"When Haste Meets Race"

The recent blow-up concerning the firing/resignation and then offer to re-hire USDA's Shirley Sherrod over comments made to a gathering of the NAACP indicates that we are not yet a "Post Racial" society. As a matter of fact, we have become so Politically Correct that hardly anyone can say anything without taking the chance that they might be accused of some sort of malicious intent toward someone. In the words of the great one (radio's Mark Levin) "There I said it". However unfortunate you might feel something is, keep your mouth shut or suffer the consequences. This however was a case where an "African American" woman made comments regarding a White Male farmer (probably a dumb redneck...but I digress) saying she had taken him to one of "his kind" a white attorney where he could get help (help that amounted to nothing as it turned out), less help than she might have otherwise been willing to give him if he had not been white. Now the moral of the story is you have to watch the entire video to understand she had an epiphany and realized she was there to help poor people regardless of the color of their skin. God opened her eyes and this was incredibly revealed to her. Given the audience she was speaking to and the context in which the entire video placed her comments, she should not have been fired because she was trying to make a point that had nothing to do with her previously held position on considering white folks in her capacity as someone from the government that was there to help.

The problem here is that no one watched the entire video, only the excerpts, even though the video in its entirety was available, and apparently a written transcript of the dialogue contained therein. The Secretary of Agriculture did not, people at the White House did not, and certainly a number of news people including commentators and contributors on Fox News did not take the time to do their due diligence in the matter and this woman was shamed out of a job. This follows on the heals of the President (Barack Obama) making a hasty comments regarding his friend Henry Louis “Skip Gates” a professor at Harvard to which he said the Cambridge Massachusetts police had acted “Stupidly” in his arrest admitting at the time he made his remarks in an East Room press conference that he did not have all of the details. This resulted in the now infamous “Beer Summit” with the President, Vice President, Mr. Gates, and Cambridge Police Officer James Crowley where little if nothing was accomplished say for a nice photo op and the potential for another meeting between the Professor and the Cop at a later time. This all begs the question, who is running our country and for God sakes what are they thinking?

The Secretary of Agriculture and the White House and several of the Fox News commentators, and the NAACP have since apologized for making asses of themselves in light of what eventually came to put Ms. Sherrod’s comments into context. Ms. Sherrod made it to NBC’s Today Show and Good Morning America and while she may have extended her proverbial 15 minutes of fame to a half hour, she did herself no favors by embellishing her positions that came off as more perplexing than the out of context commentary given the day before. She certainly harbors some animosity toward power and seemingly when it comes from someone of the Caucasian persuasion. As previously stated Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (D-Iowa) a former agriculture state governor made a maximum mea culpa for his hasty firing, and then extended a job offer to Ms. Sherrod (not the same position) at the time this is being written she graciously accepted the apology but has not decided whether to accept the new position. She has also said that legal proceedings against biggovernment.com founder and Fox News contributor Andrew Breitbart may be in the future.

I think it is clear that some old fashioned hand wringing is necessary. I think that people need to resist political correctness when they hear comments made by anyone and at least try to put things into their proper although possibly offensive context before flying off the handle and making a decision or comment that might later be regretted. I think that everyone needs to count to perhaps 50 before saying anything when there is a hot microphone, or the possibility of a hot microphone nearby. While I generally disagree with everything that comes out of the mouth of the Attorney General Eric Holder I will agree that people have been cowards when it comes to addressing “Race” in this country. If we are going to do it we must do it in a way that is not going to cause what in the 1960’s became riots in Washington, DC and the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. We must face the facts that people are different, and we must look to history to understand why people have different opinions and we must agree that in some cases we will have to disagree. We must also not be afraid to hear words that are offensive during conversations and in that way de-stigmatize them and hopefully by default remove them from our lexicon. We have to be “Grown Up’ for a change and think like “Americans” not White-Americans or African-Americans or Hispanic, Asian, Muslim, or whatever other hyphenated variety of American someone might inevitably lay claim to simply to seemingly protect their heritage.

In the United States of America everyone is from somewhere and they came here because they wanted a new life and opportunity as an American. If they did not want those things, they would have stayed where they were no hyphen required. While it is true that many blacks were brought here in the chains of Slavery, it is also true that no black in America is a slave today and no black slave owner is alive today. To blame people for the sins of the past, many generations past, is the same as blaming them for sins that may occur just because new sins are conceivable. We have to treat each other as equal and we have to make decisions based on character and merit. We have to stop promoting a culture of a perpetual under class dependent on the government and we have to concentrate on lifting everyone up by always telling the truth and taking personal responsibility for our actions. This includes but is not limited to the one core value that has been nearly destroyed, the FAMILY UNIT

Obviously I could go on forever, but the clear point here is that we must be willing to listen and listen to everything, not just to the point that we become offended. We must also be willing to accept the fact that we could be wrong about certain things we have long held as true. We don’t have to get along with everyone, but at least we need to know the facts, not some white washing or spun around set of facts…just the facts, the plain and simple truth. Is that too much to ask for? Are all of us too unwilling to listen?