There is a worthwhile Diary up over at DKos (AKA the GOS) by attytood about Shirley Sherrod’s life story and details emerging that make what she has said and done pretty amazing. You may have heard that in 1965 her father, Hosie Miller, was killed by a white farmer over a cow. That it was rural Georgia in 1965 meant that nobody was ever charged with the crime.
As a result of his murder, his wife, Grace Hall Miller became a civil rights activist and turned his home into a center for organizing for justice and his daughter, Shirley Sherrod, decided to stay in the South and fight to make it a better place. It was this background that made her surprised when years later another white farmer came to her for help. Her speech was about her journey that overcame the climate of racism that killed her father and still infects so many today.
The Diary links to a 2007 letter written from the Southern Poverty Law Center that asked the FBI to investigate the unsolved murders of 74 African-Americans who, like Ms. Sherrod’s father, never had their killers brought to justice.
This letter (PDF) is worth a read. Here are just a few of the cases:
O’Quinn, Sam – Centreville, Miss., 1959
O’Quinn, derided by some local whites for being “uppity,” was shot after joining the NAACP.Brazier, James – Dawson City, Ga., 1958
Brazier was beaten to death in front of his wife and children by two police officers. County Sheriff Z.T. Matthews was later quoted in the Washington Post saying, “There’s nothing like fear to keep niggers in line.”Thomas, Freddie Lee – Batesville, Miss., 1965
Federal investigators looked into the death of Thomas, 16. Thomas’ brother believed he was murdered as a warning against black voter registration. The result of the investigation is unknown.Daniels, Woodrow Wilson – Water Valley, Miss., 1958
Sheriff Buster Treloar, identified by four witnesses as the man who beat Daniels to death in a prison, was freed in 23 minutes by an all-white jury. “By God,” Treloar said after the trial. “Now I can get back to rounding up bootleggers and damn niggers.”
There are many more in the letter and hundreds, if not thousands, of more cases like the death of Hosie Miller that are still unresolved open wounds for family members.
Many of these racist murders may still be alive. Others got away with their crimes and lived a full life. The sad thing about these racists is that they breed and pass their hate down to their kin.
Nowadays the modern American racist hunts with a camera and a keyboard. They attack and then claim to be victims of abuse if anybody ever calls them out for their racism. Last week’s racist of the moment was Mark Williams of the Tea Party Express. This week’s douchebag of hate is Andy Breitbart.
It is not a surprise that both of these dickless cowards were moved to spasm of racism through their fear and hatred of the NAACP, a group that has been an ‘uppity’ threat in the eyes of racists since 1909.
The difference between Breitbart and Sheriff Z.T. Matthews or Sheriff Buster Treloar is very small. All are bullies who use the power they have to shape politics with fear and hate. Treloer and Matthews beat and murdered folks as those were the crimes that they were allowed to get away with. Breitbart lies, slanders and destroys lives as those are the crimes that folks let him get away with. It is time to stop tolerating racists like Williams and Breitbart.
And yet, these racists will continue to get a platform in our politics and in our media: in print, online, on radio and on the teevee. It is time to stop looking the other way and fight back. The only way to take these racists out of the game is to call them out on their shit no matter how much they deny it.
Andy Breibart is a racist and anybody who defends him is a supporter of hate.
Cheers
dengre
stuckinred
Well done and thanks for getting us off that last post.
Daddy-O
Breitbart feeds the whores. I guess that makes him their pimp.
jcgrim
dickless- perfect
mcd410x
You read things like this and think: Wouldn’t it be nice if people who don’t know the first thing about racism would just shut the fuck up? Just for once.
aimai
That is an excellent diary. Saw an absolutely fantastic bumper sticker yesterday, it said:
Racism, Our National Disease
Catching it wasn’t our fault
Curing it is our responsibility.
aimai
Linda Featheringill
Cheers to the administration et al. for their apologies.
Now to move on to a learning moment:
1. There are some people you should not listen to. Period.
2. Investigate. Try to get back to the original soource.
3. Remember that the truth is an effective haven in a storm.
ARE YOU LISTENING, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION?
Love,
Another Obot
harlana peppper
Is it just me or has Brietbart just laid a big, stinking turd squarely on the Right? It’s so hard to imagine anyone, regardless of political affiliation, not being moved by this woman’s story and the unfolding facts. The fact that the video was edited to misrepresent and smear her, her noble reaction, her tragic background, the farmers defending her, is all over the news 24/7. Did this guy not do his homework? Or, in the alternative, was he relying on a compliant media to not even investigate? Am I just completely out of touch here?
And if I were her, I’d tell the WH to shove their stinkin’ job up their collective asses.
Also, I cannot believe and am more than disturbed by the fact that I am agreeing with Joe Scarborough this morning. Mommy.
aimai
Its not insignificant to contrast the way Sherrod “plays” for a white audience to the way ACORN did. If she were younger, or less dignified and unthreatening, less given to religious talk, and less the exact opposite of the imaginary angry black woman in the tape I don’t think we’d have seen any kind of quick turnaround.
I think Breitbart is so crashingly anti black that he assumed that an elderly, dignified, civil rights icon could be smeared with the same impunity that the working class black women (just younger versions of Sherrod herself, really) could be smeared in the earlier sting. I don’t think he intended, exactly, for Sherrod to be fired. After all, she’s of more use to him as a goad to the far right than an actual scalp. Her function in the Breitbart scheme of things was simply as an instantaneous “tu quoque” to the NAACP. I don’t think he imagined, in his wildest dreams, that enough counterfactuals would be dug up so fast as to turn this quick hit into an ongoing disaster.
aimai
Cat Lady
@harlana peppper:
Let me guess – Mika agreed with him too. I’ve sworn off am teevee, but I guess I’m curious enough to ask – what are you agreeing with?
@aimai – the visuals are striking – Breitbart looks like every other cracker in the screaming mobs from the videos and stills of the 60s desegregation marches. He’s mean and ugly, and she’s gracious. It’s good v. evil.
harlana
@Cat Lady: That the WH should have investigated the tape before acting. I never even watch Cheesehead normally but for some reason, had it on this morning. Also, did not see Mika peeking out of his ass this morning. Perhaps she is on vacation.
Brien Jackson
@aimai:
Let’s be honest, if the elderly white farm couple hadn’t gone to bat for her she’d be every bit as fucked as ACORN, and no amount of screaming from anyone on the left could stop the massive white freakout.
harlana
@aimai: Excellent analysis
Dennis G.
@harlana peppper:
The Department of Agriculture and Vilsack made a mistake in acting quickly on the smear. So did the NAACP and most every media outlet. Only the WH, Vilsack and the NAACP have admitted that they were wrong and apologized. As for the media folks, most have pretended that they had nothing to do with it and have attacked the Obama Administration as a diversion/cover for their own involvement in the story. Scarborough is singing one tune this morning but his tune was a little different on Tuesday morning.
The anger at Obama is a bit misplaced. They did fuck-up but they also worked to fix things and own their error. The press OTOH fluffed Brietbart when he released his hit and will do so again with his next attack on scary black people.
Gene Robinson got to the heart of this in an editorial today. It is worth a read, but it is also worth noting that in a chat on Tuesday Robinson was asked about the story and based on the Brietbart clip job he said:
and
Many people got their response to this story wrong in the first 24 hours after Brietbart released his racist hit job. In my book the divide now is between those who own up to their error, apologize and work to improve things and those who just keep spinning the same old shit.
I would put the Obama Administration and the NAACP in the first group and most media outlets–especially Fox and wingnut radio/blogs–in the second. If this episode made you angry, this second group is where you should direct your rage.
Cheers
wilfred
Meanwhile, an even more insidious but somehow less important form of bigotry has been growing. The Right has no intention of jettisoning Breitbart – they need him for this.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/
Allison W.
AMEN AND CHEERS TO THAT!!!
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal
@Brien Jackson: And, had the white couple not stepped up, and this were still playing in its original mode, Vilsack’s actions would be looking politically smart right now, even though still ethically indefensible.
ErinSiobhan
To have her livelihood and her privacy destroyed by this kind of racism is horrific. To now discover that her family was a victim of the worst kind of racism while she was young compounds the sadness I feel on her behalf.
Weirdly, I am more upset with the NAACP and the adminstration for judging her so harshly (and quickly) without hearing her out than I am with Breitbart and his ilk. I expect the conservative right to be assholes – that is what they do. I expect better from the “good guys.” While an apology and a job is all they can offer at this point, it really isn’t adequate for the damage done.
Napoleon
@aimai:
While I agree 100% with that the existance of the entire tape which made it perfectly clear what a BS hatched job this was, and the white farmers who even after they would have found out what she said about what she thought of them originally still went on TV and said she was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Taken together it left the right no room to make any kind of arguments (AB was reduced to saying the white farmers were fake or something like that).
aimai
@Brien Jackson:
Absolutely. If they’d been long dead, or hadn’t stood up for her, or hadn’t been able to appear on TV, there never would have been this turnaround. And don’t you know that Breitbart et al have learned that lesson? They are going to go back to attacking poor, friendless, dead, long dead, long deader dead and imaginary african americans.
aimai
Froley
Just watched Meredith Vieira repeat uncritically Andrew Breitbart’s assertion that it was really about the crowd at her speech (not Sherrod) and that they were laughing.
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal
@ErinSiobhan:
I can’t agree with this. While I do expect better from the administration, that’s no reason to be more outraged by their actions. While, as I said above, I think Vilsack’s reaction was indefensible, it doesn’t approach the level of despicability embodied in Breitbart’s actions, or even the media’s.
For the latter, presenting the truth about this sort of thing is the only service they provide anyone. If they can’t do that, they are, at best, completely worthless. The Obama administration can point to lots of other valuable things they do well. Unless you like watching Dana Milbank in a smoking jacket, the political press can’t. They fucked up, again, the sole reason for their existence.
demo woman
Fox News and Breitbart took a hit for their coverage of this incident. Isn’t it possible that other organizations will now shun them?
The Obama Administration took a hit and had the opportunity to point the finger directly at Fox but they chose not to. That’s what grown-ups are suppose to do. Gee, at times I wish we didn’t have a grown-up in the office.
lacp
Dennis G.,
Agree this is a real distinction: one set of actors admits “we were wrong and we apologize;” the other says “hey! look over there!”
aimai
@aimai: Something I meant to say upthread, but forgot. Of course Breitbart et al partially believe their own shit and must have assumed that the Obama administration:
a) was largely staffed by angry black reparationists
and
b) would circle the wagons around “their own.”
In other words I’m sure in a million years Breitbart never thought Obama and Vilsack would fire Sherrod or that Sherrod would turn out to appear to the public as an innocent victim of a right wing witch hunt. Breitbart et al expected months of “stonewalling” and “protecting” Sherrod. That’s what Bush would have done, of course. Though I’m old enough to remember the amazingly horrible people Reagan and the Elder Bush staffed USDA and other agencies with. Earl Butz, anyone?
(What I mean by that is that people were sometimes fired when they got too hot to handle. But IIRC one woman, can’t remember her name, appeared suddenly to testify before Congress under her husband’s name, having just switched to using it basically the night before so the public wouldn’t realize who was testifying.)
aimai
Violet
This. Over and over again. Call them what they are. Say it until it sticks like glue.
Brien Jackson
@aimai:
This is just driving me crazy. I mean, I’m not going to say that Vilsack wasn’t wrong at all, but at the same time, I’m looking at some factors that I think we can all agree are pretty non-controversial:
1. The right is totally shameless
2. The media can’t be trusted to report the story accurately, and are clearly itching for a race controversy before the election
3. If it hadn’t been for the full tape/white farmer, the media would be covering this completely differently
4. God knows you can’t count on white people to be rational about the mean racist black people.
And I just can’t fault them that much for a clearly rational political decision at the time, even if it was horribly unfair to her. I reserve my ire for the scumbags like Breitbart who perpetrate this despicable behavior, and the beltway media who takes it credulously and enables it.
debbie
And yet, all these hours later, the discussion is still focusing on the misinterpretation of the tape, instead of the misrepresentation in the tape.
If this kind of crime is not enough to get people angry enough to vote the Republicans into an even small minority, then nothing will work.
JCT
I was pointing this out yesterday — the juxtaposition of her life story (note that given the adversity she has faced no one would have blamed her for ending up bitter and angry) and the good works that she has pursued with that of Brietbart — raised in a wealthy part of LA, etc – yet spends his life promulgating lies and participating in character assassination is mind-boggling.
And I think all of the anger at Obama is somewhat misplaced, the admin may have made the situation worse, but the bottom line is none of this would have happened without Brietbart and his merry enablers at Fox. They think wrecking people’s lives in public is some sort of competitive sport. For Morning Joe Bozo to pile on Obama is cynicism at it’s worst — they were cheerleading all of this before the truth came out.
I think this whole episode encapsulates the right wing’s current approach to politics — it’s all a game to them. Given the real suffering and difficulties many people in this country are facing, their devolving into a nonsensical mass of endless intellectual recess is disgusting.
All I can say is that it is fashionable to crap on Obama at present, but the fact that he has managed to accomplish so much on the legislative front with no help whatsoever from the republicans, with the bloviating right (including the assholes at Fox) strewing tacks all over the road — is nothing short of amazing. Steve Benen is right, the right wing is acting like a bunch of exceptionally poorly behaved toddlers.
Sorry for the rant but this Sherrod episode got me seriously riled.
Oh, The NYT had a good piece on this today — though somewhat buried.
Keith G
For many years. I taught history to classes filled mostly with white kids, first in Ohio than in Texas.
During the units on the American Civil Rights Movement, I had those kids in the palm of my hand.
Well, no. Technically, all I did was make sure they had original source access to the overwhelming evidence of determination and bravery in the face of persistent bigotry and even evil intent.
The kids, many not having a lot of inter-racial experience, were blown away; the kids were swept away. Heroism does that. The selfless struggle against injustice does that.
That is what I wish Barack Obama could find a way to integrate into his modus operandi. He doesn’t have to circuit the 50 states lecturing about bigotry. He just needs to, when the fight comes to him, dig his heels in and take it on.
There are a lot of kids looking for a champion. They see enough bureaucrats.
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal
@Keith G:
True, but the Bush administration left behind such a mess that the government needs a quality bureaucrat at least as badly as the kids need a champion.
Breezeblock
I was just thinking yesterday that Breitbart would have been right at home at the “good ol lynching parties” of the past. I mean, it’s crystal clear that he does not like black people one bit.
Cat Lady
@Keith G:
Because all the liberals and the liberal media have proven they’ve got his back, amirite? What would “taking it on” actually entail? Organizing a march from the White House? Chaining himself to his own front door? A hunger strike? More cowbell?
Keith G
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal:
Both are possible in the same person. Nonetheless, bureaucratic skill can be farmed out. Assertive leadership, not so much.
Scott
Dennis, excellent post. Thank you.
Keith G
@Cat Lady: Oh now you are just being silly, or maybe unimaginative. The paths open to a President to get a message out are vast, well known, and well trodden. And, no, I doubt some glorious and dramatic single event would be necessary or even advisable.
Persistence and constancy are always better than grand gestures.
And support of all the liberals and the liberal media, while nice, is the least of his worries at this point. But actually, I am not talking about support as much as I am doing the right thing and fighting bigotry.
Scott
Also, is any site keeping track of what shows and reporters give Breitbart and his apologists air time? I’d like to be able to send these people e-mails asking why they’re giving racists like Breitbart a forum to promote hate.
celticdragonchick
@aimai:
I agree.
However, the Right is nothing if not resistant to empirical fact (and shame), so expect to see the same circus with another victim sometime in August.
aimai
@celticdragonchick:
Got that covered, celticdragonchick. I’m calling it “Summer of White Shark Attacks.”
aimai
Janet Strange
@harlana: I didn’t see it, but it sounds like more of the “distract the viewers from the actual racist assholes that did something despicable” (Breibert and every cable news moron who pimped his smear job) and direct the viewers’ outrage at Obama. Did they actually go on about “the White House”? To me, that’s code for Obama, even though I haven’t seen any evidence that he was involved in the firing, or even knew about it before it happened.
Even when they seem to be somewhat reasonable, it usually turns out that they’re really just furthering the Right Wing narratives. Rachel did a good job of pointing out how it’s about the narrative, not any particular story, last night.
What’s scary to me is that cable news seems to be selling* nothing but anger, fear, and resentment and for too many who have been fed a steady diet of anger, fear, and resentment for years, those emotions eventually distill into hatred.
(*What they are actually selling is viewers – us if we watch them. They capture viewers with emotional manipulation and package them up and sell them to advertisers. The people who buy the ads are their customers, not the people who watch. The people who watch are the product being sold.)
BC
I’m really pissed about the lack of context for what Ms. Sherrod was discussing. The USDA at this time was actively trying to drive black farmers off their lands in Georgia and several other southern states by not restructuring their loans as they did for the white farmers and Ms. Sherrod’s nonprofit was the only institution in Georgia willing to take on the USDA (the Pigford case is a result of this dereliction of duty on the part of Reagan’s USDA). Look at what her “caseload” was during this time: tons of paperwork for black farmers for whom she had to research what the USDA was doing and how to counteract it and keep those farmers on their lands. Then in walks a white farmer who wants her time. She finds there is a white lawyer who has taken the appropriate training and sends the white farmer there (in her words, she thought “his own kind would take care of him”). She does not shirk her duty to this farmer, she just doesn’t add his farm to the stack of other farms on her desk. When she learns that the white lawyer won’t lift a finger to help his “own kind,” then she goes into action and uses her expertise to help him. I think she gets a bad rap when people say she shirked on this – for God’s sake, she had a shitload of work and prioritized it for those for whom she was their “only hope.” She just didn’t realize that she was the only hope for a white farmer as well.
SGEW
@Dennis G.
I would agree with your piece wholeheartedly, if it were not for this sentence, which rings false to me:
I would say that the difference between spreading incendiary fear-mongering through free speech and the corporate media (what Breitbart does) and doing so through willful murder and outright literal terrorism (what Matthews and Treloar allegedly did) is much more than “very small.” Additionally, there is a world of difference between a private citizen such as Breitbart and duly appointed law enforcement officers such as the Sheriffs.
I’m not saying that they aren’t inherently similar in hateful intention, but I believe there is a world of difference in personal culpability.
Janet Strange
@BC: Great comment. And yes, that is exactly the kind of context that reporters should be providing. When they whine about how we don’t appreciate how essential they are to a democratic society, they often cite their ability to put a breaking story in context for their readers/viewers. They don’t seem to get it that we’re abandoning traditional media in droves precisely because they do not provide the essential information that we need to understand a story. You did it, very well, in a brief blog comment. Why can’t they?
@aimai: Great post. Everyone . . . Go read!
El Cid
Shirley Sherrod and her husband herself have a tremendous history both with the civil rights movement and the latter, 1980s-originating economic and agricultural justice movement.
As many of us have said here and as some pundits have been emphasizing the last day or two, these names should have either prompted recognition among officials and major media of these heroes’ contributions or a quick Google search.
The background of her father’s murder and the context in which it was found — just like Reagan’s campaign launch speech at the Neshoba County, Mississippi, fair, which he himself termed the “States’ Rights” speech to a white Mississippi audience, followed by a KKK endorsement which was rejected only when Carter campaign officials brought it up — was followed by decades of Sherrod fighting for justice.
Jennifer
Andrew Breitbart, racist?
Oh, come on! It’s just a coincidence that he focuses every attack on organizations that try to help black people!
ruemara
@ErinSiobhan:
I’m sorry, but I have to say this. Is there any reason to blame and bash Obama for this firing, a firing that Vilsack has already said was his decision alone? WTF? Every blog, every prog newscast, every ews site is having a field day blaming Obama with absolutely no real proof that he caused Sherrod to be fired, while simultaneously shrugging their shoulders in resigned sadness that this is just what Breitbart & Fox does. Oh My God. Is kicking the man the national sport? For pete’s sake, I’d be upset if the word actually came from the WH to fire her, but this is not Obama, this is a department head making a stupid decision. Even when he’s exonerated by a person who has more than enough authority to run things without getting presidential sayso, he’s still being bashed. I almost hope he says he isn’t running again and leaves this country. This place is hopeless.
Ajay
Something which confounded me was that MSM did not spend any time talking about murder of her father by a white farmer and circumstances surrounding her upbringing. That would have been a proper context of her life. I think MSM is simply going after Vilsack/Obama because that sells easily.
nicteis
Comment #40 wins the thread.
Tax Analyst
Good post, Dennis, and your comment at #13 is right on point too.
Vilsack made a knee-jerk reactive move that he must have thought would offer some damage control. I think it would be fair to say that his fear of being hung out to dry by the video led to some hasty and poorly thought out choices. I’m sure we can all beat him up over this for time in perpetuity, but since he has acknowledged his mistake(s), accepted responsibility and offered a full and clear apology to Ms. Sherrod I think we should be cutting him a little slack here. I can’t even imagine how incredibly unsettling it must have been to realize that within hours – maybe even moments -you were going to be subjected to a truly relentless and nasty full-court press courtesy of the Right-Wing Noise Machine and it’s minions.
Yeah, it would be nice if people in the administration weren’t so easily rattled by the prospect of being singled out for extreme 24/7 vilification. Perhaps they need to develop some sort of Emergency Training Guide that would counsel these folks to slow down, take a deep breath and then take some time to carefully analyze the situation – including the integrity of the source material.
At any rate what I see is that the adminstration has done what they could to try and make things right with Ms. Sherrod, Breitbart, on the other hand, has done everything sub-humanly possible to show everyone just what a dishonest, low-life fetid pool of rancid weasel smegma he truly is, and most of the media has apparently decided to give him a pass because…? Well, maybe they have looked into their heart of hears and decided they might behave the same way under the circumstances – you know, if you need a big, quick, hot story and all you have to do to get it is do some quick chop-suey hack editing and smear a decent, hard-working, honorable government employee, well, you know. what’s a working journaweasel to do these days?
Shorter point…stop nit-picking at the WH and Vilsack and let’s try to put the focus on those who intentionally and with malicious forethought doctored video footage and made fraudulent representations about someone they didn’t even know in order to push forward some dishonest political agenda. Ask yourself, who among the principals of this stir-fried clusterfuck has shown any real concern for Ms. Sherrod or regret over their actions? The MOST culpable party (Breitbart) has not shown a speck of contrition and the large media entities have almost dropped his role in this shit entirely out of some of their articles
Ruckus
You know one way we can all help is to join or donate to the NAACP, ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center.