“The first time I was faced with having to help a white farmer save his farm, he took a long time talking but he was trying to show me he was superior to me. I know what he was doing. But he had 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.”
The above statement by Shirley Sherrod, which was taken wildly out of context by right-wingers on biggovernment.com and on our beloved Fox News, has been called “blatantly racist.” Racist? Given the context of the statement and the fact that this occurred 28 years ago, I suppose if one tried hard enough he or she may be able to find racism here. As for the adjective “blatant” I can only assume that either the people who are throwing it out have no understanding of its meaning or – which sadly is the more likely case – they know that if they inflate the racism using such “fancy” words, more people will be angered and offended by it. People are also saying that the statement is filled with hate… let’s talk about hate for a second.
In the 1960s talk about civil rights and desegregation reached a peak. Violence spread across the south as conservatives sought to protect their good ol’ conservative values and the segregated system that held the minority groups down. On July 2, 1964 following Lyndon B. Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, many southern conservatives protested the legality of such an act and even the morality of it. Their displeasure with Johnson is even part of what led to conservatives in the south to begin calling themselves “Republicans” instead of “Southern Democrats.” I note, however, that although there was a name change, the social views of the southerners remained the same. In 1968, another civil rights bill was passed making housing discrimination based on race illegal.
In Georgia, the fight to prevent integration lasted well into the 70s and “equal treatment”, depending on who you ask, did not begin happening until the 80s. The story Sherrod was telling took place in 1982, and people are calling her racist for suggesting that she did not give help to the very fullest of her ability to a white man, even though – in the end – she did help him save his farm? I’m a white person, and to me it still looks like the racism is coming from the white side. Fox and friends are pulling a “how dare you!?” because she wasn’t giving full service to a white during a time when black Americans were just beginning to experience what more fair treatment felt like. After hundreds of years of oppression, this woman is racist because – even though she did save the man’s farm – she did not do so to the absolute best of her ability. If these idiots had taken the time to see the full video, they would also see that she continued on to tell of what she learned from all of this: to put race aside. She said that although race will always exist, it should not matter.
While listening to this debate and seeing conservatives such as O’Reilly, Hannity, Beck and others condemn this woman for “hate-filled” remarks of “blatant” racism, I couldn’t help but think that these same people had no such reaction to Nikky Haley and Barack Obama being called “rag heads” because Haley is Indian and Obama has a Muslim middle name. Jake Knots, the republican state senator who made the statement said it was a joke as if that somehow makes it okay (kind of like Palin saying it was okay to call someone a “retard” as long as such a statement is made in a satirical setting). By that argument, the only thing Shirley Sherrod needs to do is to say “It was all a joke” and they should immediately begin laughing it off with her. By that argument, anyone can say any hateful thing to anyone as long as they say it was a joke when they are criticized for it.
Conservatives these days are taking hate to a new level and when they aren’t using their faith to justify such acts, they start crying “well they did it/said it too!” Isn’t that the type of thing parents teach their five-year-olds not to do? I’m happy that the vast majority of the people I know and closely associate with don’t have such views. Between the anti-gay, anti-Muslim, anti-foreign, anti-“different” sentiments, statements and laws, and an undivided stance from the republican side to prevent access to healthcare for all Americans and to prevent the extension of jobless benefits to hard-working people during a recession while calling Obama Hitler for allowing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to expire, the conservatives not only lost me, they elicited my full opposition and disapproval.
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