to be there for them, especially those in rural areas who often have nowhere else to turn.
People ask me, “Shirley, how are you getting through all of this?” I tell them that, if they knew what I have lived through, they’d understand that these current challenges aren’t about to throw me off course.
When I was 17 years old, my father was murdered by a white man in Baker County, Georgia. There were three witnesses, but the grand jury refused to indict the person responsible. I knew I had to do something in answer to my father’s death.
That very night, I made a commitment that I would stay in the South and fight for change.
I have lived true to that commitment for 45 years. I didn’t yield when, just months after my father was killed, they came in the middle of the night to burn a cross in front of our house with my mother, four sisters, and the baby brother my father never got to see still inside.
And I’m surely not going to yield because some Tea Party agitator sat at his computer and turned everything I said upside down and inside out.
I learned a lot of lessons from my parents growing up, but one of the most important ones is what my mother taught her children after our father was killed. She told us we mustn’t try to live with hate in our hearts.
My mother led by example. Just 11 years after that cross-burning incident, she became the first black elected official in Baker County, and she’s still serving, still working to bring people together.
You and I have to keep working as well. Change has to start with us. I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support I have received over these last few weeks. It means so much to me and my family.
But you and I have to make sure that people all across the country who wage a daily struggle against poverty and racism have support networks as well. And that’s why your personal involvement in sustaining the NAACP is so critical.
The NAACP confronts the virulent racism that my family and so many other families have had to endure. But it is also leading the way in breaking down the structural barriers that block so many people’s paths out of poverty.
In our struggle between the “haves” and the “have-nots,” they want to keep the poor divided – and we have to insist, by our words and our actions, that there is no difference between us.
As we move forward together, I urge you to remember this: Life is a grindstone. But whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us.
Thank you for all you are doing to challenge poverty and racism. I look forward to working and struggling right by your side.
Sincerely,
Shirley Sherrod
Blacks Locked Out of Oil Spill Cleanup Jobs, says NAACP
originally posted by Julianne Hing for Colorlines [click here]
Jul 20th
The NAACP says BP’s hiring process has kept people of color out of the burgeoning oil spill cleanup industry in the Gulf Coast and the group has called on BP CEO Tony Hayward to rectify the problem. In a July 10 letter, NAACP president Ben Jealous also told Hayward that people of color who do get hired are getting stuck with tougher, lower-paying cleanup work.
Black Voices reports that less than 5 percent of the $53 million in cleanup contracts awarded so far has gone to people of color-owned businesses. The NAACP also said that BP has been hiring workers from out-of-state to take over cleanup work, which has taken away precious employment opportunity from locals, the AP reported. (Rest assured, the local police already called up ICE to poke around cleanup sites and make sure there were no undocumented immigrants among the bunch.)
But cleaning up the oil spill is not enviable work. It says much about the Gulf Coast’s dismal economic climate when people have to fight over jobs in a toxic stew. Sure, billions of dollars are being spent on cleanup efforts, but the pay itself is not lucrative, and the risks associated with exposure to the poisonous dispersants and oil are significant. Back in May, cleanup work was temporarily halted after dozens of workers in both Louisiana and Alabama fell ill, reporting difficulty breathing, nausea and dizziness. And in the weeks right after the spill, local environmental groups raised concerns that cleanup workers were not being sent out with appropriate safety equipment, and were even forbidden to bring their own respirators with them. Those who brought along their own safety gear were threatened with job termination.
As Trinh Le, an organizer with the Hope Community Redevelopment Agency in Biloxi told me at the time, “The entire region is built on the fishing industry.” Le said that many men used to work work in the multi-million dollar fishing, shrimping and oyster industries, while many women worked in the canning and processing factories. And those who didn’t work in the industry directly were employed through peripheral supporting industries. Now that the oil spill has decimated the local fishing industry, people have lost access to their livelihoods indefinitely, (though not according to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal). People are anxious for recovery and some form of long term redress, but in the meantime, they also need jobs to feed their families. Even if it’s dangerous and dirty cleanup work.
h/t The Root
NAACP Says Pictures Tell a Thousand (Racist) Words
originally posted by Jorge Rivas for Colorlines [click here]
Jul 19th
Since 2,000 NAACP delegates unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Tea Party to condemn racism within its movement, everybody from Joe Biden to Sarah Palin has chimed in with opinions. Indeed, some Tea Partiers themselves have responded a bit too eagerly and proved the NAACP’s point in the process. The National Federation of Tea Parties had to expel both the Tea Party Express and its leader Mark Williams after Williams published a blog post in which he parodied the NAACP asking Abraham Lincoln to repeal emancipation:
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.
Meanwhile, NAACP offices across the country have received hate mail and death threats. The NAACP blog has posted an audio recording of a death threat left on the answering machine of its Hollywood bureau.
Still, debate over whether the NAACP was out of line with its resolution continues. The resolution charges that Tea Party supporters have engaged in “explicitly racist behavior” and have “displayed signs and posters intended to degrade people of color generally and President Barack Obama specifically.” To wit, the organization compiled the slide show above. Judge for yourself.
We’re Not Racist, Say Tea Partiers—While Being Racist
originally posted by Jamilah King for Colorlines [click here]
Jul 16th
And so it goes. First the NAACP unanimously passes an amendment asking the Tea Party to repudiate its racist factions. Then the Tea Party responds: “What racist factions?” and gets, predictably, racist.
As Joan Walsh pointed out over at Salon, Sarah Palin wrote that all decent Americans “abhor racism.” Especially her, because husband Todd is part Yupik Eskimo. Glenn Beck got involved. The St. Louis Tea Party suddenly became experts on the black American family structure. Tea Party activists took to Politico to defend what they called the “First Amendment rights of millions of Americans.” And after comparing the NAACP to slave traders, Tea Party Express Inc. spokesperson Mark Williams penned a mock letter to President Clinton from Ben Jealous asking, “How will we Colored People ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn?”
Thankfully, the helpful folks at Think Progress put together the video above that debunks all the nonsense. Shout out to our commenter SoutherGirl2 for putting us onto that one.
But as Kai Wright pointed out earlier this week, the whole argument is a moot point. The Tea Party’s motives and rhetoric are not exactly well kept secrets. But if it’s one thing their crazies do well, it’s inciting enough populist rage to impact public office. And that’s the scary part.
Stop the Presses: NAACP Says Tea Party’s Got Race Issues
originally posted by Kai Wright for Colorlines [click here]
Jul 14th
Update @ 11:40 ET: By the way, if we need any more proof of the absurdity of the debate over the Tea Party’s race madness, here’s Tea Party Express spokesperson Mark Williams responding to the NAACP on NPR this morning: “You’re dealing with people who are professional race-baiters, who make a very good living off this kind of thing. They make more money off of race than any slave trader ever.” (Emphasis added.) So, yeah.
…………………………………
Again, we debate whether the Tea Party is racist. I won’t rehash what we’ve already written: Perhaps no story betrays the post-race lie as plainly as the ongoing media babble over whether race motivates the Tea Party madness. Rather, I’m struck by the NAACP’s choice to make this the biggest story coming out of its 101st annual convention.
My heart sank as I read the news that a bunch of civil rights activists would get together and debate passing a resolution–be it resolved!–on the Tea Party’s racism. There seems no better way for the NAACP to invite the rote critique it gets this time every summer: That it’s an overly bureaucratic throwback with limited relevance to the challenges people of color face today. (And, of course, the right has gleefully used the moment to absurdly tar the organization as a mouthpiece of the Obama White House.)
The worst part is they didn’t even reach a clear conclusion on the matter. Rather, the NAACP has resolved that the Tea Party must not allow bigots to associate themselves with the movement. As NAACP President Ben Jealous said, “What we take issue with is the Tea Party’s continued tolerance for bigotry and bigoted statements. The time has come for them to accept the responsibility that comes with influence and make clear there is no place for racism & anti-Semitism, homophobia and other forms of bigotry in their movement.” Of course, the full board must now vote on the important declaration for it to become official. Watch out world!
Jealous took the NAACP’s helm with lots of new, great ideas. His effort to push criminal justice to the top of the civil rights agenda is long overdue. And his framing of the organization’s role as an advocate for justice, not just equality is spot on. He’s got a tall job making the case for those priorities, both inside the organization and in black America overall. Too bad today’s headlines aren’t on that effort. Or on the NAACP’s efforts to hold Wells Fargo accountable for predatory lending. Or something about the many pressing reforms the NAACP could and should be leading Washington toward. Anything other than a bunch of race activists seriously debating a resolution about the Tea Party’s racism.
Photo by Getty Images/Justin Sullivan