A 21st Century Lynching
Does anybody else feel sick? I certainly do. It is the same feeling I get deep in my stomach when I see one of those lynching photographs with smiling, celebratory faces mugging for the camera. No, Shirley Sherrod was not literally strung up in a tree. However, the intent to do harm and the sentiments of racial division and mistrust that pushed this story towards its conclusion are Identical. And just like in most lynchings that took place in the old south, the victim was completely innocent of all the charges against her. There is plenty of blame to go around. The Obama White House probably played a significant role, although they are denying direct involvement. Certainly officials at the USDA jumped to conclusions about the character of this woman way too soon. Even the NAACP, because of their continuing feud with the Tea Party was way too eager to publically distance itself from Mrs. Sherrod. Yet my anger is reserved for the instigators of this crime. The disgraced right wing blogger who first put up the severely edited video on his site is the real culprit. He says that he received the video already edited from some unknown third party. That may or may not be true. Mr. Brietbart has a long history of editing video tapes to suit his own radical right wing agenda. His sole purpose in life is to discredit liberals and has been willing to pursue nearly any means to do so. This includes people who work for him breaking the law on several occasions. The rest of the right wing media, including FOX News, who jumped all over Mr. Britbart’s post are the other major accomplices in this crime. They are so eager to push forward any story that can potentially do harm to the Obama administration and other liberal groups that they willfully ignore ethics and morality. In the days before Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, this story would have been dead on arrival. Today, however, the truth gets pushed aside all too easily by a partisan political narrative.
But this is not simply a story about politics and journalistic ethics. This is a story about race. And I believe the gut of this story and the reason that it happened in the first place is on account of five simple words; “You know how they are”. I first came into personal contact with this racially loaded statement when I was living in Oklahoma. I had a neighbor who was by all appearances a normally well adjusted middle age white man who had spent his whole life in Oklahoma. I never saw him treat anybody, white or black, badly in any way. We often went out to dinner together along with a mutual African American friend. I would never have seen this man as a racist and he certainly would never think of himself as one. So I was stunned one night when we were having a discussion about desegregation in the 1960’s and he stated that integrating the schools was the worst thing that could have ever happened to Oklahoma. When I asked how he could believe something like that, he simply smiled and replied “you know how they are”. I was shocked into silence. I had grown up in the Northwest and had never before been exposed to this type of ambiguous yet foundational racism. I asked him what he meant, and his only reply was “c’mon, you know how they are”. I realized right away that I was never going to be able to convince him that this was a ridiculous condemnation of an entire race. It was simply part of his DNA, if you will.
Brietbart and his audience are quick to believe in “reverse racism” because they fundamentally believe that is how all African Americans believe. In other words, “you know how they are”. They are eager to believe President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder are letting the New Black Panthers slide on voter intimidation charges because they are all African Americans and “you know how they are”. However, for people like Brietbart and others in the far right media, this sentiment has jumped racial boundaries. They now freely apply these words and the absurd indictment that goes with them to Democrats and liberals as a whole. This story began because somebody, Brietbart of one of his agents, was actively looking for “evidence” that proved their basic belief about Africans Americans and Liberals. They were looking for facts that fit their agenda. And when they didn’t find it, they just made it up. However, they wouldn’t have done this unless they believed there was a willing audience, like my neighbor, ready to believe the worst of Mrs. Sherrod, the NAACP and the Obama administration. Just like the instigators of historical lynchings, they knew just what buttons to push. And then they pushed and pushed until somebody said “get a rope”.
The perpetrators of this lynching are now still blaming the victim of their crime. Mr. Brietbart has publically stated several times, even after he was exposed for fraud, that the tape is evidence of incredible racism. Rush Limbaugh is still saying that “Sherrod supports Obamunism, the haves versus the have-nots and the need for redistribution”. Fox News’ Monica Crowley suggested that Sherrod may be among the “radicals, racists, socialists” that have been “stocked” in the Obama administration. Why the continued animosity towards this innocent woman? Maybe it is because just like with any other lynching, it is less about the victim and all about the criminals who do the hanging. They have proven by their actions and words that they could care less about the truth or the facts or the victim. They just wanted blood. They needed a victim and Mrs. Sherrod was chosen simply because she was African American, Liberal and worked for the Obama Administration.
It’s not a real rope and this isn’t a real lynching but the malice and the ignorance behind it are exactly the same. And just like those smiling faces in the faded photographs, they will never have to pay for their crimes. And just like in those lynchings that took place decades ago, it is the Nation that suffers.
You couldnt be more right. Except for one thing, Brietbart is only disgraced by those who were smart enough to never listen to him in the first place. Mr. Brietbart and others that spread lies into the media to promote desent and hatred for blacks, progressives, and anyone who doesnt agree with there ideology. Sherrod is a wonderful example of a black women that overcame obsticles that would have broken others and still make the right choices, but to the radical right they didnt see an America role model. They saw someone they could use to attack the left and embarrass the NAACP at a time when the radical left and the NAACP were in a political battle over the very aspect of racism. It was for that selfish reason they destroyed Sherrods career and her credability ruined until the truth was revealed and testimony from those she helped came to light.
The radical right has a policy of take no prisoners and will stop at nothing to stop social progress, halt economy recover, and promote bigotry.